Software quality is only sometimes explicitly addressed in business operating procedures. Yet, software quality implicitly affects more than simply the company’s ability to compete in the marketplace: it determines how well it responds to users’ demands and expectations. That means your business relies on the benevolence of users.
That’s because a dissatisfied end-user who encounters bugs or poor-quality software can ultimately cause a catastrophic failure of your business processes. So we’ll show you how to improve software quality to protect your company’s long-term stability and growth.
What are the Characteristics of Quality Software?
Software quality is a hot topic, and while there are many books, papers, and discussions on the subject, the matter remains elusive to many people. Let’s look at some common characteristics of quality software so you can be sure what it is.
If we look at software engineering and its processes, the most common explanation of quality software is that it refers to different factors.
- Maintainability – This is closely related to software capability for diagnostics deficiencies and its ability to undergo modifications and validation.
- Reliability engineering – Depicts the software’s ability to avoid failure, maintain performance, and recover data.
- Usability – Refers to software that allows users to understand its functions, operate it, and like using it.
- Software portability – Is defined as software’s ability to sustain modification, work in different environments, and coexist with other software.
- Efficiency – Related to software capability to have appropriate responses under different conditions and use resources in adequate time.
The entire story starts with a code. That means that taking care of its quality during the software development process begins with technology. Each project is individual and has specific requirements. Hence, each project must have effective quality management that provides tools and methods for building quality products.
Software quality characteristics are top-level concepts that reflect all the essential aspects of the software. But, they are not directly measurable. So how do we measure quality?
Software Quality Measurement
Software quality is about defining suitable metrics to assess the quality characteristics. Unfortunately, software quality estimation can be tricky, and there’s no such thing as a perfect solution. Anyone who has ever tried to write quality software knows that.
It’s challenging, but despite that, the importance of software quality is undisputed. On the other hand, implementing software solutions seems more critical than writing programs of high quality.
Quality metrics are usually shown using tools, and the most obvious tell complaint. Whether it’s a customer who found a bug or a development team. Software quality measurement is about quantifying the desirable characteristics of the software. For each trait, there is a distinct set of attributes correlated within the software.
Each of these attributes is extracted from the standard quality model, and its main focus is structural quality-for instance, architecture, technical characteristics, and data access. In practice, most errors come from source code, while only 10% are actual production faults.
Software metrics are a strong indicator of the overall health of the product. Gathering the metrics data can help you develop a strategy to guide the project in the right direction and recognize the areas you should focus on.
5 Ways to Improve Software Quality in Software Engineering
Software engineering is a complex and challenging process. And it’s only getting more complicated as software development teams are expected to deliver more features faster. As a result, improving software quality is difficult, which is why many professionals will tell you it’s better to prevent than cure later.
However there are many ways to improve software quality, but we are going to mention a few for the sake of this text.
Continuous Integration
If your team uses continuous integration, they’ll be able to catch bugs faster than they would otherwise. This is because the developers are continuously working on their code and testing it, reducing the chances of bugs being introduced into production.
Continuous integration aims to ensure that every change made in a project is automatically tested by an automated tool before it’s deployed into production. That helps prevent regression when you introduce a bug that developers previously fixed.
Documentation
Secondly, creating documentation for each module and function is essential, ensuring it’s up-to-date with any changes made in future releases. Excellent documentation defines the entire scope of the project. Moreover, it contains all the necessary features that help keep track of the development process.
Code Review
Another step to improving software quality is conducting a thorough review of your code. This can be done by developers reviewing the code manually or with the help of an automated tool. The goal of code review is to identify and correct errors in the code before they are deployed into production.
Quality Assurance (QA)
It’s essential to have a QA team that can test your software and make sure it meets your customer’s requirements. Software quality assurance has many aspects, and it can be challenging to stay on track. However, the QA engineer will ensure that methodologies and processes meet the agreed standards during all phases.
The QA process is not a testing phase. Instead, after the complete project, it is implemented into the software development process and all its stages. To learn more about quality assurance, visit the following blog post: https://www.tnation.eu/blog/good-code-and-qa/.
Feedback Mechanism
Feedback is so valuable for project success nowadays. Users testing in an actual environment is much more helpful as they can provide constructive insights into what they expect and want from a product. The goal is to find the fastest way possible to get end-user feedback. In turn, it can help you plan out the strategy for damage control if needed.
Conclusion
Software quality is essential for the success of any business in the world. Rushing towards deadlines tends to compromise software quality, but you must care for quality to maintain your reputation and business. If you want to keep up with the competition and ensure your software has no faults, you need to improve new products and revamp existing solutions.
Software quality is your competitive advantage in the tech world. However, competition is fierce, and new companies emerge every day. So you must stay ahead of the curve by offering better software than your competitors.
TNation is a nearshoring company in Serbia with expert teams that successfully completed more than 200 projects.
