Fundamental principles
The method is based on nine fundamental principles which are more detailed in the SQALE Method Definition Document:
1. The quality of the source code is a non-functional requirement
2. The requirements in relation to the quality of the source code have to be formalised according to the same quality criteria as all other requirements
3. Assessing the quality of a source code is assessing the distance to compliance with the requirements
4. The SQALE Method assesses the distance to the conformity with the requirements by considering the necessary remediation cost for bringing the source code into conformity with them
5. The SQALE Method assesses the importance of a non-conformity by considering the resulting costs of delivering the source code with this non-conformity
6. The SQALE Method respects the representation condition
7. The SQALE Method uses addition for aggregating the remediation costs and for calculating its quality indicators
8. The SQALE Method’s Quality Model is orthogonal
9. The SQALE Method’s Quality Model takes the software’s lifecycle into account.