PDCA Cycle — a Necessary Tool to Quickly Improve Software Quality

Original

In recent years, the scale and complexity of software projects are growing at an unprecedented rate, the market for Internet users is huge, and Internet companies and corresponding software products emerge in an endless stream. Rapid response to demand changes is often the normal situation in the Internet industry. The rapid development and iteration of software products are of great significance for companies to quickly occupy the market and seize business opportunities.

With the rapid development of the industry, the original R&D model is gradually unable to adapt to the rapidly developing market environment. Therefore, the application of agile development mode was born. The agile development method is characterized by its simplicity, efficiency, flexibility, rapidity, and continuous delivery. This method has been adopted in more than 50% of software companies abroad, led by Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Amazon. Survey data shows that software companies that implement agile methods will have significant improvements in product time-to-market, delivery efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

1. Agile Development and Software Quality

The agile development model has been valued and used by more and more R&D teams and enterprises, but the product quality of many agile projects is not satisfactory. Moreover, the transition from the traditional model to the agile model is a huge leap for the quality management team, from concept to process innovation. In addition, to respond to the requirements of rapid iteration of agile development and deliver on time, teams often ignore the quality of software delivery. Choose to fix problems and release in a short time after customers find and report serious problems after fast delivery.

Therefore, quality problems are common in Agile Projects. Most teams treat quality problems with contempt and are even used to repairing them after customers have feedback. Frequent crashes, reboots, and out-of-the-box bugs will continue to reduce consumers' satisfaction with product quality, and some users even turn to other products. Every small quality problem will trigger a butterfly effect, which will gradually highlight the negative impact of software quality problems and have a great impact on the enterprise's reputation and operation. In general, improving the quality of software can bring the following help to enterprises:

• The earlier the defect is found, the lower the repair cost. Therefore, improving product quality management in the development process can greatly reduce the cost.
• High-quality software can protect an enterprise's reputation and increase production and income;
• To help enterprises avoid losses due to software quality, and user satisfaction is also directly affected by product quality.

2. PDCA Circle

The quality of software projects is becoming more and more important, so it is very meaningful to study how to improve the quality of software projects. To help improve the level of software quality, many companies began to pay attention to software delivery quality and project management. PDCA cycle is widely used in Chinese enterprises because of its ease of operation.

The PDCA cycle, also known as the Deming cycle, Dr. Shewhart, known as the "father of statistical quality control," was the original conception of the PDCA cycle. Adopted, publicized, and popularized by Deming. It is the scientific procedure to be followed by comprehensive quality management. The whole process of comprehensive quality management activities is the process of quality planning and organization, and this process is to operate continuously according to the PDCA cycle.PDCA cycle can not only be used in the quality management systems but also for high-speed iterative.

• P — Plan
• D — Do
• C —Check
• A —Action

3. Characteristics of the PDCA Cycle

PDCA cycle is a combination of the initials of the plan, do, check, and action in English, representing the four stages of quality management respectively. These four stages constitute a complete loop, which is a cyclic process. PDCA is a cyclic and iterative process. It has the following characteristics:

• PDCA cycle is a step-by-step process, and each cycle is a management cycle.
• PDCA cycle focuses on the analysis of the current situation and the exploration of the causes, constantly determines higher-level quality objectives, and seeks opportunities for further improvement.
• PDCA cycle itself is a dynamic process, which can be used not only in the development of the whole project but also in the relevant processes of specific stages.

Through this model, we can examine projects and products, affirm and appropriately promote successful experience, standardize it; summarize the lessons of failure, and put unresolved problems into the next PDCA cycle. This cycle continues until the problem is successfully solved. In the specific implementation process, the PDCA cycle can be subdivided into eight steps in the following figure in the four modules of planning, implementation, inspection, and processing.

Throughout the project development cycle, the PDCA cycle itself is a dynamic process that can be applied not only in the development of the entire project but also in the process of specific stages.

4. How PDCA Cycle Improves Software Quality

(1) PDCA Cycle Per Iteration

Each iteration of software development is a PDCA cycle, which goes through four stages: Planning (requirement analysis), implementation (code development), inspection (product testing), and processing (release and launch). But the launch does not mean the end. It is necessary to continuously collect feedback from both internal and external aspects, identify improvement opportunities, formulate improvement plans, and then implement plans, monitor and test the results. Realize a virtuous circle at the two levels of the inner ring and outer ring.

(2) PDCA Cycle of Product Functions

In the PDCA cycle of each iteration of software development, the PDCA cycle corresponding to each link can also be separated according to the three main aspects affecting software quality. Usually, the quality problems of software projects mainly focus on three aspects: product function, R & D process, and team cooperation. Then we can start from these three aspects. Based on each iterative PDCA cycle, we can introduce the PDCA cycle in the three aspects affecting software quality at the same time. Form the mode of internal and external double circulation.

The product here can be the product that is finally delivered to the user, or it can be the result of the stage or process, such as the requirements document in the requirements stage. If the requirements are not researched, the products in the development stage will be affected. Therefore, when the PDCA cycle process at this stage is alternated, special attention should be paid to the product requirements of input and output. If quality problems are found, they must be fed back to the previous process and take corrective measures to give advanced quality control and intervention. To improve the quality of the product function stage, it is necessary to optimize the following aspects as much as possible:

• Standardized R & D template
• Refined requirements document
• The test moves forward, and the defects are found and repaired early
• Reduce the cost of Bug repair
• Establish a clear demand research and analysis system
• Establish a perfect demand review and confirmation system

(3) Development Process PDCA Cycle

The R&D process is divided into two types: management process and technical process. The management process includes planning, monitoring, resource allocation, and organizational work. The technical process is characterized by a software engineering approach. Both the technical process and the management process have a direct impact on the quality of software delivery. In the process of research and development, the PDCA cycle model is introduced, which can quickly and accurately find problems and effectively ensure software quality. The quality improvement in the R&D stage needs to be optimized in the following aspects as much as possible:

• Code design specification
• Code document specification
• Code review specification
• Timely Bug feedback mechanism

(4) Team Collaboration PDCA Cycle

Team collaboration PDCA Cycle refers to the time, manpower, capital and equipment required to complete the entire project. People are the most uncontrollable factor in the whole project, and effective management of people is a prerequisite for quality assurance. If time and funds are not guaranteed, product investment and R&D investment will be greatly reduced, and product testing time will also be greatly compressed, which is the direct guarantee of software quality.

• Strengthen team communication and build an agile team
• Strengthen customer communication and clarify project requirements
• Focus on internal team feedback
• Develop effective improvement strategies based on the implementation and feedback of the PDCA cycle

With the continuous development and improvement of the software R&D industry, the quality management of software projects has been paid more and more attention by more and more enterprises. The current software quality improvement and control mainly focus on the monitoring and evaluation of the overall quality situation in the fields of product function, R&D process, and team collaboration. Through the dynamic cycle mode of PDCA, the refinement, accuracy, and real-time software quality management can be effectively realized. Help enterprises to achieve predictable, controllable, improvable, and optimizable software quality, and provide strong support for the improvement of enterprises' comprehensive strength and continuous improvement of R&D capabilities.