Applying the fundamentals of quality to software acquisition

Historically, software developed under government contracts often does not stand up under real-world use, and defects frequently result in cost and schedule overruns. While proposed development activities from contractors commonly list measures to improve quality, these descriptions cannot be used to select a winning bidder if they are not part of the evaluation criteria. By making software quality requirements explicit at the proposal stage, contractor selection can be influenced by criteria based on best practices in software development.