The number 1 thing you should look for as a Quality standard of a software project

Software Quality is a relative term. It is very abstract. There are multiple definitions of software quality. Additionally, the standard of quality differs from person to person. Something that you think is a default parameter can be additional work for someone else.

Software projects are challenging in nature irrespective of its size. Even designing a static website brings a lot of dissatisfaction to the client and the development team.

The fundamental reason for dissatisfaction is a different set of expectations on both ends. This leads to dialogue and sometimes arguments. The result of it is an unsuccessful project.

If you ever own a software project (so you are a client) or ever developed anything for your client (so you are a developer) then you must be familiar with all such experiences.

The solution to building a successful software project is “QUALITY”

What is software quality?

Here is a 2 minutes read. Beware, the digestion of these 2 minutes may take a longer time than you anticipate.

Software quality from Wikipedia is,
In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:
• Software functional quality reflects how well it complies with or conforms to a given design, based on functional requirements or specifications. That attribute can also be described as the fitness for purpose of a piece of software or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace as a worthwhile product.[1] It is the degree to which the correct software was produced.
• Software structural quality refers to how it meets non-functional requirements that support the delivery of the functional requirements, such as robustness or maintainability. It has a lot more to do with the degree to which the software works as needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_quality

The common practices of software quality assurance are,

  1. Fulfilling the client’s expectations
  2. Following industry standards programming
  3. Maintainability
  4. Scalability
  5. Thorough Testing
    1. Black box testing
    2. White box testing
    3. Unit testing
      (Note that there are many more types of testing present but I am restricting to just a few of them in this article.)
  6. Delivering the best UI and UX

Most of the above are implemented at a varying degree by the majority of the software development companies however, the failure ratio of software projects is very high compare to most of the industries.
That leads us at CrossShore to think about what can we do better? What types of software quality metrics we should monitor?

What's better, 'reactive' or 'Proactive'? - Quora
We didn’t found the answer overnight but with our years of experience, we built our own definition of Quality.
At CrossShore,  software quality means,
“Delivering an experience”
There are various software quality metrics we can monitor howerver the best metrics is to deliver the best experience to our clients.

Let’s take an example to understand it better,
There must be hundreds of restaurants if not thousand in the city you are living in. If you are also a foodie then you must have tried many. Out of those only a few or just a couple of them must have created an impression on your mind. Those restaurants fall into your most favorite one!
Not necessarily, your most favorite restaurant is serving the best food. But you still liked it the most!
That’s because they are successful to deliver you the best experience.

Quality has a direct relation with experience – Isn’t it!
When we develop a software, website, mobile app anything for our client then we focus on delivering the experience. Having said that, in order to deliver the rightful experience, we implement all industry defined programming standards, building the complete test plan, implementing TDD (Test Driven Development), making systems maintainable and scalable.

On top of it, we walk an extra mile as we know magic happens on that extra mile.
Just like the best restaurants (per our liking) in the city has done something extra that has touched your heart. This could be the best packaging of the food, their awesome servers, their chef, their food, or maybe your companion.

At CrossShore, walking an extra mile means, making things happen to achieve the experience that our client loves. For us, this thinking has been incorporated right from the prototype to the delivery phase of the project and not limited to only the testing phase of the project.

Contact us to get a successful project delivery for your idea. Do post your comment or feedback or share your experience in the comments.

Harshul Shah

Published by Harshul Shah

Harshul Shah is a tech geek with more than 15 years of software development experience on mobile and web technologies extensively. He is a founder CrossShore Solutions that provides custom web, mobile & enterprise application development services to clients across the globe. Harshul has acquired an in-depth understanding of mobile app designing, development, marketing, and app store optimization and helped numerous clients across the globe that includes some of the patent-pending startups, small to mid-scale businesses and fortune 500 companies.

One response to “The number 1 thing you should look for as a Quality standard of a software project”

  1. Hi… Thanks For the well thought out post. Aweome post with very good content with the practices of software quality assurance.
    I found your article is very informative. I have bookmarked your blog to refer back to each time whenever I need any help. This is the first time I have ever commented on someone’s blog. It has taken me out of my comfort zone. Growth! I will be checking out more of your articles.

    Thanking You

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