Ger Cloudt What is Software Quality?: Understanding what really matters in software development.

Software is becoming increasingly important in our lives. Just cast your glance everywhere where software is available and you will conclude that software runs the world.A proper look at your close environment will convince you that software is ubiquitous. Your smartphone is run by software, your computer is run by software, your vacuum cleaner is run by software, your television is run by software, your car is run by software. Can you imagine any device that is not influenced by software in some shape and form?Then, if you have a look at society, you will conclude that even more is run by software. Financial systems are run by software, the internet is run by software, public transportation is run by software, air traffic control is run by software. Let's face it, software runs the world. Imagine a world that is bereft of software and you will struggle to make sense of the world we live in.On August 20, 2011, The Wall Street Journal published an article of Marc Andreessen titled "Why software is eating the world". In this article, Andreessen describes the growing importance of software worldwide, to the point of changing business models and destroying complete industries. The influence of software on our businesses is, to put it mildly, huge!Due to this increasing influence of software, companies are starting to realize that digitalization is not only a fact, but also a necessity. Companies need to transform into software companies and upscale their investment into software. For its irrefutably prominent role in all aspects of our lives, the quality of software is paramountWhen reading books and articles about quality assurance in software, I often get the impression that quality in software is only about testing. Well, in my humble opinion, it is not; software quality is much more than testing. Testing is a necessity because we are not able to produce error-free software. This book provides a holistic view on software quality. In addition to addressing testing to achieve quality, it also looks into internal software quality and even what enables quality. This book aims to give an overall picture on what matters in software development and why, without going into the pedantic details, which are described much better in other books, like the ones mentioned in the bibliography.