BCS/DIP/Project Management/PRINCE2 and ISO 9126

PRINCE 2

PRINCE2 (an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a de facto process-based method for effective project management. Used extensively by the UK Government, PRINCE2 is also widely recognised and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally. The PRINCE2 method is in the public domain, and offers non-proprietarily best practice guidance on project management.

Key features of PRINCE2:

·         Focus on business justification

·         Defined organisation structure for the project management team

·         Product-based planning approach

·         Emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and controllable stages

·         Flexibility that can be applied at a level appropriate to the project.

For organisations, PRINCE2's formal recognition of responsibilities within a project, together with its focus on what a project is to deliver (the why, when and for whom) provides your organisation's projects with:

• ·         A common, consistent approach
• ·         A controlled and organised start, middle and end
• ·         Regular reviews of progress against plan
• ·         Assurance that the project continues to have a business justification

ISO 9126

The objective of this standard is to provide a framework for the evaluation of software quality. ISO/IEC 9126 does not provide requirements for software, but it defines a quality model which is applicable to every kind of software. It defines six product quality characteristics and in an annex provides a suggestion of quality sub characteristics.

The sub characteristics adopted by ISO/IEC 9126 - 1991, are the following:

Characteristics	Sub characteristics	Definitions
	Suitability	Attributes of software that bear on the presence and appropriateness of a set of functions for specified tasks.
	Accurateness	Attributes of software that bear on the provision of right or agreed results or effects.
Functionality	Interoperability	Attributes of software that bear on its ability to interact with specified systems.
	Compliance	Attributes of software that make the software adhere to application related standards or conventions or regulations in laws and similar prescriptions.
	Security	Attributes of software that bear on its ability to prevent unauthorized access, whether accidental or deliberate, to programs or data.
	Maturity	Attributes of software that bear on the frequency of failure by faults in the software.
Reliability	Fault tolerance	Attributes of software that bear on its ability to maintain a specified level of performance in case of software faults or of infringement of its specified interface.
	Recoverability	Attributes of software that bear on the capability to re-establish its level of performance and recover the data directly affected in case of a failure and on the time and effort needed for it.
	Understandability	Attributes of software that bear on the users’ effort for recognizing the logical concept and its applicability.
Usability	Learnability	Attributes of software that bear on the users’effort for learning its application.
	Operability	Attributes of software that bear on the users’effort for operation and operation control.
Efficiency	Time behaviour	Attributes of software that bear on response and processing times and on throughput rates in performances its function.
	Resource behavior	Attributes of software that bear on the amount of resource used and the duration of such use in performing its function.
	Analyzability	Attributes of software that bear on the effort needed for diagnosis of deficiencies or causes of failures, or for identification of parts to be modified.
Maintainability	Changeability	Attributes of software that bear on the effort needed for modification, fault removal or for environmental change.
	Stability	Attributes of software that bear on the risk of unexpected effect of modifications.
	Testability	Attributes of software that bear on the effort needed for validating the modified software.
	Adaptability	Attributes of software that bear on the opportunity for its adaptation to different specified environments without applying other actions or means than those provided for this purpose for the software considered.
Portability	Installability	Attributes of software that bear on the effort needed to install the software in a specified environment.
	Conformance	Attributes of software that make the software adhere to standards or conventions relating to portability.
	Replaceability	Attributes of software that bear on opportunity and effort using it in the place of specified other software in the environment of that software.