Organizational issues underlie technical software quality: a call for research. Introduction to the software quality minitrack

Based upon research and extensive work with practitioner teams seeking to advance their software quality, the author has come to believe that organizational issues are the main determinant for enabling or disabling progress toward software quality and that they underlie successful application of technical quality techniques. To address this belief, an extensive instrument was designed to assess organizational health with regard to change issues, team-related issues, job-related issues and organizational environment issues. This instrument was used to assess over 100 software-related teams. As a result of this research, the author recommends an approach to software quality comprised of synergy between organizational health, process maturity and use of software quality techniques. A basis for organizational development interventions to improve software quality is suggested.<>