Software Quality Construction: Empirical Study on the Role of Requirements, Stakeholders and Resources

The objective of this qualitative case study was to observe and describe how software quality is constructed in software development organizations. Eleven software programmers, testers, quality control personnel, requirement managers and research and development personnel were interviewed and common practices of quality construction analyzed. The findings indicated that quality construction practices vary considerably across different organizations. Differences were noted in the type and extent of customer involvement in software development, methods used for requirements elicitation, and objectives of software testing. Based on the results, the following conclusions are drawn. First, requirements elicitation in software development is an ongoing process even after the product has been delivered to the customer. Second, the quality characteristics of the software depend on the type of software, user and application domain. Third, a quality software product is not necessarily technically the best but it must satisfy customer needs. Fourth, the quality of the software is resource-dependent.