LUT School of Business and Management

A220A0200
Software Maintenance
Associate Professor Jussi Kasurinen

20.01.2020
Tatiana Yaldaie
Quality is a debatable thing. There are quite many definitions for a quality, depending
from whose point of view it is approached. Customer or an end user, for example, sees
quality as a defect-free, functioning, reliable easy to use product. Safety plays one of the
important roles. Service is considered to be of high quality if it is also reliable, easy to
use, and safe. The manufacturer of a product mainly expects that it is made according
to the standards assigned by the government, whereas the provider of a service aims to
meet deadlines and deliver service that conforms to client’s requirements. Government
mainly sees quality as something that assures safety and protection of consumers from
fraud. For industry quality is associated with safeguarding the reputation, protection
against fraud and addressing customers’, government’s and industry’s concerns.
(Chemuturi, M., 2011)

There are many definitions of quality and no universal one. Definitions vary due to its
intangible nature. Manufacturers and service providers, academicians and practitioners
see quality differently. (Wicks, A. & Roethlein, C. J., 2009)

Product of a high quality is characterized by a number of quality factors which can be

listed in the requirements specifications. They can be also derived from the familiarity of
use or gathered from the users. Moreover, such factors can be noted down by the
developers as important but not necessarily they will be regarded as important by the
customers. (Fitzpatrick, R., 1996)

There are various quality models. McCall's model is one of the most commonly applied
one. It was developed by the US Air force Electronic System to improve the quality of
software products and make quality measurable. Originally the model included 55 quality
factors which was reduced to 11, including efficiency, integrity, reliability, usability,
accuracy, maintainability, testability, flexibility, interface facility, re-usability and
transferability. (Wallmüller, E., 1994) Software testing has two well-known process
models: the test process improvement (TPI) model and the test maturity Model (TMM).
These two models make it possible for an organization to evaluate the current state of
its software testing processes, identify the next logical area for enhancement and
recommend an action plan for improving the testing process. (Naik, K. & Tripathy, R.,
2008)

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There is a definition of external and internal quality. External quality refers to the quality
of finished goods, the quality seen by the external world, whereas internal quality refers
to the product that is being constructed. External quality can be seen as one that is visible
to the end users while internal quality is related to the technical issues of the software.
End users mainly care about external quality. However, internal quality allows
developers achieve external quality. (Fitzpatrick, R., 1996) Perry (1987) in his article
stated that all the quality factors mentioned above are interrelated.

There are some ways to measure quality. Gilliers (1992) lists several approaches to
measure the quality, including simple scoring, weighted scoring, the Kepner-Tregor
method, the Cologne combination method, and Polarity profiling. These methods are
quite old and LOQUM (LOcally defined QUality Modelling) methods can be used instead.
(Fitzpatrick, R., 1996)

Software can be seen as high-quality if it is secure, meaning that there are not many
security issues and bugs are fixed quickly. Even though many people see it as the most
important aspect, there are other factors that affect quality. (Fish, S., 2008)

Due to a big number of different definitions of quality, it is difficult to point out one
definition for high quality. What makes a phone application to be of high quality. This
question can be approached from different viewpoints. For a developer, it is an
application that has minimum amount of bugs, does not have any critical bugs that do
not allow the application to work properly. User sees it as a high-quality application if all
the promised functions work and it is easy to use. The application should have the
features most people want. Building extra features may be waste of money, since it will
not be appreciated by majority of users. Users value if application is easy to install and
uninstall. Updates are taking place smoothly without causing damage or loses to the
user’s data. Application should be compatible with various devices and platforms. What
is more, it should be portable. For a developer it is good to have sufficient documentation
of the application. Users regard software as high-quality, if it has support in case
something happens. High-quality is also associated with high speed and performance. If
software is too slow, user would prefer to stop using it. Users also value usability, nice
looking, comfortable applications. (Fish, S., 2008)

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As it can be inferred from above, there are various definitions of quality and they all have
right to exist because different parties explain quality differently. Manufacturers of
different products and providers of various services perceive quality differently. What is
relevant for biologics will not be of use for producers of automobile parts. The overall
idea is that quality products satisfy proclaimed needs and are free of deficiencies. When
product satisfies the proclaimed needs, it means that it does what it is supposed to do.
Freedom from deficiencies, in turns, means that there is no flaw in design or
manufacturing that would prevent a good from doing what it should do. (Klaess, J., 2019)

Harvard Business Review (1983) stated that “Quality is more than making a good
product.” Quality must be defined by the customers. They should say if product or service
satisfy their needs. Quality is not something that can be purchased from the shop;
instead, it is the coordination of an entire company across a product’s lifecycle. Quality
concerns consumer, product, and the outcome.

Quality does not automatically come from ISO quality management system. This
standard does not create quality itself. Quality is experienced by the customers. Product
quality comes from the design specifications and achievement of manufacture
standards. Service quality comes from service process design and delivery standard.
(Sondalini, M.)

To sum up, it is fair to highlight that there is no universal definition of quality. Sometimes
it may appear disturbing. There are quite many definitions that come from the
practitioners. Their definitions derive from their practical experience in their field. Some
definitions can be even controversial, that is why practitioners select the definitions that
most closely characterize their experience. Some definitions are impacting each other.
Various aspects of quality form a continuum, connecting definitions of quality. This
continuum can be useful for the companies as it helps to understand the relationship
among quality definitions. Contribution of various functional areas to the quality mission
of the company can be visualized and importance of the company’s external objectives
can be analyzed. (Seawright, K. W., & Young, S. T., 1996)

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References

Chemuturi, M. (2011) Mastering software quality assurance: best practices, tools and
techniques for software developers.

Fish. S. (2008) What Makes Software High-Quality? [www document]. [Accessed 13

January 2020]. Available: https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/high-
quality-software/#about

Fitzpatrick, R. (1996) Software Quality: Definitions and Strategic Issues.

Gillies, A. (1992) Software quality: Theory and management, Chapman & Hall, London,
England.

Klaess, J. (2019) 3 Definitions of quality in manufacturing and why they matter. [www
document]. [Accessed 13 January 2020]. Available:
https://tulip.co/blog/quality/definitions-quality-quality40/

Naik, K. & Tripathy, R. (2008) Software testing and quality assurance. Theory and
Practice. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Perry, W. (1987) Effective methods for EDI quality assurance, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey,
USA

Seawright, K. W., & Young, S. T. (1996) A Quality Definition Continuum. Interfaces,

26(3), 107–113. doi:10.1287/inte.26.3.107

Sondalini, M. What is Quality? What does Quality Mean? How do You Know When You
Have Quality? [www document]. [Accessed 13 January 2020]. Available:
https://www.lifetime-reliability.com/cms/free-articles/work-quality-assurance/what-is-
quality/

Takeuchi, H. & Quelch, J. (1983) Harvard Business Review. Quality Is More Than
Making a Good Product. [www document]. [Accessed 13 January 2020]. Available:
https://hbr.org/1983/07/quality-is-more-than-making-a-good-product
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Wallmüller, E. (1994) Software quality assurance:A quality approach, Prentice-Hall
International, Hertfordshire, UK.

Wicks, A. & Roethlein, C. J. (2009) A Satisfaction-Based Definition of Quality. Journal of

Business & Economic Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 2009.