Title :

What Is Good Software?

Category: Software



Bad software is easily defined. It is hard to use, difficult to install, frequently generates errors and is challenging to upgrade. The greater challenge is defining what good software is.

You can like it, love it or hate it. However, good should be a measure of something’s quality relative to a set of standards. Satisfactory is when something meets a set of measurable thresholds. Good is when it exceeds those thresholds in at least one area. But how do you define good software? What factors define good software, and how can you clearly measure software quality?

Accuracy

How often will the system generate a purchase order with the right number of parts and overage along with the correct price? When the location of an item in the database is queried, how often is the system correct? Is its inventory total correct, ignoring possible shoplifting? Does it give correct information for a patient or consumer when pulled, or does it ever mix up records? If so, how often is it wrong?

Availability

What percentage of the time will the software be available? Can people get locked out due to license restrictions, cloud server access problems or some other reason? Availability is measured by its uptime or the percentage of time it is accessible. Availability is one of the easiest IT metrics to determine. People notice when they can’t log in and readily report this information. In contrast, unauthorized alterations of records or support requirements may not be as easily determined or even documented.

Data Integrity

How often are records altered by someone who should not have access to it? How often are records input by those who should not? How often do data spills occur? Data integrity has a strong correlation to IT security, but IT security has its own metrics. I recommend reviewing ISO 27000 IT security standards for that particular area. You can measure the data integrity by the number of tickets caused by someone altering records they should not have or the number of data spills that occur in a given time period. Good software maintains the integrity of its data from unauthorized access or alteration.

Maintainability

How many patches do you have to install each year? How much downtime is required for maintenance, security patches and upgrades?
How often is it necessary to reinstall patches or restore from backups? How often are major fixes necessary to the database or the application?
Maintainability is measurable in the amount of time it takes to maintain the application. This may be hours of downtime per year for maintenance, the number of maintenance actions taken per year or a combination of similar metrics. The best software applications require a minimum of time to maintain.

Performance

How quickly does the system retrieve data when queried? How many queries can it handle at a given time? How many user requests or transactions are delayed, either as a number or percentage of the total? Good software delivers data nearly instantly, without making users wait for data searches or system resources.
How long does it take to back up data? How long does it take to upload a drawing or create a new patient record to replace an obsolete record? Good software will require little time to update or restore.