On the use of graphical techniques to describe profiles and quality

Abstract

The measurement, presentation and communication of an overall measure of quality is a difficult problem. The authors have encountered this problem in the area of computer software quality, but the methods described may be applied in other contexts. The use of circular graphical techniques in profiles has been pioneered by Kostick as part of the perception and reference inventory technique for personnel profiling. The wider use of such graphs has been suggested by one of the authors for image quality, and by the NCC for information technology effectiveness metrics. The graphs are particularly useful for the communication and comparisons of multivariate properties such as a personnel profile or software quality. An investigation of the usefulness of these graphs has identified some shortcomings, and the authors describe these together with proposed modifications to the graphs.