Defining Economic Value and Defining the Value of Software Quality

The reason for the ambiguity, as noted in the Preface, is that there are many different points of view, and each point of view has a different interpretation of the terms. For instance, software quality does not mean the same thing to a customer as it does to a developer. Economic value has a different meaning to vendors than it has to consumers. For vendors, revenue is the key element of value, and for consumers, operational factors represent primary value. Both of these are discussed later in the book.

Software quality, as covered in this book, goes then beyond functional quality. Quality truly covers these aspects however extends furthermore to nonfunctional quality and to structural quality.

The approximate population of the United States in 2010 was about 309,800,135 based on Census Bureau estimates. Out of the total population about 30% use computers daily either for business purposes or for recreational purposes or both; in other words, about 92,940,040 Americans are daily computer users.

About 65% of the U.S. population use embedded software in the form of smart phones, digital cameras, digital watches, automobile brakes and engine controls, home appliances, and entertainment devices. Many people are not aware that embedded software controls such devices, nevertheless it does. That is, about 201,370,087 U.S. citizens own and use devices that contain embedded software.

Almost 100% of the U.S. population has personal data stored in various online databases maintained by the Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, state governments, municipal governments, banks, insurance companies, credit card companies, and credit scoring companies.

Moving on to business, data from various sources just as Forbes, Manta, Business Week, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Labor Statistics, and others reports that the United States has about 22,553,779 companies. Of these companies about 65% use computers and software for business operations, retail sales, accounting, and other purposes—so about 14,659,956 U.S. companies use computers and software.

Early in 2010, hundreds of computers were shut down and many businesses including hospitals were disrupted when the MacAfee antivirus application mistakenly identified part of Microsoft Windows as a virus and stopped it from loading.

Not every citizen has all of these appliances and devices, nevertheless about half of us do. Many of us have furthermore than what Table 1.2 indicates, just as owning several automobiles, several cell phones, and numerous appliances. Software quality is important because it is the main operating component of nearly all complex machines as of 2011.

Similar occurrences take place afterwards hurricanes and natural disasters that shut down power. Many retail establishments are unable to record sales information, and some stay closed although workers and potential clients are both available. If computers and software are out of service, many businesses can no longer operate.

Software and computers are so deeply enmeshed in modern business and government operations that the global economy is at serious risk. As military planners know, nuclear explosions in the atmosphere emit an electromagnetic pulse that damages transistors and electrical circuits. They can as well cause explosions of liquid fuels just as gasoline and can detonate stored weapons.

Congressional report showed that the number of U.S.

A Congressional report showed that the number of U.S. cyber attacks increased from about 43,000 in 2008 to more than 80,000 in 2009. As this book is being written, probably more than 10,000 U.S. hackers are actively engaged in attempting to steal credit card and financial information. Computers, networks, and smart phones are all at considerable risk. Security vulnerabilities are linked closely to poor quality, and many attacks are based on known quality flaws.

In today’s world of the virtual team, WebEx collaboration/videoconferencing software has become nearly ubiquitous in business. In my professional experience, I have observed an nearly across-the-board learning curve problem with respect to organizational efficiency with WebEx.