Identifying relevant product quality characteristics in the context of very small organizations

Software process improvement models have been developed to support very small organizations in achieving the software quality expected by their customers. Software quality, however, allows to be studied from process and product perspectives. The aim of this work is to attain insights into the extent to which the product quality view is addressed in very small organizations. A mapping method was therefore applied in order to identify whether the product quality characteristics described in ISO/IEC 25010 are included in the ISO/IEC 29110 basic profile, a process model targeted towards very small organizations. In addition, an empirical study was conducted to discover the quality characteristics that practitioners at very small organizations consider relevant. As a result, it was found that practices in ISO/IEC 29110 are consistent as regards functional correctness quality subcharacteristic, although practitioners are also considering additional product quality characteristics.