Product Certification

Software projects fail quite often. There are various reasons for these failures, but in almost all cases the failure is related to lack of quality in one of the artifacts related to the software product. In other engineering disciplines the lack of quality led to certification in order to increase the quality of products and processes. In software development the need for certification is getting more important. In fact, the introduction of CMM(I) was a first important step in the certification of the development process. On the product side certification is still under development. Since the starting of LaQuSo one of its focus areas has been the development of product certification methodology. This has resulted in LSPCM. The goal of product certification is increase in quality. A certified software product means that it has undergone rigorous validation and verification. Depending on the certification requirements this ranges from reviewing to model checking.

If an organization wants certainty about or confidence in a software artifact a LaQuSo certificate can be requested. Certification is a check that the artifact fulfills a well-defined set of requirements. These requirements are defined by the customer or a third party; LaQuSo will do the check. The certificate will always refer to the requirements that were used to check the artifact against. An important issue of certification is that the evaluator should be independent. As part of a university, LaQuSo is able to perform this role. Each certification project has its own goals. This means that a certification plan (steps to take and techniques to apply) has to be made for each project. The certification goal is defined based on the customer questions and requirements and the norms and standards that are applicable in that area. The outcome is a decision to grant a certificate yes or no. The certification is based on the LaQuSo Software Product Certification Model.