Software Quality Concerns in the Italian Bank Sector: The Emergence of a Meta-Quality Dimension

This research focuses on the identification of some relevant concerns in the Italian banking IT sector, investigating the opinions of several stakeholders i.e., banks and outsourcing companies, system integrators, software vendors, and consultants. In order to pursue the study we surveyed experts' opinions. For the panel composition we used the well-profiled contacts of an established IT consulting firm. At the end of the research process, we gathered results that we consider highly valuable for the following reasons. The final panel was composed of more than one hundred senior IT banking experts who are mostly in top managerial positions. Moreover, this is a vertical study of an IT banking sector in Italy, which has a number of peculiarities that are comparable with other countries. We report the emergence of a meta quality dimension, which links software quality and architectural description standards. Finally, we used an innovative research method, based on the epistemological paradigm of Mixed Methods research