Quality Attributes in Practice: Contemporary Data

TL;DR

This study analyzes how different software development practices and attributes influence customer satisfaction, revealing that agile methods, company size, and project duration significantly impact perceived quality.

Contribution

It provides empirical data on the relationship between software process factors and customer satisfaction across diverse global contexts.

Findings

Agile methodologies correlate with higher customer satisfaction.

Larger companies and shorter projects tend to produce better quality products.

Functionality and architectural styles have limited impact on satisfaction.

Abstract

It is well known that the software process in place impacts the quality of the resulting product. However, the specific way in which this effect occurs is still mostly unknown and reported through anecdotes. To gather a better understanding of such relationship, a very large survey has been conducted during the last year and has been completed by more than 100 software developers and engineers from 21 countries. We have used the percentage of satisfied customers estimated by the software developers and engineers as the main dependent variable. The results evidence some interesting patterns, like that quality attribute of which customers are more satisfied appears functionality, architectural styles may not have a significant influence on quality, agile methodologies might result in happier customers, larger companies and shorter projects seems to produce better products.