Generic criteria from QSOS version 1.6
Intrinsic durability
Maturity
less than 3 months
if between 3 months and 3 years
after 3 years
Unstable software with numerous releases or patches generating side effects
Stabilized production release existing but old. Difficulties to stabilize developpement releases
Stabilized software. Releases provide bug fixes corrections but mainly new functionalities
Software knows several problems which can be prohibitive
No know major problem or crisis
History of good management of crisis situations
Software is very likely to be forked in the future
Software comes from a fork but has very few chances of being forked in the future
Software has very little chance of being forked. It does not come from a fork either
Adoption by community and industry
Very few users identified
Detectable use on Internet
Numerous users, numerous references
None
Few refences, non critical usages
Often implemented for critical applications
No community or without real activity (forum, mailing list, ...)
Existing community with a notable activity
Strong community: big activity on forums, numerous contributors and advocates
No book about the software
Less than 5 books about the software are available
More than 5 books about software are available, in several languages
Organisation and leadership of developments
1 to 2 individuals involved, not clearly identified
Between 2 and 5 independent people
More than 5 people
Complete dictatorship
Enlightened despotism
Council of architects with identified leader (e.g: KDE)
Activity of the project and around the software
Less than 3 developers, not clearly identified
Between 4 and 7 developers, or more unidentified developers with important turnover
More than 7 developers, very stable team
Slow reactivity in forum or on mailing list, or nothing regarding bug fixes in releases note
Detectable activity but without process clearly exposed, loing reaction/resolution time
Strong reactivity based on roles and tasks assignment
No or few new functionalities
Evolution of the product driven by the core team or by user's request without any clearly explained process
Tool(s) to manage feature requests, strong interaction with roadmap
Very weak activity on both production and development releases
Activity on production and developmenet releases. Frequent minor releases (bug fixes)
Important activity with frequent minor releases (bugs fixes) and planned major releases relating to the roadmap forcast
Industrialization level of the project
Developments realized at 100% by employees of a single company
60% maximum
20% maximum
Services offering
No offer of training identified
Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor
Rich offers provided by several contractors, in serveral languages and split into modules of gradual levels
No offer of support except via public forums and mailing lists
Offer exists but is provided by a single contractor without strong commitment quality of services
Multiple service providers with strong commitment (e.g: guaranteed resolution time)
No offer of consulting service
Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor
Consulting services provided by different contractors in serveral languages
No user documentation
Documentation exists but shifted in time, is restricted to one language or is poorly detailed
Documentation always up to date, translated and possibly adapted to different target readers (end user, sysadmin, manager, ...)
Quality assurance process
No QA process
Identifies QA process but not much formalized and with no tool
Automatic testing process included in code's life-cycle with publication of results
No bug or feature request management tool
Standard tools provided (for instance by a hosting forge) but poorly used
Very active use of tools for roles/tasks allocation and progress monitoring
Packaging for various operating systems
Software can't be installed from source without lot of work
Installation from source is limited and depends on very strict conditions (OS, arch, lib, ...)
Installation from source is easy
The software is not packaged for Debian
A Debian package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
The software is not packaged for FreeBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in FreeBSD
The software is not packaged for HP-UX
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A stable package is provided for HP-UX
The software is not packaged for MacOSX
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
The software is not packaged for Mandriva
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
The software is not packaged for NetBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in NetBSD
The software is not packaged for OpenBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in OpenBSD
The software is not packaged for RedHat/Fedora
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
The software is not packaged for Solaris
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support (e.g: SunFreeware.com )
The software is supported by Sun for Solaris
The software is not packaged for SuSE
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
The project can't be installed on Windows
A package exists but it is limited or has important issues or just cover some specific Windows release (e.g: Windows2000 and WindowsXP)
Windows is full supported and a package is provided
Exploitability level
Difficult to use, requires an in depth knowledge of the software functionality
Austere and very technical ergonomics
GUI including help functions and elaborated ergonomics
No administrative or monitoring functionalities
Existing, functionalities but uncomplete and or need improvement
Complete and easy-to-use administration and monitoring functionalities. Possible integration with external tools (e.g: SNMP, syslog, ...)
Technical adaptability
Monolithic software
Presence of hight level modules allowing a first level of software adaptation
Modular conception, allowing easy adaptation of the software by selecting or creating modules
Everything by hand
Recompilation possible but complex without any tools or documentation
Recompilation with tools (e.g: make, ANT, ...) and documentation provided
Any modification requires code recompilation
Architecture designed for static extension but requires recompilation
Principle of plugin, architecture designed for dynamic extension without recompilation
Project's strategy
License
Very strict license, like GPL
Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD) dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activities
Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses
Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses
Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD), dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activies
Very strict license, like GPL
Rights held by a few individuals or entities, making it easier to change the license
Rights held by numerous individuals owning the code in a homogeneous way, making relicense very difficult
Rights held by a legal entity in whom the community trusts (e.g: FSF or ASF)
No pratical way to propose code modification
Tools provided to access and modify code (like CVS or SVN) but not really used to develop the software
The code modification process is well defined, exposed and respected, based on roles assignment
No published roadmap
Existing roadmap without planning
Versionned roadmap, with planning and measure of delays
Software has no sponsor, the core team is not paid
Software has an unique sponsor who might determine its strategy
Software is sponsored by industry
No detectable strategy or strong dependency on one unique actor(person, company,sponsor)
Strategical vision shared with several other free and open source projects but without strong commitment from copyrights owners
Strong independence of the code team, legal entity holding rights, strong involvement in the standardization process
Basic functionalities of a word processor
Basic transversal features not specific to word processors
The word processor is a standalone application not integrated in an office suite
The word processor is part of a larger suite but ther is integration between the components
The word processor is fully integrated into a larger Office suite
Other components provided by the Office suite
There is not integration between the components of the suite. Or there is no suite at all.
Different components of the suite are integrated but it is limited
Differents components used shared code and libraries and /or use a specific framework to exchange and communicate
No localisation possible.
Localisation is possible but limited (no or poor documentation translation for instance) with very few existing locale
Localisation is fully implemented, with several locale, UNICODE and bi-directionnal language support
No accessibility features supported.
Few accessibility features but limited and not compliant with accessibility standards
Accessibility is really integrated in the software and it complies with standards
No corrupt document recovery feature
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Software is not customizable
Software is customizable but it is limited to few elements
Software is fully customizable (menus, toolbars, shortcuts, ...)
No Help features or of very poor quality which make them not usable
Some Help feature but not very user friendly and limited in coverage or in quality
Help features of good quality and very intuitive (contextual help, searchable help, ...)
Standard word processing features
Feature not implemented
Feature implemented but not for all elements of a document (for instance table, headers/footers, ...) or not really usable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature implemented but limited or not really usable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature implemented but limited or not really usable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature implemented but limited or not really usable
Feature fully implemented and usable
No way to navigate through the different objects of a document
Feature implemented but limited or not reallu usable
Feature fully implemented and usable
List of different supported modes to display a document
No possibility to insert any field in a document
Few fields can be inserted but it is limited
Meta-data, custom fields and variable, statistics, ... can be inserted anywhere in the document
No feature available to insert shortcuts to other part of the document or to external documents
Feature available but limited to some part or object of the document only
Feature fully implemented to all part or objects of a document
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited, for instance the index is not fully editable or customizable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but not for all objects of the document
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited to few languages and/or is not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited, for instance the list is not editable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited, for instance the list is not editable
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Supported document formats, macros features & supported APIs
List of document formats supported by the word processor
OpenDocument format is not supported
OpenDocument format is not supported for all objects inside a document
OpenDocument format is fully supported
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited
Feature fully implemented and usable
Macros are not supported
Macros features are very limited, for instance not all document's objects are managed
Macros features are fully implemented
List of supported macro languages
Feature not implemented
Feature is limited and not easy to reuse
Feature fully implemented
No IDE available for macro editing
An IDE is available but is limited and/or not user-friendly
Complete and user-friendly IDE available
No macro deployment features implemented
Limited deployment features available
Complete deployment features available
No security features implemented for macros
Limited security features available
Complete securtity features available
List of available scripting and/or programming languages bindings
Mailing (mail merge) features
No mailing features implemented
Mailing engine is limited or unstable
Mailing engine is complete and stable
Feature not implemented
Very few types of datasources available
Many types of datasources available
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
No possibility to define different views of a same document
Limited features available
Feature fully implemented
Feature not implemented
Feature is available but limited and/or not really efficient
Feature fully implemented and usable
No possibility to generate conditional text
Conditional text is implemenetd but limited to basic conditions
Conditional text is fully implemented
No feature available to include slave documents in a master one
Document composition is possible but limited and/or unstable
Document composition is stable and fully implemented
No drawing tools available
Few drawing features available
Complete set of drawing features available
No groupware features available
Limited or experimental groupware features available
Complete set of groupware features available