Quality metrics for information systems

The work discussed here attempts to identify the practical quality metrics for Information Systems. It explores how the quality metrics are evaluated to analyse the performance of Information Systems. The experimental analysis is validated by means of user satisfaction survey. First, the key quality characteristics are determined from the ISO model of the system and/or from the results of a user survey. These metrics are then computed and the values are compared with the results from a user satisfaction survey. Correlation analysis for the rankings from the experiment of quality metrics and the user satisfaction survey is carried out. Based on the values of the quality metrics, the quality characteristics are ranked. Several hypotheses are tested to check the correlation between the ranking of specific quality metrics and ranking of specific quality characteristics and ranking of overall user satisfaction. The functional requirements of the systems to achieve the quality characteristics are then identified and their strengths of association with the key quality characteristics are determined using quality houses of Quality Function Deployment. Using QFD, the system is redesigned to achieve higher performance in terms of higher values of the quality metrics.