Does Context Matter? Assessing the Current State of Quality Practice During Software Development in Small Software Companies

Abstract

Software is increasingly becoming central to human activities leading to rapid growth and evolution in the industry but with a compromise in quality. Contextual complexity in the small software companies brings in challenges that make quality hard to achieve. Total quality management provides an opportunity for adaptive approaches to ensure quality through the four pillars we stem out of the TQM theory. This study explores to assess the state of current quality practice in software development in small software companies to propose mechanisms that will address quality in terms of the units of analysis and related attributes by interviewing 12 practitioners in Gaborone Botswana whose findings show a low understanding and use of quality measures in practice.