Tuesday, August 2, 2011

A quality model

I was skimming through a blog about safety and security in software systems when my attention was drawn to a reference to the ISO/IEC 9126 quality model.

The interesting thing about this model is that it's ubiquitous: there's nothing inherently software-centric about the model, though it was written with software in mind.  In fact, it's a pretty good checklist for anyone (and everyone) interested in delivering good quality to their beneficiaries.

Have a look:

Functionality - A set of attributes that bear on the existence of a set of functions and their specified properties. The functions are those that satisfy stated or implied needs.
  • Suitability
  • Accuracy
  • Interoperability
  • Security
  • Functionality Compliance
Reliability - A set of attributes that bear on the capability of software to maintain its level of performance under stated conditions for a stated period of time.
  • Maturity
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Recoverability
  • Reliability Compliance
Usability - A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed for use, and on the individual assessment of such use, by a stated or implied set of users.
  • Understandability
  • Learnability
  • Operability
  • Attractiveness
  • Usability Compliance
Efficiency - A set of attributes that bear on the relationship between the level of performance of the software and the amount of resources used, under stated conditions.
  • Time Behaviour
  • Resource Utilisation
  • Efficiency Compliance
Maintainability - A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed to make specified modifications.
  • Analyzability
  • Changeability
  • Stability
  • Testability
  • Maintainability Compliance
Portability - A set of attributes that bear on the ability of software to be transferred from one environment to another.
  • Adaptability
  • Installability
  • Co-Existence
  • Replaceability
  • Portability Compliance
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