Cost-optimisation of Analytical Software Quality Assurance: Models, Data, Case Studies

Analytical software quality assurance (SQA) constitutes with about 50% a significant part of the total development costs of a software system. Hence, it is a promising areafor cost-optimisation. Various defect-detection techniques can be used to improve thequality of software. The main question is how to use those different techniques ina cost-optimal way. However, the costs and benefits of SQA and the interrelationshipsof the influencing factors are still not completely understood. This book presents an analytical and stochastic model of the economics of analytical SQA. The model can be used to analyse different techniques theoretically and to optimisethe SQA in a company using historical project data. Case studies were done in various domains and evaluating different techniques in different phases. All these case studies provided valuable feedback on the model and also contributed to the body ofknowledge on the efficiency of the techniques. The book is aimed at researchers and practitioners in software quality management.