Back to Basics - Redefining Quality Measurement for Hybrid Software Development Organizations

As the software industry transitions from a license-based model to a subscription-based Software-as-aService (SaaS) model, many software development groups are using a hybrid development model that incorporates Agile and Waterfall methodologies in different parts of the organization. The traditional metrics used for measuring software quality in Waterfall or Agile paradigms do not apply to this new hybrid methodology. In addition, to respond to higher quality demands from customers and to gain a competitive advantage in the market, many companies are starting to prioritize quality as a strategic differentiator. As a result, quality metrics are included in the decision-making activities all the way up to the executive level, including Board of Director reviews. This paper presents key challenges associated with measuring software quality in organizations using the hybrid development model. We developed a framework called PIER (Prevention-InspectionEvaluation-Removal) to provide a comprehensive metric definition for hybrid organizations. The framework includes quality measurements, quality enforcement, and quality decision points at different organizational levels and project milestones during the software development life cycle (SDLC). The metrics framework defined in this paper is being used for all Cisco Systems products used in customer premises. Preliminary field metrics data for one of the product groups show quality improvement after implementation of the proposed measurement system.