Software (Evaluation)

 What Software Evaluation Is

It is the standardized process for assessing the quality level of a software program. It is an inherently difficult task to carry out because the assessor has to walk the fine line between his or her subjective views derived from the actual test of the software’s functionalities and his or her professional objectivity.

The Approach

Two very broad approaches are used in software evaluation.

1. The criteria-based approach

In the criteria-based approach, you assess the software against a checklist of sustainability, maintainability and usability goals. Done right, this approach will help identify and document the various modules of the operating systems that ought to be improved on.

2. The tutorial-based approach

The tutorial-based approach works by assessing the SW from a user’s perspective. The assessor must perform a complete walkthrough of all of the software’s modules, testing its functionalities along the way. The assessor then documents his or her experience. Done right, this approach helps create valuable insights into possible barriers, mostly of a technical nature, a user will experience when using the operating system.

Software Evaluation Mutating in Different Forms

Softwares come in different forms. They could be binary or source codes requiring that the user builds before using. Even an online website qualifies to be called an SW.

And then there are other digital assets which are not softwares per se, but nevertheless, still, need to be tested as such. Examples of these digital assets abound, for example, project-centric websites, online user documentation, several different types of forums that exist online and even everyday blogs like this technology blog that focuses on the use of VPN services in online marketing.

Who benefits from software evaluation?

Every one!     

• Product development teams are able to get first-hand opinions of the effectiveness or otherwise of the SW they’ve taken time to build;
• Product testing teams get to try out the effectiveness of the latest evaluation          approaches, so they can see where the lapses are in any approach they use;
• IT Managers get a 360-degree view of the effectiveness of the various teams they are administering as the operating system project unravels;
• The end user gets a well-built, well-tested and bug-free SW to use.

Reference list: Wonderful Engineering. 2022. A Beginner’s Guide To Software Evaluation. [online] Available at: <https://wonderfulengineering.com/a-beginners-guide-to-software-evaluation/#:~:text=What%20Software%20Evaluation%20Is%20It%20is%20the%20standardized,software%E2%80%99s%20functionalities%20and%20his%20or%20her%20professional%20objectivity.> [Accessed 8 June 2022].