Introduction
Software (SW, operating systems) is ubiquitous in our world. There are excellent ones, average ones, and bad ones. There is even malicious freeware, programmed to damage computer systems or compromise information stored or running through them.
How do you differentiate good operating systems from a malicious one? To give a more specific example, how does a website like best vpn rating successfully rank virtual private network software as it did? In this article, we will detail all of the information you need to know about SW evaluation.
What Software Evaluation Is
It is the standardized process for assessing the quality level of a software program. It is an inherently difficult task to carry out because the assessor has to walk the fine line between his or her subjective views derived from the actual test of the software’s functionalities and his or her professional objectivity.
The Approach
Two very broad approaches are used in software evaluation.
- The criteria-based approach
In the criteria-based approach, you assess the software against a checklist of sustainability, maintainability and usability goals. Done right, this approach will help identify and document the various modules of the operating systems that ought to be improved on.
2. The tutorial-based approach
The tutorial-based approach works by assessing the SW from a user’s perspective. The assessor must perform a complete walkthrough of all of the software’s modules, testing its functionalities along the way. The assessor then documents his or her experience. Done right, this approach helps create valuable insights into possible barriers, mostly of a technical nature, a user will experience when using the operating system.
Software Evaluation Mutating in Different Forms
Softwares come in different forms. They could be binary or source codes requiring that the user builds before using. Even an online website qualifies to be called an SW.
And then there are other digital assets which are not softwares per se, but nevertheless, still, need to be tested as such. Examples of these digital assets abound, for example, project-centric websites, online user documentation, several different types of forums that exist online and even everyday blogs like this technology blog that focuses on the use of VPN services in online marketing.
Who benefits from software evaluation?
Every one!
- Product development teams are able to get first-hand opinions of the effectiveness or otherwise of the SW they’ve taken time to build;
- Product testing teams get to try out the effectiveness of the latest evaluation approaches, so they can see where the lapses are in any approach they use;
- IT Managers get a 360-degree view of the effectiveness of the various teams they are administering as the operating system project unravels;
- The end user gets a well-built, well-tested and bug-free SW to use.
Conclusion
As you must have concluded, software evaluation is essential so that only quality one is released into the marketplace. That way, users are guaranteed the use of top-notch software, such as the virtual private network softwares used to guarantee user privacy and security on the Internet.