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From: Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com>
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: Auditing a SW supplier - who can do this?
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:44:27 -0500
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"Dr. Coffee" wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> I have been given the task to set up an audit of
> one of my employer's SW suppliers. While I have
> a clear view of what kinds of questions I want to
> get answered during the audit, I have no idea how
> to actually get the audit done:
>
> 1) I am not a SW professional, so I don't know the
>    relevant standards and best practices
>
> 2) Some of the resources internal to my employer
>    have suggested that the only people who actually
>    are likely to know how to perform the audit, is this
>    supplier's competitors.
>
> I am not too happy about this situation - there must
> be somebody around who can do this?
>
> What kinds of professions / companies do I look for,
> to do the audit for me? What key words do I search for?
> What is the usual way to do these things?
>
> DoC

What is the goal of your audit?

SW supplier audits are normally about process. What standards
are used to create software and does the company supplying
software actually follow the process.

It is not clear from your post if you are looking to change the
standards that your supplier is using or if you suspect that
that they may not be following a specific set of standards
they claim to be using.

> 2) Some of the resources internal to my employer
>   have suggested that the only people who actually
>   are likely to know how to perform the audit, is this
>   supplier's competitors.

This suggests that a product quality or specification problem
rather than a process problem. It may easily be both.

Regards,



w..
--
Walter Banks
Byte Craft Limited
http://www.bytecraft.com