Software economics: quality-based return-on-investment model
Ljubomir Lazić, Nikos E. Mastorakis · 2010
Along with the ever more apparent importance and criticality of software systems for modern societies, arises the urgent need to deal efficiently with the quality assurance of these systems. Even though the necessity of investments into software quality should not be underestimated, it seems economically unwise to invest seemingly random amounts of money into quality assurance. The precise prediction of the costs and benefits of various software quality assurance techniques within a particular project allows for economically sound decision-making. This article explains the return on investment rate (ROI) of Software Process Improvement (SPI), and introduces practical metrics and models for the ROI of SPI. Furthermore an analytical idealized model of defect detection techniques is presented. It provides a range of metrics: the ROTI of software quality assurance for example. The method of ROTI calculation is exemplified in this paper. In conclusion, an overview on the debate when software is purchased, concerning quality and cost ascertaining in general will be given. Although today there are a number of techniques to verify the cost-effectiveness of quality assurance, the results are thus far often unsatisfactory. More importantly, this article helps sort through the seldom and often confusing literature by identifying a small set of practical metrics, models, and examples for the ROI of SPI.