Linking Cyclicality and Product Quality

Linking Cyclicality and Product Quality

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Article ID: iaor20133833
Volume: 15
Issue: 3
Start Page Number: 473
End Page Number: 491
Publication Date: Jun 2013
Journal: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
Authors: , ,
Keywords: software reliability
Abstract:

This paper examines the impact of architectural decisions on the level of defects in a product. We view products as collections of components linked together to work as an integrated whole. Previous work has established modularity (how decoupled a component is from other product components) as a critical determinant of defects, and we confirm its importance. Yet our study also provides empirical evidence for a relationship between product quality and cyclicality (the extent to which a component depends on itself via other product components). We find cyclicality to be a determinant of quality that is distinct from, and no less important than, modularity. Extending this main result, we show how the cyclicality–quality relationship is affected by the centrality of a component in a cycle and the distribution of a cycle across product modules. These findings, which are based on an analysis of open source software development projects, have implications for the study and design of complex systems.

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