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Root Cause Analysis for Customer Reported Problems
Steven R. Rakitin, President
Software Quality Consulting, Inc.
21 Whitney Lane, Upton, MA 01568
steve@swqual.com
Of all the kinds of problems that software development organizations face, Customer
Reported Problems (CRPs) are clearly the most important. This is because CRPs represent
potential gaps in your knowledge of how your customers use your software. CRPs may
be the result of deficiencies in your development, test, delivery, or fulfillment
processes. CRPs often result in disruptive, expensive, and unplanned releases.
When CRPs are not fully understood, they can result in poor solutions that often
create more problems than they solve. Nothing frustrates customers more than a supplier
who is unable to resolve problems quickly and correctly. Finding critical defects
in your software is very disruptive not only for your customers but for your software
development organization as well. Unplanned releases to fix CRPs divert expensive
development resources from tasks that generate revenue (new features, new products,
etc.) to tasks that don't generate revenue (bug fixes). Unplanned releases are clearly
not good for your bottom line.
CRPs represent more than just defects. CRPs should be broadly defined to include
any failure of software and services (including code, documentation, installation,
customization, fulfillment, training, etc.) that negatively impacts customers.
This talk will provide an overview of traditional root cause analysis techniques
and will show how these techniques can be applied to software.
Presenter:
Steve Rakitin has over 30 years experience as a software engineer and software
quality manager in a broad range of industries. He has written several papers on
the subject of software quality and published a book titled: Software Verification
& Validation for Practitioners and Managers.
He was a member of the Working Group that produced the first IEEE Standard for Software
Quality Assurance Plans (IEEE-STD-730). He is currently serving on the IEEE Standard
1012 (Verification & Validation) Working Group.
He received a BSEE from Northeastern University and an MSCS from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. He has earned certifications from the American Society for Quality (ASQ)
as a Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) and Quality Auditor (CQA). He is a member
of the IEEE Computer Society, the ASQ Software Division, and is on the Editorial
Review Board for the ASQ Journal Software Quality Professional. He presents tutorials
and workshops at conferences worldwide.
As President of Software Quality Consulting Inc., he helps companies establish a
more predictable software development process. His web site is www.swqual.com
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