Measuring quality: a cornerstone of theory in software engineering

In any engineering domain, a detailed understanding of what constitutes a 'good' product is vital for the development of theories that are both general and useful. However, software engineering researchers' understanding of desirable product qualities is not yet fuUy mature, especiaUy for continuously-evolving software systems. Inspired by two historical examples, this paper calls for a discipline-wide effort to precisely define the attributes and variables of software product quality in a measurable way. We expect this effort will lead to two major contributions. Firstly, the defined attributes and variables should act as units in any general theory of software engineering. Secondly, once instruments to measure these attributes and variables are developed, systematic largescale empirical studies of software product quality will become much easier, eventually yielding a rich corpus of data which should prove fertile for further theory building.