Software quality, non-functional software requirements and IT-business alignment

‘High quality’ might seem an obvious requirement for any piece of software, but do the different stakeholder groups involved in its production and use conceptualize this requirement in the same way? Many existing models refine the broad concept of quality into a number of well-defined and measurable attributes related to the software product itself and the development process which produced it. But despite growing awareness of the importance of achieving cultural alignment between holders of different business and IT groups, little attempt has been made to empirically examine the requirements for software quality held by different groups involved in the development process. We conducted a survey of more than 300 current and recently graduated students of one of the leading Executive MBA programs in the United States, asking them to rate the importance of each of 13 widely-cited attributes related to software quality. The results showed business role-related differences in some specific areas and agreement in many others. The results suggest that a strong shared culture may be able to bridge the gulf created between holders of IT and business stakeholder roles.