Project Quality

Software project quality is the underlying attribute to fulfill the project requirements and it is an integral part of the project objectives and deliverables at a minimal cost. The Cost of Quality plays a vital role in project quality management which is the cost of not creating a quality software product or service. The Cost of Quality includes Prevention costs, Appraisal costs, Internal and External failure costs that get applied to any project management activity.

Cost of Quality

The understanding of Cost of Quality helps organizations to develop quality conformance as a business strategy and helps to improve their products or services to gain the customer’s loyalty. It includes the additional costs associated with assuring that the product delivered meets the quality goals.  The total cost of the project includes the cost incurred to develop the project and the Cost of Quality. Software Project management faces universal challenges of high customer expectations, changing customer requirements, low budget and short duration on delivery. These expectations can be achieved only by adhering to the quality standards and by planning for Cost of Quality. According to Crosby, quality is “doing it right the first time”. It means the cost of project is reduced on doing the software products right the first time that could be achieved by managing Cost of Quality.

Prevention Cost

Don’t we say “Prevention is better than cure”? Yes it is applies to quality as well. The costs that are spent to minimize the failure costs are called prevention costs. List of below activities carried out in testing are under the prevention cost category,

  • Training on testing techniques
  • Deriving the testing estimation
  • Testing plan, testing architecture document
  • Proposals for test automation
  • Automation Frameworks

Appraisal Cost

The focus area of our entire ambit of activities falls under this category as it constitutes all costs that undergo testing and inspection of products. Appraisal activities are more important that helps defects not happening again that ensures reliability. The activities involved are:

  • Testing tools
  • Internal reviews on testing activities
  • Internal and External audits

Internal Failure Costs

Costs that are associated with non-conformance to the customer requirements found before the release date is called Internal Failure costs.  The activities considered here are:

  • Retesting
  • Rework
  • Wrong Estimations

External Failure Costs

The costs that are associated with non-conformance to the customer requirements found after the release is called External Failure costs. External failure cost factors are:

  • Penalty
  • Fixes to customer complaints
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