Discovering software process and product quality criteria in software as a service

Abstract

SaaS (Software as a Service) has become one of the fastest-growing innovative fields of the IT sector. Yet, as any other software intensive organizations, SaaS providers also need to deliver the service quality they offer. And, although, today exist a multitude of software quality models, so far, a specific adaptation does not exist to the SaaS context. Therefore, we present the results of our research on discovering software process and product quality criteria in the SaaS scenario. We adopted a research methodology, including, domain analysis, stakeholders interviews and literature review to elicit quality criteria and a survey to validate and prioritize the identified criteria. Such a set of identified quality criteria may help service clients to select providers as well as serve as a basis for a mapping relevant software process areas and best practices in order to adapt existing capability/maturity models and standards to this specific domain. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.