Quality Requirements in Industrial Practice—An Extended Interview Study at Eleven Companies

In order to create a successful software product and assure its quality, it is not enough to fulfill the functional requirements, it is also crucial to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). An extended, previously piloted, interview study was performed to identify specific challenges associated with the selection, tradeoff, and management of QR in industrial practice. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 11 product managers and 11 project leaders from 11 software companies. The contribution of this study is fourfold: First, it compares how QR are handled in two cases, companies working in business-to-business markets and companies that are working in business-to-consumer markets. These two are also compared in terms of impact on the handling of QR. Second, it compares the perceptions and priorities of QR by product and project management, respectively. Third, it includes an examination of the interdependencies among quality requirements perceived as most important by the practitioners. Fourth, it characterizes the selection and management of QR in downstream development activities.