Testing based on users' quality needs

Quality of software products has been a rather intangible concept for both users and software testers over the years. In spite of interesting results in research and practice, most users can not describe the quality characteristics of the software product that they need. As a consequence, software testers do not know what software quality requirements are desirable or realistic, which makes it almost inpossible to test a software product from a user’s point of view.Determination of software quality characteristics starts by listening to “the user” and his or her quality needs. This can be done by characterization of (a part of) the business situation the user wants to support, using a software product. The attributes by which a business situation can be characterized are clustered into three categories: business process characteristics, user characteristics and software product characteristics.Starting from the various business characteristics the software quality characteristics can be derived in a deterministic way. Software quality characteristics can be expressed in sub-characteristics, which are related to indicators and metrics. These characteristics, initially derived from the users’ quality needs, can then form a solid basis for a user-oriented testing process.Several (European) research projects are gathering empirical data to validate and calibrate the relationships between quality needs, business characteristics, software quality characteristics and metrics. The ultimate objective is to develop a practical basis for third-party testing of software quality. The various concepts will also be implemented as instruments for both developers and software testers to realize, verify and validate software quality.