“There is no doubt that the navigation market in India is growing briskly and looking for high quality, easy to use navigation solutions. With the extensive experience that TomTom is bringing to the region coupled with its global quality standards and processes we can change the current regional landscape” states Jocelyn Vigreux, Managing Director, TomTom India.



TomTom’s automotive-grade quality maps of India covering the entire country with street level details, will form the back bone of the VIA range dedicated to the Indian car driver. We will continue to expand coverage and add relevant content like points of interest for landmark navigation for the growing Indian market.

The VIA series will be available at leading retailers and independent car accessories stores as well as on-line as of October. Key features include; landmark navigation, hands-free calling advanced lane guidance and voice control.

About TomTom

Founded in 1991, TomTom (AEX:TOM2) is the world’s leading supplier of in-car location and navigation products and services focused on providing all drivers with the world’s best navigation experience. Headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom has over 3,500 employees and sells its products in over 40 countries.



Our products include portable navigation devices, in-dash infotainment systems, fleet management solutions, maps and real-time services, including the award winning HD Traffic™.

Read more text http://www.businesswire.com

The DataPass service can be purchased easily in blocks through the laptop, and users don’t need to pay any activation fee, said Mike Hockey, an HP spokesman.

With plans starting at US$5, the service is good for quick access to the Internet for different durations at places like airports or hotels, where Internet access could otherwise be expensive.

Users can buy a US$5 data plan for 75MB of data over 5 hours, $10 for 150MB of data over 3 days, $20 for 450MB of data over 14 days, or $30 for 1GB of data over 30 days.

The service is available in the U.S. only and worldwide availability is being explored, Hockey said. The service is 3G-only, and access to 4G networks is not yet offered through the service.

The service is available only with HP laptops, which could include optional hardware such as a modem to access 3G networks. Software on the laptop shows availability of a DataPass network at the user’s location.

The company does not intend to become a telecom service provider, and the service is being provided as a convenience to customers, Hockey said. Users can continue using mobile broadband services from other network providers such as Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile, he added.

read at http://www.cio.com

Is ISO 9001 relevant to software?

Today, software customers are clearly going global
and are demanding quality.  Given the stakes involved, it is important
for software organizations to understand all the rules for self-improvement
and for doing business in the international marketplace.  The ISO
9001 standard has become a basic part of these rules.

How does ISO 9001 apply to software?

ISO 9001 is an international “quality management system” standard–a standard
used to assess an organization’s management approach regarding quality.

ISO 9001′s focus is directed internally at an organization’s processes
and methods and externally at managing (controlling, assuring,…) the
quality of products and services delivered.

When viewing the key factors affecting the outcome of software development
(shown below in figure 1), ISO 9001′s focus is on all factors except “technology”.



Figure 1: Delivering Quality
Software – macro process (click figure for expanded view)

Scope of ISO 9001:

ISO 9001 is a generic international standard, adopted on a country-by-country
basis, and written for use by the widest possible audience.  As a
result, the standard provides requirements (what needs to be done)
and does not issue specific prescriptive solutions (how to do it).

Being so broadly focused, the ISO 9001 standard does not offer details
about its application to specific domains of expertise.  To assist
in the application of the standard for specific domains, a series of guidelines
are available; e.g., ISO 9000-3 is a guideline for the software development
industry.

Relevance of ISO 9000-3

ISO 9000-3 provides “guidance” on implementing an ISO 9001 compliant set
of processes (collectively referred as a “quality system” or as a “quality
management system”).



ISO 9000-3 is an international guideline.  Guidance is for software
development, supply and maintenance environments.  The guideline is
primarily written for “custom” (contract driven) software markets.
It can easily be adapted for other market needs such as commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS), internal software development, etc..

ISO 9000-3 virtually mirrors the provision of ISO 9001–it does not
add to, or otherwise change, the requirements of ISO 9001.

ISO 9000-3 is not intended to be used as an internal/external audit
tool.  Its intent is to guide software organizations with their
ISO 9001 implementation and process change efforts: in short, software
organizations are audited against ISO 9001 (not ISO 9000-3).

An example of the type of guidance provided by ISO 9000-3 is shown in
the following table.
Read more here

Software development control

Quality in software development projects doesn’t happen on its own. It also doesn’t occur after a small group of heroes rides in on white horses and waves its shiny swords to vanquish the problems. Quality happens only when careful planning is done, when the entire project team maintains a quality-conscious approach every step of the way, and when problems don’t escape from the phase in which they were introduced. A quality product is a team effort. It’s planned and predictable. It’s without heroes, and it’s faster and cheaper than a low-quality effort.

How can this be? Let’s look at some sample projects. The first is a normal, low-quality, late project. We’ll call it project “Hurry Up” (HU for short).

Project HU got a bit of a late start due to the ongoing maintenance issues of its predecessor project “Just Ship It” (JSI). JSI was handled by a project manager (PM) who felt it was more important to ship on time than to ship a high-quality product. So he did. This PM was rewarded for his ability to “pull it together,” “get it out the door” and “meet the schedule.” The JSI PM was given a bonus for meeting his schedule and is now vacationing in Tahiti while the team deals with the fallout of the numerous bugs and unhappy customers.

Lesson #1: Don’t reward for shipping on schedule. Anyone can ship garbage. Base rewards on quality metrics.

During the last month of the project, the JSI developers worked 80-hour weeks. One heroic fellow was recognized for working 120 hours in one week, stopping only for brief rests. He heroically repaired multiple interfaces between applications. Those interfaces had not been properly specified (there were no design documents), no integration testing was done (no time to do it), and the QA team fought quality issues throughout system test.

Read more here