The relationships between software development processes and software product quality

Abstract

The main motivation for software process assessment and improvement (i.e. performed in accordance with standard ISO/IEC 15504) is that the software product, developed according to improved processes, will be of higher quality (determined by ISO/IEC 25010). ISO/IEC 15504 refer to the ISO/IEC 12207 which describes processes performed in software acquiring or developing organizations. The relations between software processes and quality characteristics seem intuitive but there is little empirical evidence to prove its validity. The paper describes the first stage of research where practitioners try to find and explain relationships between software quality characteristics (ISO/IEC 25010) and software life cycle processes (ISO/IEC 12207). The motivation for the research lies in the assumption that if the acquirer is particularly interested in a certain quality characteristic of the product, the supplier may put special emphasis on these software processes that have a significant impact on this attribute. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.