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Perspectives On Software Quality

February 3, 2026

The quality of software, or any product, can be viewed from different perspectives. This is because there are usually multiple stakeholders, each bringing their own unique views and interests to the table.

Some of these perspectives include:

  • The quality of a product as experienced by customers.
  • The quality of a product as perceived by the user, which can be highly subjective and personal.
  • The quality of the process used to build the product, which is particularly important to members of a software team.

A common issue in software organisations is the tendency to prioritize one specific perspective over other quality perspectives. For example, when customer or user quality is considered more important than process quality. However, this is a fallacy. Although these quality perspectives are often represented by different people, they are inextricably intertwined and each cannot stand on its own.

Focusing solely on customer or user quality while neglecting process quality can lead to a deteriorating codebase, making it difficult or impossible to add new features. Conversely, prioritizing only process quality, while neglecting customer or user quality, may result in a technically impressive product that fails to attract users and ultimately serves no purpose.

Organisations that empower their software teams to invest equally in all quality perspectives will outperform all others who choose not to apply this balance.

If you and your team want to learn more about how to write maintainable unit tests and get the most out of TDD practices, make sure to have look at my trainings and workshops or check out the books section. Feel free to reach out at infonull@nullprincipal-itnull.be.

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Jan Van Ryswyck

Thank you for visiting my blog. I’m a professional software developer since Y2K. A blogger since Y2K+5. Provider of training and coaching in XP practices. Curator of the Awesome Talks list. Past organizer of the European Virtual ALT.NET meetings. Thinking and learning about all kinds of technologies since forever.

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The opinions expressed on this blog are my own personal opinions. These do NOT represent anyone else’s view on the world in any way whatsoever.

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Thank you for visiting my website. I’m a professional software developer since Y2K. A blogger since Y2K+5. Author of Writing Maintainable Unit Tests. Provider of training and coaching in XP practices. Curator of the Awesome Talks list. Thinking and learning about all kinds of technologies since forever.

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