Lightweight Elicitation and Analysis of Software Product Quality Goals: A Multiple Industrial Case Study

We developed and used a method that gathers relevant stakeholders to elicit, prioritize, and elaborate the quality goals of a software product. It is designed to be lightweight and easy to learn compared to methods for a more comprehensive analysis of non-functional requirements. The method and the resulting quality goals are meant especially for improving the software product management process. We used it in four software product companies, and report lessons learned and evaluation of the method based on practitioners' comments. We found it better to set the goals first for the product in general before discussing a specific release project. In addition to identifying goals that needed improvement, the practitioners considered identifying already achieved goals relevant, but they were neg- lected unless explicitly considered. Using ISO 9126 as a checklist after brainstorming did not add many goals. Prioritization was challenging due to numerous relevant perspectives. Conceiving measures for impor- tant goals seemed to concretize them.