About the Books
What is Software Quality?
The foundation and exploration of software quality
What is Software Quality? explores the fundamental nature of software and software quality itself. It starts from first principles: what software actually is, why software differs from hardware, how complexity emerges, and why traditional quality thinking often falls short.
The book examines software quality as a systemic phenomenon rather than merely a property of the final product. It explores topics such as:
- software architecture and decomposition,
- complexity and execution paths,
- design versus implementation,
- configuration management,
- organizational influence on quality,
- and the limitations of conventional quality models and process frameworks.
Within this broader exploration, the foundations of the 1+3 Software Quality Model (1+3 SQM) are introduced. The book develops the central insight that software quality is not created by testing or compliance alone, but emerges from the organizational and technical system that produces the software.
In essence, this book asks:
What is software quality, where does it come from, and why do organizations struggle to achieve it consistently?
It is both a conceptual exploration and a deep systems-oriented analysis of software quality.
What is Software Quality? 1st Edition was published in 2021, The Extended Edition was published in 2023.
The 1+3 Software Quality Model
The evolution of the model introduced in What is Software Quality?
The 1+3 Software Quality Model builds directly upon the ideas and foundations introduced in What is Software Quality? and further develops them into a structured and operational framework.
The book formalizes the distinction between:
- Organizational Quality — the enabling system,
- and the resulting qualities:
- Design Quality,
- Code Quality,
- Product Quality.
It expands the model into a practical framework for:
- diagnosing systemic quality problems,
- understanding organizational influence on technical outcomes,
- measuring quality domains,
- identifying failure modes,
- and creating continuous improvement cycles.
Where the earlier book primarily explores and explains the nature of software quality, this book focuses on:
- operationalizing the model,
- applying it in organizations,
- and using it as a diagnostic and measurement framework.
The central idea is simple but powerful:
Software quality does not originate in the product itself. It emerges from the system that creates it.
The book is intended for leaders, architects, quality managers, and engineering organizations seeking a more complete and systemic understanding of software quality.
The 1+3 Software Quality Model book was published in 2026.
Relationship Between the Two Books
The two books are not separate theories or competing perspectives.
They form a connected body of work:
- What is Software Quality? lays the conceptual and philosophical foundation.
- The 1+3 Software Quality Model evolves those ideas into a structured, actionable framework.
Or simply put:
- the first book explores the question,
- the second book develops the model that emerged from answering it.