Practical Consequences of Quality Views in Assessing Software Quality

Abstract

The authors’ previously published research delved into the theory of software product quality modelling, model views, concepts, and terminologies. They also analysed this specific field from the point of view of uncertainty, and possible descriptions based on fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. Laying a theoretical foundation was necessary; however, software professionals need a more tangible and practical approach for their everyday work. Consequently, the authors devote this paper to filling in this gap; it aims to illustrate how to interpret and utilise the previous findings, including the established taxonomy of the software product quality models. The developed fuzzy model’s simplification is also presented with a Generalized Additive Model approximation. The paper does not require any formal knowledge of uncertainty computations and reasoning under uncertainty, nor does it need a deep understanding of quality modelling in terms of terminology, concepts, and meta-models, which were necessary to prepare the taxonomy and relevance ranking. The paper investigates how to determine the validity of statements based on a given software product quality model; moreover, it considers how to tailor and adjust quality models to the particular project’s needs. The paper also describes how to apply different software product quality models for different quality views to take advantage of the automation potential offered for the measurement and assessment of source code quality. Furthermore, frequent pitfalls are illustrated with their corresponding resolutions, including an unmeasured quality property that is found to be important and needs to be included in the measurement and assessment process.