Product and process: a complex relationship in software engineering

At present, Information Technology (IT) is an industry characterized by rapid innovation and intense competition. Consequently, software organizations must be prepared to develop products that meet the required quality at low cost and in less time. Currently, these conditions involve to organizations than try to take best practices and quality characteristics for all processes, since according Fuggetta "the quality of a software product heavily depends on the people, organization, and procedures used to create and deliver it" (2008, p. 28). That is, product quality developed by an organization, necessarily depends on the quality of the process used to achieve it. In this vein, is possible to think that the software processes should support or facilitate the achievement of the quality characteristics, which comply with standards on required quality of developed software products. In this sense, this paper presents an analysis of the importance of the integration of product quality characteristics in the processes used to obtain it. Likewise, it presents possible solutions for responding in the best way possible to needs as software engineering emerge.