ASSESSMENT OF SOFTWARE QUALITY IN AGILE PRACTICES

Abstract

The importance of software applications in organisations and society at large is well established, especially in the post Covid-19 period where IT systems plays an important role in the online mode of business operations and interaction with consumers that is being adopted across the board. Organisations use software applications for many purposes, including to generate revenues by increasing productivity and most importantly ensuring customer satisfaction. Society uses software applications to among others, enhance their day-to-day activities. Some of these software applications are used in life threatening situations, thus raising the need of building quality within these software applications throughout the development processes. The aim of this study is to assess the quality practices used in agile development methodology and how these are applied and measured to ensure that the final product meet the required quality. A quantitative approach was adopted for this research coupled with online survey design using google forms. The results of the study reveals that while some quality testing techniques and metrics are used in agile projects, majority of organisations do not follow a specific quality standard against which their practices are benchmarked. A set of factors are identified as major stumbling blocks that affect quality practices in these environments where emphasise is made on flexibility and fast delivery. Looking at testing component of Agile methodology, the TDD approach is mostly being used which allows testing to start from development by use of unit testing. In fact test packs are being prepare together with requirements analysis so that it will be easier for developer to develop unit tests. Even though the sprint cycle is very short but the use of automated testing ensures quality of software in term of functionality, usability and operability. Copyright © 2021 by Naudé Scribante. Permission granted to IAMOT to publish and use.