Industrial Experiences of Developing a Model for Software Development Quality Gates

The purposes to use quality gates in software development are many. Quite often companies see that the usage of quality gates improves their overall efficiency, effectiveness and output quality of software delivery chain. They also see that the usage of quality gates helps them to make things right at once by not skipping quality assurance actions. This paper defines quality gate model for a software company. As well it shows that even quality gates might be in place they are not always followed because of a business reason. Companies can forget their well structured quality gate systems when business reason justifies it. The results of neglecting quality gates might lead to a situation where software asset output is not trusted anymore and quality is not known. In a longer run quality gate system seems to be as good as human being who is keeping it. This paper discusses about the most typical software development quality gates in an industrial context. As well it gives reasoning why these gates are usable and defines general criteria for each of them. Paper notifies that even quality gates are in place, they are not useful if not followed. The theoretical discussion in this paper is constructive and follows the constructive research method. Industrial experiments are explained using a case study method. Key-Words: Software quality, quality gates, software development