Definition(s):
According to ISO/IEC 9126-1, internal software quality “is the totality of characteristics of the software product from an internal view. Internal quality is measured and evaluated against the internal quality requirements. Details of software product quality can be improved during code implementation, reviewing and testing, but the fundamental nature of the software product quality represented by internal quality remains unchanged unless redesigned“.
Regarding the internal quality requirements, according to ISO/IEC 9126-1, such a requirements “specify the level of required quality from the internal view of the product. Internal quality requirements are used to specify properties of interim products. These can include static and dynamic models, other documents and source code. Internal quality requirements can be used as targets for validation at various stages of development. They can also be used for defining strategies of development and criteria for evaluation and verification during development. This may include the use of additional metrics.
In this sense, the ISO/IEC 25010, define internal measure of software quality as “the degree to which a set of static attributes of a software product satisfies stated and implied needs for the software product to be used under specified conditions.”
Source(s):
- ISO/IEC: ISO 25010 – Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) — System and software quality models. Standart ISO/IEC Fdis 25010:2011 (2011).
- ISO/IEC: ISO 9126-1: Software engineering-product quality-part 1: Quality model.” Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization 21 (2001).