The AENOR magazine Nº 288 (December 2013) includes an article about software product quality evaluation conforming to ISO/IEC 25000 and the experience of the three companies, Bitware, Enxenio and Sicaman, which participated in the pilot project for certification carried out during 2013 by AENOR and AQC Lab.
As indicated in the article, AENOR has included software product quality certification based on ISO/IEC 25000 as part of its "Governance and Management Model for ICT based on ISO standards". Initially, this certification is focused on one of the quality characteristics, maintainability, but the certification scope will be soon expanded to incorporate other characteristics defined in ISO/IEC 25000.
The software product quality evaluations on which AENOR bases the certification are carried out by AQC Lab, first laboratory in Spain to be accredited by the National Accreditation Body ENAC for the evaluation of software product quality under ISO/IEC 25000, focusing on maintainability. Thus, AENOR evaluates the laboratory report regarding the quality of the software product in question, and if the evaluation result is satisfactory, it checks the viability of the resources and technical capabilities of the company that created the product software. If this final step of the process is overcome, AENOR issues a certificate of conformity to ISO/IEC 25000.
During 2013, AENOR and AQC Lab carried out a pilot project for the evaluation and certification of software products according to the process described above. This pilot project focused on maintainability, and involved three Spanish software development companies, Bitware, Enxenio and Sicaman, who selected one of their products and underwent the certification process.
The pilot project gained wide acceptance among the participating companies. Some of the benefits that the companies reported after the certification of their software products were the immprovement in their production and maintenance cost savings of approximately 40%.
Note: The lin to the digital version of the magazine is only available during January (until the next issue is out). The article can also be viewed in the PDF version of the magazine (pages 30 to 35).