Industrial evaluation of the impact of quality-driven release planning

Context: Product release decisions are often made ad hoc or not relying on up-to-date information from systematic and analysis-driven process. Often, too much emphasis solely is put into functionality, thereby neglecting the different quality aspects being important for the success of the product. Objective: For a case study project, we quantitatively measure the impact of the analytical and systematic release planning approach Q-EVOLVE II. Method: As an explorative and retrospective case study, we perform optimized planning scenarios and compare them with the actual baseline scenario. Results: For the case study project in an Austrian public health insurance institution, we demonstrate that the analytical and systematic approach Q-EVOLVE II results in a (1) reduced release time, (2) more features implemented in the same time, and (3) better final quality through increased testing activities and less defects slipping through at the time of release. Conclusion: In the context of the studied institution, analytical and systematic planning of product releases considering quality criteria is superior to ad hoc planning ignoring quality.