-So, let's see how this affects the concept of software - -2
-quality. Another way to express what we just said is - -3
-to say that the software runs on some hardware and - -4
-is developed for a purpose that is related to human - -5
-activities. And given this perspective, we can define what we - -6
-mean by software quality in this light. Software quality is - -7
-not just a function of the software. So, the software - -8
-itself does not define the quality of the overall system. - -9
-Rather, software quality is a function of both the - -10
-software and its purpose. Where purpose has to do with - -11
-the way in which the software will be used. So - -12
-a software system can be of low quality not only - -13
-because it does not work well. So, for example, not - -14
-only because it crashes. Of course, that's an issue. But - -15
-just as importantly, a software can also be of low - -16
-quality because it does not fulfill its purpose, and this - -17
-happens quite often. It is unfortunately not rare for - -18
-the software producers to have an inadequate understanding, or even - -19
-a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the software, - -20
-of what the users want to do and will do - -21
-with it. Turning these around, we can therefore define - -22
-the quality of software in terms of fitness for purpose. - -23
-The more the software fulfills its purpose, the more - -24
-the software is on target, the higher is its quality. - -25
-And identifying the purpose of the software, so hitting - -26
-this target, is exactly the goal of requirements engineering. - -27
-And it is the reason why requirements engineering is - -28
-such a fundamental activity in the context of software engineering. -- cgit 1.4.1