How to Measure Quality of Software Developed by Subcontractors (Short Paper)

In Japan, where the multiple subcontracting is very common in software development, it is difficult to measure the quality of software developed by subcontractors. Even if we request them for process improvement based on CMMI including measurement and analysis, it will not work immediately. Using "the unsuccessful ratio in the first time testing pass" as measure to assess software quality, we have had good results. We can get these measures with a little effort of both outsourcer and subcontractor. With this measure, we could identify the defect-prone programs and conduct acceptance testing for these programs intensively. Thus, we could deliver the system on schedule. The following sections discuss why we devised this measure and its trial results.