Software quality and reliability basics

Why is this quantification of quality so important? Almost all of the institutions (airlines, banks, manufacturers, universities, etc.) that use software in their operations find themselves facing sharply increasing international competition. As our global society becomes more dependent on information (as contrasted to capital or labor) in the production of goods and services, the pressures for higher quality, lower cost, and faster delivery for software products are increasing. And we have more software developers eager to compete for customers. But software quality, cost, and schedules are conflicting characteristics; you can’t have one without paying with another. Schedules and cost have tended to dominate until now because they can be concretely measured and specified. We have lacked a clear measure of quality.