An example of the use of ISO 9126 Tor Stålhane IDI / NTNU

The customers’ quality view The PROFF project did a survey of quality factors’ importance for Norwegian companies that buy software. Rank ISO 9126’s factors on a three point scale – 1 to 3 Indicate the cost of the last software acquisition using three categories: – Category 1: les than NOK – Category 2: NOK to – Category 3: more than NOK Indicate type of software in last acquisition: – COTS – Standardized software package – Tailor made software

ISO 9126 – Software quality

ISO 9004 – Service quality

Scores for all products pooled FactorScore Service responsiveness2.81 Service capacity2.74 Product reliability2.71 Service efficiency2.65 Product functionality2.60 Service confidence2.60 Product usability2.57 Product efficiency2.46 Product portability2.05 Product maintainability1.89 Top product characteristic

Scores according to product category FactorCOTS (36)Standardized soft ware packages (27) Customized and tailored software (19) Product functionality Product reliability Product usability Product efficiency Product maintainability Product portability Service confidence Service efficiency Service capacity Service responsiveness Ranking for each software category

Factor importance vs. price category FactorPrice category 1 (20) Price category 2 (22) Price category 3 (42) Product functionality Product reliability Product usability Product efficiency Product maintainability Product portability Service confidence Service efficiency Service capacity Service responsiveness Ranking for each price category

Changes over categories – 1 Score differences FactorProduct categoriesPrice categories Product functionality Product reliability Product usability Product efficiency Product maintainability Product portability Service confidence Service efficiency Service capacity Service responsiveness Product category: COTS => standardized software => tailor made software Product price: – => >

Changes over categories – 2 Move from COTS products to tailor-made products Product maintainability, service confidence and service capacity get more importance Customers who buy tailored software do not expect the producer to put new, improved product versions on the market, except if they have a maintenance contract. Maintenance is a long term commitment, the requirements on service responsiveness decreases. Price increases Customers increase requirements on reliability and portability. The customers’ need to protect their investment in expensive software systems. They need to be able to port expensive software so that they do not have to buy new versions when the environments are changed.

Nordic Telecom company survey – 1 They asked their customers: Would you buy from this company again? Would you recommend others to buy from this company?

Nordic Telecom company survey – 2 The only case where we get a 100% “Yes” on the question “Would you recommend others to buy from this company?” is if the customer Complained Got a satisfactory response. If no complaints, the same question only got 87% yes. For the customers it is more important with a satisfactory service response to his problems than having no problems at all.

Conclusions – 1 Software products are considered to be complex with a large potential to cause problems that the average user cannot handle. This lead to a focus on service quality. Maintainability and portability are – not important for the average software customer. It is the producer’s responsibility to provide updated and enhanced versions of the software on the platform that they need. – important for the producer. They must provide the services that the customer requires. Software customers behave in an economically rational way when they set priorities on quality requirements. –Their preferences can be deduced from simple economic relations. –If the pricing policy or market mechanisms change, so will the importance of each quality factor.

Conclusions – 2 The customers’ focus on service quality is an opportunity, not a problem. The advice is: Do not sell just a product; sell a product plus service, provided through personal contacts. The personnel used to provide services must – know the customer’s applications – know his problems and needs. – show a genuine interest in that the customer reaps the benefits he expected from the product he bought.