A control chart for evaluating the stability or a process in terms of the levels of two or more variables or characteristics

A method to determine test set thoroughness by measuring the extent to which a test set can discriminate the program from slight variants [mutants] of the program

Gaithersburg, MD 20899. A federal agency under the Department of Commerce. originally established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards. The Institute's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. The National Computer Systems Laboratory conducts research and provides, among other things, the technical foundation for computer related policies of the Federal Government

In the context of quality management, noise is essentially variability. For example, if you are making ketchup, noise in the process comes from variations in the quality of incoming tomatoes, in changes in ambient temperature and humidity, in variations in machinery performance, in variations in the quality of human factors, etc.

Unordered categories which indicate membership or non membership with no implication of quantity, i.e., assembly area number one, part numbers, etc

A structured brainstorming technique that allows a group or team to quickly come to consensus on the importance of issues, problems or solutions. Based on individual contributions, equal footing of team members and prioritization of issues

An activity performed in a process that does not add value to the output product or service, which may or may not have a valid business reason for being performed

Product or material which does not conform to the customer specifications and/or requirements. Sometimes used interchangeably with non-conformity

Product which does not conform to the customer specifications and/or requirements. Same as Non-Conformance

(1) Examines software elements that are not designated safety-critical and ensures that these elements do not cause a hazard. (2) Examines portions of the code that are not considered safety-critical code to ensure they do not cause hazards. Generally, safety-critical code should be isolated from non-safety-critical code. This analysis is to show this isolation is complete and that interfaces between safety-critical code and non-safety-critical code do not create hazards

A condition within a unit which does not conform to some specific specification, standard, and/or requirement; often referred to as a defect; any given nonconforming unit can have the potential for more than one nonconformity/Or/the nonfulfillment of a specified requirement (see also “blemish”, “defect”, and “imperfection”)

A continuous, symmetrical density function characterized by a bell shaped curve, e.g., distribution of sampling averages

(defect-based)--the geometric average throughput yield one would expect at any given step in the process. Analogous to the "typical" yield. For a k -step process, the normalized yield would be the kth root of the rolled throughput yield. A note of caution: This metric can be misleading if the throughput yields of the process steps vary a great deal

Is typically a hypothesis of no difference. That is why the word "null" in "null hypothesis" is used -- it is the hypothesis of no difference. Despite the "null" in "null hypothesis," there are occasions when the parameter is not hypothesized to be 0. For example the null hypothesis may be that the parameter is equal to a specific value

A control chart for evaluating the stability of a process in terms of the total number of units in a sample in which an event of a given classification occurs

A code expressed in machine language ["1"s and "0"s] which is normally an output of a given translation process that is ready to be executed by a computer. Syn: machine code. Contrast with source code. See: object program

The objective of object modeling is to understand and describe an environment in terms of its objects while embracing the concepts of abstraction, encapsulation, modularity, hierarchy, typing, concurrence and persistence

An approach to developing software where every component represents an object in the real world, its attributes, and its possible actions; objects can be grouped in classes to facilitate attribute and action assignments

A software development technique in which a system or component is expressed in terms of objects and connections between those objects

Used in quality audits, objective evidence is information which can be proven true, based on facts obtained through observation, measurement, test or other means

Ongoing Process Capability is a long term measure of statistical process control or process performance. It differs from preliminary process capability by utilizing data from a longer time period so as to include all common causes of variation, in particular, those common causes that may result in process shifts affecting a number of sample intervals. Systematic or repetitive patterns of special cause may also be included if the underlying reasons for these special causes are understood. The time required for ongoing capability evaluation depend on the time required for the sources of variation to vary throughout their full ranges, but will typically be three to six months.

A graph used to determine the probability of accepting lots as a function of the lots’ or processes’ quality level when using various sampling plans. Three are three types: Type A curves, which give the probability of acceptance for an individual lot coming from finite production (will not continue in the future); Type B curves, which give the probability of acceptance for lots coming from a continuous process; and Type C curves, which, for a continuous sampling plan, give the long-run percentage of product accepted during the sampling phase

A description in quantifiable terms of what to measure and the steps to follow to consistently measure it

Ordered categories (ranking) with no information about distance between each category, i.e., rank ordering of several measurements of an output parameter

The process of identifying organization problems with individuals, processes, procedures, technology, culture, etc