Behavioral economics in software quality engineering (original) (raw)
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An Approach to Measuring Software Quality Perception
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Perception measuring and perception management is an emerging approach in the area of product management. Cognitive, psychological, behavioral and neurological theories, tools and methods are being employed for a better understanding of the mechanisms of a consumer’s attitude and decision processes. Software is also being defined as a product, however this kind of product is significantly different from all other products. Software products are intangible and it is difficult to trace their characteristics which are strongly dependant on a dynamic context of use. Understanding customer’s cognitive processes gives an advantage to the producers aiming to develop products “winning the market”. Is it possible to adopt theories, methods and tools for the purpose of software perception, especially software quality perception? The theoretical answer to this question seems to be easy, however in practice the list of differences between software products and software projects hinders the analysis of certain factors and their influence on the overall perception. In this article the authors propose a method and describe a tool designed for the purpose of research regarding perception issues of software quality. The tool is designed to defeat the above stated problem, adopting the modern behavioral economics approach.
MEASUREMENT MODEL OF SOFTWARE QUALITY IN USER'S PERCEPTION
An increasing emphasis on consumer demand and expanded development budgets of software development firms fuel the need to upgrade software quality. Software quality is largely measured by quality standards and guidelines. This paper presents a method for modeling users' perception of software quality. The method aims to improve the quality of data derived from user opinion surveys and facilitate the analysis of such data. The proposed model offers a way to measure users' opinion in early stages of product release and a way of predicting the opinion subsequently formed after their opinion revisions using the initial measurements. Therefore, this work develops a conceptual software quality measurement model for evaluating software quality to decrease the perceptive and expectative (or quality) measuring gap between a software development firm and the end user's requirements.
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This paper presents a methodology for estimating users' opinion of the quality of a software product. Users' opinion changes with time as they progressively become more acquainted with the software product. In this paper, we study the dynamics of users' opinion and offer a method for assessing users' final perception, based on measurements in the early stages of product release. The paper also presents methods for collecting users' opinion and from the derived data, shows how their initial belief state for the quality of the product is formed. It adapts aspects of Belief Revision theory in order to present a way of estimating users' opinion, subsequently formed after their opinion revisions, using the initial measurements and without having to conduct surveys frequently. It reports the correlation that users tend to infer among quality characteristics and represents this correlation through a determination of a set of constraints between the scores of each quality characteristic. Finally, this paper presents a fast and automated way of forming users' new belief state for the quality of a product after examining their opinion revisions.
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This article analysis non-technical aspects of software quality perception and proposes further research activities for this subject naming this branch Software Quality Psychology. Cognitive science, psychology, micro economics and other human-oriented sciences do analyze human behavior, cognition and decision processes. On the other hand engineering disciplines, including software engineering, propose many formal and technical approaches for product quality description. Linkage between technical and subjective quality has been subject of research in areas related to food and agricultural applications and in this article we propose analysis of professional product perception which beyond doubt is a software product.
Measuring user’s perception and opinion of software quality
1998
This paper presents a method for modeling users' perception of software quality. The method aims to improve the quality of data derived from user opinion surveys and facilitate the analysis of such data. Additionally, using aspects of Belief Revision theory, the proposed model offers a way to measure users' opinion in early stages of product release and a way of predicting the opinion subsequently formed after their opinion revisions using the initial measurements. The paper presents graphical examples from modeling users' perception of software quality and of handling the users' belief revision. Finally, conclusions from our case studies and data analysis are presented.
Software Quality Evaluation: User’s View
Nowadays, software products rapidly increased and it is usage not limited to specific people or corporation. It is now used in the most of human life activities. Therefore, the quality of the software product is increasingly being important and the users demanding higher quality than ever before. However, most of this research is focused on the internal/development view of quality. Hence, in software development, strong attention must be given to the user's satisfaction. Recently, the studies intend to understand the users' perspective of the software quality. In this study, we intend to discuss the characteristics of the software products that influence the users' satisfaction on software quality. Based on the well-known software quality models and the emotion of the software users, a model of software quality evaluation based on users' views is proposed.
Users' Perspective of Software Quality
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In last decade, software engineering research increasingly focused on software quality enhancement and evaluation, whereas most of these researches concentrate on the internal/ development perspective. However, users mainly care in the quality of performs intended functions efficiently without knowing how the software product was developed, how it is work from inside, or it is internal quality. The success of software companies is completely depends on the users' satisfaction, which they decide to use a software product or not. Therefore, in software development, strong attention must be given to the user's satisfaction. This study aims to present the quality of the software products from user's perspective. From user's viewpoint, the characteristics of the software product are discussed. Finally, a user's perspective quality model is proposed.
Modelling Revisions of Users' Perception of Software Quality
Summary: Surveys measuring users' opinion of software quality serve not only as indications of users' satisfaction with a software product, but they also permit a more sophisticated degree of analysis required by organisations with higher levels of quality maturity. However, in surveys, some difficulties arise related to the quality of data, the high cost of conducting the survey and the usual revisions of the customers' opinion of the product until these define themselves sufficiently. This paper presents a method for modelling users' perception of software quality using aspects of Belief Revision theory. The proposed model offers a way of predicting the opinion subsequently formed after their opinion revisions using the initial measurements. Furthermore, as users - especially inexperienced ones - may perceive a correlation between software quality characteristics, the model also fosters the outlining of this perception.
The measurement of consumer attitudes concerning software quality
This paper is concerned with the development of an instrument aimed at the measurement of consumer attitudes concerning software quality. The operationalization of the construct software quality includes the dimensions of communication, completeness, features, flexibility, independence, simplicity, stability, and maturity. Ordinal scale development methods are used to develop objective, operational measures of these dimensions. An on-line, Internet-based survey tool was developed to facilitate the large number of responses required for survey validation. The instrument will help solve important problems of software development productivity, software engineering research and survey research. Results show that relevant software consumer attitudes can be consistently and reliably observed and quantified. Results also confirm earlier studies that report benefits from the use of computer-mediated communication for survey research.