Cost-Optimisation of Analytical Software Quality Assurance

Analytical software quality assurance (SQA) constitutes with about 50% a significant part of the total development costs of a software system. Hence, it is a promising area for cost-optimisation. Various defect-detection techniques can be used to improve the quality of software. The main question is how to use those different techniques in a cost-optimal way. However, the costs and benefits of SQA and the interrelationships of the influencing factors are still not completely understood. This book presents an analytical and stochastic model of the economics of analytical SQA. The model can be used to analyse different techniques theoretically and to optimise the SQA in a company using historical project data. Case studies were done in various domains and evaluating different techniques in different phases. All these case studies provided valuable feedback on the model and also contributed to the body of knowledge on the efficiency of the techniques. The book is aimed at researchers and practitioners in software quality manage-ment.