Standards

As a first classification they are subdivided into process standards and product standards, even if a strong correlation between the two categories exist.

People are in general more concerned about process standards, mainly due to the economic and organizational impact of the ISO 9000 requirements for the certification of the company quality system.

Nevertheless, there is an increasing interest in the software community in standards for software product quality.

A key factor in the diffusion of the software product quality culture is the emergence of quality measures and acceptance testing rules established by large companies and group of users for example banks, public administrations, industries in aerospace, automotive, etc.

This phenomenon emphasizes the role of external laboratories conducting third part quality evaluation.