Yesterday, I wrote about what Software Quality in a nutshell. As people look at it in many ways and have their own perceptions of what it is based on their own experiences, it was necessary to clear the air, so to speak, and come up with straight-forward definition of what Quality is, and it was a good effort for me.
One of the two definitions of Quality is about comparing something against another to appreciate and declare if one is of inferior, superior, or of same quality as the other. Agree that it is subjective to a few things which needs to be taken care of, in general, it provides a good framework to assess quality. And the same applies for Software Quality too.
We got to think from a Software product perspective, as to what you would compare, to start with. I think of any number of things that can be compared, but there are a few things that are at least contemporary, that I would consider including in the list.
- Features
- Performance (reliability, load, stress, availability, scaling…)
- Security
- Accessibility
- Compliance
- User Interface and User Journey (not just GUI)
Remember, it would be a mistake to trivialize what to compare to just the things in the list above, but it is a good starting point, and you can add things that are specific to your industry/business/context. It is important to remember that not everything is an app., and there are software that are very delicate and have huge impact on people’s lives if tampered with (like The Internet), and so, when deciding on what’s important for the quality of such a thing.
Hope that provides some insight and clarity on what to look for when considering Software Quality as a value. I will write a few more blogs on this topic in the coming days.
If you would like to discuss about Software Quality, or need help in assessing Software Quality for your project, product at your organisation, feel free to setup a time to talk to me.