Total quality in software development: An empirical study of quality drivers and benefits in Indian software projects

Building upon the software quality and productivity literature, we proposed a construct of development quality as the key determinant of software development productivity and product quality. We validated the model by analyzing software project data collected from a benchmarking consortium in India. Our empirical results showed that an increase in development quality was positively associated with increases in both, development productivity and product quality, while we controlled for the impact of other productivity and quality factors. Our work highlighted the importance of concentrating on quality efforts during the development process, which is consistent with the use of Total Quality principles in manufacturing. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.