Many factors are contributing to an increased practical interest in managing software quality. By this we mean treating software quality as a key dimension of project performance, equal to cost (effort) and schedule. Corporate initiatives based on the CMM [1] and Six Sigma [2] provide two examples of forces promoting interest in quality as a management concern.

This presentation describes two common approaches to measuring and modeling software quality across the project life cycle so that it can be made visible to management. It discusses examples of their application in real industry settings. Both of the examples presented come from CMM Level 4 organizations.