Framework for Observing the Maintenance Needs, Runtime Metrics and the Overall Quality-in-Use

Abstract

The post-release maintenance is usually the most expensive phase in the soft-ware product lifecycle from the first design concepts to the end of product support. To reduce the costs related to post-release maintenance, we propose a run-time framework for measuring software quality characteristics applying the ISO/IEC 25000 software quality and software quality in use models as the starting point. Measurement probes are linked into the software during the development phase and used to collect quality information during the run time. As a proof-of-concept, we implemented measurements in an open-source software project to demonstrate the utility of the framework. As a result, this paper presents a framework for collecting runtime metrics and measuring software quality-in-use with a systematic interface. Additionally, examples of measurement scenarios are presented.