4Why Quality Pays

As described in Chapter 1, quality must come first, even before the schedule. In the subsequent chapters, we have discussed some examples of poor software management. These stories all had an underlying quality theme. Testing was expensive and took a lot of time, the finished products were often highly defective, and the plans and data needed to be accurate and precise. These issues all concern quality.

Software quality is a growing problem and, based on current trends, these quality problems will only get worse—at least until executives start demanding quality software. There are three reasons to insist that software quality be measured and managed:

1. Poor-quality software can cause major property damage and even kill people. ...

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