Measuring the Unmeasurable Characteristics of Software Product Quality

Software quality is evolving beyond static measurement to a wider scope of quality definition. Previous studies have indicated the importance of human aspect in software quality. But software quality models have not included comprehensively this aspect together with the behavioural aspect of the quality. This research has proposed a Pragmatic Quality Factors (or PQF) as a software quality measurement and metrics that includes the human aspects as well as behavioural aspect of quality. The two aspects of quality are essential and necessary as to balance between technical and non-technical (human) facet. In addition, this model provides flexibility by giving priorities and weights to the quality attributes. The priority and weight are essential to reflect business requirement in the real business environment. Therefore, it is more practical that suits with different users and purposes. As for our research, PQF is used for assessment toward software product certification. It is implemented through collaborative perspective approach between users, developers and independent assessor. This paper explains in detail the PQF model and its applications.