Abstract

Although usability has received widespread attention within the software engineering community, there are few agreed software quality models that capture our current meaning of usability. The Human Computer Interaction community has also developed different models for specifying or measuring usability. However, PCI models are not well integrated within the software engineering models. Another problem with those models is the lack of tools that makes them hard to use and apply. These limitations are the main motivations for our Quality in Use Integrated Model (QUIM). In this thesis, the similarities and differences of Various standards and models for defining usability, specifying, measuring or predicting quality in use are reviewed, and a comparison between the software engineering approaches and the HCI standards is committed. Then, we describe the rationale and foundations of QUIM, an integrated framework that aims to integrate these diverse models while supporting the main activities related to quality in use during the software lifecycle, including specification, testing, measurement and improvement