A comparison of software quality characteristics and software sustainability characteristics

Software sustainability has generated much interest in the software engineering field in recent times, and has been widely investigated across different fields and from different standpoints. The relationship between software quality and software sustainability is still an open question. In this study, a literature survey and comparison was conducted using three-phases, having as a starting point the comparison of basic models for software quality. A follow-up study, conducted at a more comprehensive level to cover both basic models and the most cited tailored models., Software sustainability literature is investigated to find the most frequent characteristics. Finally, data gathered from these studies and a comparison shows a similarity in the top level of these characteristics between software sustainability and software quality, and the emphasis on sustainability, maintainability and portability. The study suggests that ISO 25010 can be utilised by software sustainability. As a future work, the findings will be investigated empirically to support designing software sustainability framework identifying the most important criteria in the technical dimension.