Resumen
In this article, authors focus on investments in software quality improvements considering the explosive growth of the software industry in recent years. According to authors, to remain competitive, software firms must deliver high quality products on time, but it is equally important to consider their budget. Experiences in manufacturing relating to the cost and return of quality improvements suggest that there are diminishing returns to quality expenditures. Therefore the key management problem is how to make profitable decisions on quality expenditures. This article focuses on evaluating the cost of quality and return on quality from the perspective of software development. The cost of quality are divided into two major types: conformance and nonconformance. The cost of conformance is the amount spent to achieve quality products. It is further divided into costs of prevention and appraisal. The cost of nonconformance includes all expenses that are incurred when things go wrong. Effective strategies of reducing the costs of software quality are discussed in the article.