Edumilis Maria Méndez

APPLICABILITY OF ISO/IEC 9126 FOR THE SELECTION OF FLOSS TOOLS

The trend towards the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) tools is impacting not only how we work and how productivity can be improved when it comes to developing software, but is also promoting new work schemes and business models, specifically small and medium-size enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to present the applicability of ISO/IEC 9126 for the selection of FLOSS Tools associated with three relevant software development disciplines, such as Analysis and Design, Business Models and Software Testing. The categories considered for the evaluation of these three types of tools are Functionality, Maintainability and Usability. From the results obtained from this research-in-progress, we have been able to determine that these three categories are the most relevant and suitable to evaluate FLOSS tools, thus pushing to the background all aspects associated with Portability, Efficiency and Reliability. Our long-term purpose is to refine quality models for other types of FLOSS tools.