ABSTRACT
A principal objective of software engineering is to improve the quality of soware products. But quality, like beauty, is very much in the eyes of the beholder. In the philosophical debate about the meaning of soware quality, proposed denitions include:
• Fitness for purpose
• Conformance to specication
• Degree of excellence
• Timeliness
However, from a measurement perspective, we must be able to dene quality in terms of specic soware product attributes of interest to the user. at is, we want to know how to measure the extent to which these attributes are present in our soware products. is knowledge will enable us to specify (and set targets for) quality attributes in measurable form.
