IMCA Marine Division

Publication Details

Guidelines for the Quality Assurance and Quality Control of Software

This document aims to assist in quality assurance for software, primarily aimed at vessel owners and operators, both at onshore management level and on board, as well as for manufacturers who need to be aware of the requirements of their customer's (the owner's/operator's) QA/QC systems for their products and systems.

Intended to be non-prescriptive and building on, rather than superseding, any other documentation, be it the ISO 9000-3, other national or international standards/requirements or those of particular operators/clients, the document is intended to provide a framework for procedures and documentation, to enable the vessel owner/operator and the manufacturer to have knowledge of and confidence in the product status.

Specific problems and difficulties which these guidelines aim to tackle include:

• the issue of software which is not compatible with the installed hardware;
• the presence of two, different, master copies;
• the introduction of malfunctions by upgrade/update software;
• the recurrence of problems due to inadequate feedback and recording;
• uncontrolled changes to software subsequent to issue;
• the lack of proprietary software onboard to re-load after failure;
• incorrect and incomplete manuals;
• inadequately trained operators;
• loss of contact on change of ownership.

The document's themes include control at the design stage, in documentation, in normal usage processes and in maintenance situations, as well as verification, and includes specific sections on training and archiving. A chapter is devoted to the life cycle model and record. The appendix to the document features some nine extensive flowcharts, with related tables and spreadsheets, to clearly illustrate the concepts and processes talked through in the document.

An electronic version is available, to IMCA members only, on request from the IMCA Secretariat, to allow for customisation and incorporation into company-specific management systems.

Whilst originally aimed at QA/QC of software for dynamic positioning and active mooring systems and for position measurement equipment, the principles set out in the document can equally be applied to the QA/QC of all software applications.