Measurement-based Software Quality Evaluation

Managing product quality during the development, operation, and maintenance of software-intensive systems is a challenging task. Although many organizations have already identified various quality aspects they need to measure, control, and improve, a standard process for quality evaluation is still missing. The quality models and quality evaluation methods proposed in recent decades are typically missing an associated improvement-oriented evaluation process. Even though an ISO/IEC standard for product quality evaluation (ISO/IEC 14598) exists, it has a number of weaknesses that makes it hard to effectively apply this process in practice [10]. This article proposes a continuous quality evaluation process that is founded on well-known and widely accepted technologies such as the Quality Improvement Paradigm and the Goal/Question/Metric approach. The objective is to define a comprehensive, goal-oriented, and adaptable process that provides mechanisms for quantitative feedback and thus facilitates continuous improvement. This work is being conducted in the context of the German research project Quamoco. The article summarizes existing approaches, describes the principles of the proposed evaluation process, illustrates current and future challenges, and gives an outlook on future work in the context of Quamoco.