- Introduction
- Defining Software Quality
- Defining Economic Value and Defining the Value of Software Quality
- Summary and Conclusions
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Summary and Conclusions
The topic of software quality has been difficult to define for more than 50 years. The topic of economic value has been difficult to define for more than 150 years. When the two topics are combined into a single book, it is necessary to start by considering all of the alternatives that surround both terms.
The economic value of software needs to be analyzed from both the production and consumption sides of the equation.
The value of software quality needs to be analyzed in terms of the benefits of high quality and the harmful consequences of poor quality. And here, too, both the production and consumption of software need to be considered:
|
High quality |
Value to producers Value to stakeholders and financial backers Value to users and consumers |
|
Low quality |
Risks and hazards to producers Risks and hazards to stakeholders and financiers Risks and hazards to users and consumers |
The essential message that will be demonstrated later in the book is that a high level of software quality will raise the economic value of software for the producers, financiers, and the consumers of software applications.
Conversely, low software quality levels will degrade the economic value of software for both the producers and consumers of software applications.
But achieving high levels of software quality needs effective defect prevention, effective pretest defect removal, effective testing, effective quality estimation, effective quality measurements, effective teams, and effective management. Testing alone has never been sufficient to achieve high-quality software.