Preface Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T). This Standard replaces CAN/CSA-ISO/EIC 9126-1-02 (adopted ISO/IEC 9126-1:2001). At the time of publication, ISO/IEC 25010:2011 is available from ISO and IEC in English only. CSA will publish the French version when it becomes available from ISO and IEC. Scope This International Standard defines: A quality in use model composed of five characteristics (some of which are further subdivided into subcharacteristics) that relate to the outcome of interaction when a product is used in a particular context of use. This system model is applicable to the complete human-computer system, including both computer systems in use and software products in use. A product quality model composed of eight characteristics (which are further subdivided into subcharacteristics) that relate to static properties of software and dynamic properties of the computer system. The model is applicable to both computer systems and software products. The characteristics defined by both models are relevant to all software products and computer systems. The characteristics and subcharacteristics provide consistent terminology for specifying, measuring and evaluating system and software product quality. They also provide a set of quality characteristics against which stated quality requirements can be compared for completeness. NOTE : Although the scope of the product quality model is intended to be software and computer systems, many of the characteristics are also relevant to wider systems and services. ISO/IEC 25012 contains a model for data quality that is complementary to this model. The scope of the models excludes purely functional properties (see C.6), but it does include functional suitability (see 4.2.1). The scope of application of the quality models includes supporting specification and evaluation of software and software-intensive computer systems from different perspectives by those associated with their acquisition, requirements, development, use, evaluation, support, maintenance, quality assurance and control, and audit. The models can, for example, be used by developers, acquirers, quality assurance and control staff and independent evaluators, particularly those responsible for specifying and evaluating software product quality. Activities during product development that can benefit from the use of the quality models include: identifying software and system requirements validating the comprehensiveness of a requirements definition identifying software and system design objectives identifying software and system testing objectives identifying quality control criteria as part of quality assurance identifying acceptance criteria for a software product and/or software-intensive computer system establishing measures of quality characteristics in support of these activities