Workshop description of 4th workshop on software quality (WOSQ)

Cost, schedule and quality are highly correlated factors in software development. They basically form three sides of the same triangle. Beyond a certain point (the "Quality is Free" point), it is difficult to increase the quality without increasing either cost or schedule or both for the software under development. As products and applications mature, users expect higher quality products. They want IT organizations to be responsible and accountable for the quality claims made by the product marketing teams. In the last couple decades, much software engineering research has focussed on standards, methodologies and techniques for improving software quality, measuring software quality and software quality assurance. Most of this research is focused on the internal/development view of quality. More recent studies done in conjunction with the marketing groups have made attempts to understand the customer view of quality. All of these different ongoing activities to understand quality from the various perspectives have made the field even more enriching and exciting. The Fourth Workshop on Software Quality aims to bring together academic, industrial and commercial communities interested in software quality topics to discuss the different technologies being defined and used in the software quality area.