ISO/IEC 25023:2016 PDF

Overview

ISO/IEC 25023:2016 is part of the SQuaRE (Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation) family and defines a core set of quality measures for system and software product quality. The standard maps quantitative measures to the characteristics and subcharacteristics in ISO/IEC 25010 and explains how to apply those measures to specify requirements, perform evaluations, and support quality assurance and improvement throughout the software lifecycle.

Key topics

• Quality measurement scope: Measures cover product-quality characteristics such as functional suitability, performance efficiency, compatibility, usability, reliability, security, maintainability and portability (see ISO/IEC 25010 for model details).
• Measurement concepts and approach: Guidance on measurement concepts, measurement types and an approach to selecting and applying measures (see Clause 6).
• Quality measure format: A documented format for specifying measures and associated measurement functions (Clause 7).
• Catalog of product measures: A basic set of quality measures for each characteristic and subcharacteristic (Clause 8). Examples include measures for time behaviour, resource utilization, interoperability, learnability, availability, integrity, modularity, testability, installability, etc.
• Informative annexes:
  • Annex A: Considerations for using quality measures.
  • Annex B: Quality Measure Elements (QMEs) used to define measures.
  • Annex C: Detailed explanation of measurement types.
• Design principle: The standard presents measures without assigning fixed value ranges or rating grades - thresholds depend on system type, integrity level and user needs (e.g., human cognitive constraints may impose generic desirable ranges).

Practical applications

ISO/IEC 25023 is designed to be practical and actionable for:

• Developers - to specify measurable quality requirements during requirements analysis, design, implementation and testing.
• Quality managers and evaluators - to perform quality assurance, quality control, certification and systematic evaluation of product quality.
• Acquirers and suppliers - to define contract criteria, validate quality during qualification tests, and perform acceptance testing in procurement.
• Maintainers - to measure and guide improvements during maintenance and evolution.

Use cases include setting objective product-quality KPIs, constructing test and acceptance criteria, benchmarking, and guiding continuous improvement programs.

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 25010 - Product quality model (required companion).
• ISO/IEC 25020–25024 - Measurement reference, QMEs, quality in use, and data quality.
• ISO/IEC 2503n - Quality requirements.
• ISO/IEC 2504n - Quality evaluation and evaluation modules.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 25023, SQuaRE, software quality measurement, product quality measures, ISO/IEC 25010, quality assurance, QMEs, measurement functions.