P. Haindl, R. Plösch: Value-Oriented Quality Metrics in Software Development: Practical Relevance from a Software Engineering Perspective, IET Research Journals, ISSN 1751-8644, DOI: 10.1049/sfw2.12051, 2021
When following the principles of value-based software engineering, business, customer satisfaction, and engineering considerations need to be balanced to develop and operate the software so that it satisfies the different stakeholders’ expectations. This, however, requires knowing the relevant quality metrics covering these value-oriented expectations, and potential sources for their measurement. In this paper we present a categorization of value-oriented quality metrics that are practically relevant. Therefore, we conducted an online survey with practitioners who assessed the relevance of 61 value-oriented metrics, gathered from a preceding systematic mapping study. We grouped these metrics into ten categories, based on financial, customer satisfaction, value proposition, and creation perspectives. Also, we examined the frequency of particular steps at which these measures accrue and identified their most relevant data sources. The participants rated metrics for feature reliability, performance, as well as test and development efficiency as most relevant for value orientation. According to the participants, our collection covers all relevant metrics for addressing financial and market and feature usability aspects. Our categorization and the metrics’ relevance assessments shall support software engineers in selecting relevant metrics and their sources for software product development.