Software Quality: Definitions and Strategic Issues
In general, software quality is crucial in software engineering. Read this article and explore the various definitions of quality and the quality models. Notice the priority of quality factors and how software quality can be measured.
2. Building quality into software products
2.7. Grouping and prioritizing quality factors
Perhaps because of industry concentration on testing or validation and verification little work seems to have been done about grouping or prioritising quality factors. Some authors suggest that there is an order of sequence and priority that must be applied to quality factors. They imply that usability is the first in this order. If a software product cannot be loaded, it cannot be launched and therefore cannot be used. Consequently other quality issues do not come into play. Daily suggests that "once the software is usable, correct and reliable then efficiency, compatibility (interoperability) and integrity can be considered in more detail". However it would be most important that this priority would be confined to an evaluation strategy only. A strategy for building these quality factors into a product must treat all factors equally and do so at the requirements specification stage.