Modelling revisions of users’ perception of software quality

Surveys measuring users’ opinion of software quality serve not only as indications of users’ satisfaction with a software product, but they also permit a more sophisticated degree of analysis required by organisations with higher levels of quality maturity. However, in surveys, some difficulties arise related to the quality of data, the high cost of conducting the survey and the usual revisions of the customers’ opinion of the product until these define themselves sufficiently. This paper presents a method for modelling users’ perception of software quality using aspects of Belief Revision theory. The proposed model offers a way of predicting the opinion subsequently formed after their opinion revisions using the initial measurements. Furthermore, as users – especially inexperienced ones – may perceive a correlation between software quality characteristics, the model also fosters the outlining of this perception.