Overview
ISO/IEC 25021:2012 - part of the SQuaRE (Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation) series - specifies the concept, format and examples of Quality Measure Elements (QME). A QME is a measure defined by a property of a target entity (artifact, component, behaviour) together with a measurement method to quantify that property, optionally including a mathematical transformation. ISO/IEC 25021:2012 provides guidance and an initial set of QMEs to be used throughout the system and software product life cycle for consistent quality measurement.
Key topics and requirements
- Definition of QME: A QME links a property-to-quantify with a measurement method and, optionally, a transformation function.
- Measurement model: QMEs are inputs for a measurement function that composes two or more QMEs into a derived quality measure (QM) to indicate product quality characteristics or subcharacteristics.
- Table format and conformance: When defining or modifying QMEs, each QME must be described using the information items and table format specified in the standard (see Clause 6.2). This ensures consistent specification and traceability.
- Guidance and examples: Informative annexes provide an initial set of QME examples, a guide for designing QMEs, additional examples and a discussion of measurement scale types.
- Linkage with measurement processes: The standard references measurement process and terminology standards (ISO/IEC 15939, ISO/IEC Guide 99) and the SQuaRE measurement reference model (ISO/IEC 25020).
Practical applications
- Defining quality requirements: Use QMEs to create measurable quality requirements for systems, software products and data.
- Designing metrics and measures: Metric designers and measurement engineers use QMEs as building blocks to derive internal, external and quality-in-use measures (via measurement functions).
- Product evaluation and certification: Acquirers, evaluators and QA teams adopt standardized QMEs to perform reproducible evaluations and to compare products consistently.
- Tooling and automation: QMEs guide the selection and specification of automated measurement procedures, data collection rules and reporting formats.
Who should use this standard
- Software and systems developers, quality managers, measurement engineers, acquirers, independent evaluators, and test teams responsible for defining, implementing or using quality measures across the product life cycle.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO/IEC 25021:2012, SQuaRE, Quality Measure Elements, QME, quality measures, measurement method, ISO/IEC 25022, ISO/IEC 25023, ISO/IEC 25024, software quality, systems engineering.
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