Can Speed and Quality Coexist in the SDLC?

there is undeniably a trend today towards optimizing software application development and delivery processes. whether the adopted initiative is termed agile, devops, continuous delivery, bimodal, or something else, the underlying impetus for change is the same: the business wants to differentiate itself with innovative software that bonds customers with the company, its products, and its services.

for years, software development organizations struggling to negotiate the classic time-scope-quality triangle have made tradeoffs that shortchanged quality. however, now that software has increasingly become the interface to the business, delivering innovative, top-quality software at speed (quality@speed) is imperative.

to explore how the evolution of the sdlc is impacting software quality, parasoft recently conducted a survey asking software development professionals a series of questions about their team's development process and how they define and measure both functional and non-functional requirements (nfrs).

whereas functional requirements define what the system should do, nfrs describe how the overall system should behave. nfrs can include application resiliency, accessibility, availability, reliability, and testability—to name just a few.

for an overview of what we found, see this infographic...

or, watch this brief video:

for a deeper dive into this study, download the complete 14-page "how teams measure non-functional requirements" report . in addition to providing detailed results and findings, the report explores:

• why measuring nfrs is critical for devops and continuous delivery
• the 3 major impacts that agile has on software testers
• architects' real influence on nfrs
• what needs to change as agile teams adopt devops