Role of software product customer in the bring your own device (BYOD) trend: Empirical observations on software quality construction

Abstract

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, allows employees to bring personal devices of their choice into the work environment. Since quality goals vary between employees and the organization where they work, it is difficult for software developers to deliver quality product that will satisfy both parties at the same time. This study presents seven findings: First, visible features of the software and functional requirements supersede nonfunctional (quality) characteristics when dealing with customer requirements; second, quality depends more on the market decision than standards’ requirements; third, companies focus on ‘just enough quality’ and not on ‘high quality’ products; fourth, software quality has a dimension of cost; fifth, organizations try to alleviate threats brought by employees’ device or software through policies (quality aspect of policy); sixth, simplicity and attractiveness of devices sell poor quality software; and seventh, the number of product features does not affect the sense of quality, but quality characteristics do. These findings identify the role of software customers in deciding about the quality of products and the impact in the BYOD. Software is developed according to end-user requirements, and the end-user has the freedom to choose devices, applications software, and place to use the devices including working environment, where the software may cause risk to the company.