Faster, Cheaper — And Better?!

A recent analysis of data in the QPeP project database reveals a positive correlation between technical software product quality (as expressed with the reported defect density) and project productivity. Projects with a higher process efficiency produce software with consistently higher technical quality, while there is no visible influence of time pressure on the technical quality. Even though the data do not allow to draw a final conclusion, they are well consistent with the hypothesis of a constant defect production rate per unit of effort.