title: An empirical evaluation of software quality assurance practices and challenges in a developing country: a comparison of Nigeria and Turkey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The importance of quality assurance in the software development process cannot be overemphasized because its adoption results in high reliability and easy maintenance of the software system and other software products. Software quality assurance includes different activities such as quality control, quality management, quality standards, quality planning, process standardization and improvement amongst others. The aim of this work is to further investigate the software quality assurance practices of practitioners in Nigeria. While our previous work covered areas on quality planning, adherence to standardized processes and the inherent challenges, this work has been extended to include quality control, software process improvement and international quality standard organization membership. It also makes comparison based on a similar study carried out in Turkey. The goal is to generate more robust findings that can properly support decision making by the software community. The qualitative research approach, specifically, the use of questionnaire research instruments was applied to acquire data from software practitioners.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In addition to the previous results, it was observed that quality assurance practices are quite neglected and this can be the cause of low patronage. Moreover, software practitioners are neither aware of international standards organizations or the required process improvement techniques; as such their claimed standards are not aligned to those of accredited bodies, and are only limited to their local experience and knowledge, which makes it questionable. The comparison with Turkey also yielded similar findings, making the results typical of developing countries. The research instrument used was tested for internal consistency using the Cronbach's alpha, and it was proved reliable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the software industry in developing countries to grow strong and be a viable source of external revenue, software assurance practices have to be taken seriously because its effect is evident in the final product. Moreover, quality frameworks and tools which require minimum time and cost are highly needed in these countries.
authors.affiliation: Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Olaperi Yeside
authors.initials: OY
authors.lastname: Sowunmi
authors.affiliation: Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria ; Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3556-9331
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernandez-Sanz
authors.affiliation: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile.
authors.forename: Broderick
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soto
keywords: Software; Software quality; Software quality assurance; Software quality challenges