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EXAMPLE OF CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

This is an example of how to formulate the minimal requirements on the supplier's development, quality assurance and handling of software. These requirements may be included as an appendix to the contract.

 

CUSTOMER INSPECTION RIGHTS

The customer is allowed to conduct quality audits of the supplier's software development at most 6 days per 12-month period.

The customer is allowed to witness the supplier's testing of the software.

The customer shall receive the supplier's specification of the final testing for review at least 10 days before the testing starts.

DEVELOPMENT MODEL

In developing software for delivery to the customer, the supplier shall work in clearly defined steps or phases, such that the criterion for the start and the finishing of each step or phase is well-defined.

PROJECT CONTROL

The development of the software shall be treated as one software project. A project leader shall be appointed as responsible for the management of the development of the software.

A development plan for the software project shall be documented by the supplier, not necessarily as one document. The plan shall be delivered to the customer at latest one month after contract. The plan shall document

  • time schedule incl. description of each activity

  • project organisation

  • milestones in the SW project

  • reviews and tests to be performed in the SW project

  • standards and procedures to be applied

  • software project specifics regarding identification, change control, and storing of specifications and programs

Progress reports from the supplier's software development to be received by the customer no later than the first day of each month. Each progress report shall include

  • passed milestones

  • encountered problems

  • possible future problems in the SW project

  • changes to functionality, development plan, time schedule or milestones

REVIEWS

With "review", we mean that at least one knowledgeable person shall put in effort to review a new or changed document or program. It shall be possible for an auditor to see what reviews have taken place, by whom, what was found, and how it was correced.

All requirements and design documents prepared or modified in the process of software development shall be subject to formal reviews by the supplier.

All source programs prepared or modified for delivery to the customer shall be subject to formal reviews by the supplier.

All reviews shall be documented, as well as actions on all review remarks.

TESTING

It is the responsibility of the supplier to thoroughly test all the software in each program step. A program failure after delivery to the customer always indicates a failure of the supplier's development and testing.

The supplier shall run a final test of the software to be delivered. A test specification or plan shall be prepared well before the commencement of this test. This document shall describe how the different requirements and functions are to be tested; the steps of each test (test cases); the criteria for correct result of each test case; and the criteria for viewing the complete test as finished.

The conduct of the final SW test shall be documented, so that the customer can see that all test cases have been performed with accaptable results.

All errors and other problems encountered during final testing shall be documented, as well as their causes and corrections.

CONFIGURATION CONTROL

Programs and documents shall be identified and controlled in accordance with defined prodecures.

The status of each program and document shall be monitored.

Documents and programs shall be approved before use.

Errors found in approved documents and programs shall be reported and handled in accordance with defined procedures.

Changes to approved documents and programs shall be handled in accordance with defined procedures.

QUALITY RECORDS

The following records shall be retained by the supplier to allow customer inspection during audits and acceptance:

  • Records of all testing activities

  • Records of all formal reviews

  • All problem reports raised during the software development project

  • Records of the actions on all problem reports

  • Records of all milestone passings

  • Record of the supplier's own approval of the software for delivery

ERROR CORRECTIONS AFTER DELIVERY

If possible, the customer will accept that encountered errors in delivered software be corrected in the next software delivery.

However, the supplier shall be prepared to effect corrections to delivered software so that the corrected version of the software is received by the customer in one calendar week after the supplier's receival of the error report.

The supplier shall have a documented procedure for handling error reports from the customer.