The International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology (QUATIC) is a leading scientific conference that gathers experts from industry and academia to exchange ideas and approaches regarding all quality aspects in ICT software and systems engineering and management. This forum fosters lively discussion on furthering the state-of-the-art, defining future directions, and disseminating advanced new methods, techniques, and tools. QUATIC 2025, now in its 18th edition, will be hosted in Lisbon, Portugal's capital, which is known for its rich history, stunning architecture, and vibrant culture. The city is famous for its iconic yellow trams, historic neighborhoods like Alfama and Bairro Alto, and landmarks like Belém Tower and the Jerónimos Monastery. It blends old-world charm with modern energy.

QUATIC 2025 invites practitioners and researchers to submit technical papers reporting original research and experience results in all topics and sub-fields of Quality in ICT process, product, and applications domains, as well as sharing practical studies. 

Software quality is strongly influenced by human, ethical and social aspects. From the perspective of users, human and social aspects influence how quality is understood and perceived. What qualities are important depends on both objective and subjective assessments by users. On the other hand, the extent to which important qualities are achieved depends crucially on human and social aspects among software development professionals, including requirements engineers, software architects, software developers, software testers, and people working in other roles during the software life-cycle. Moreover, ethical aspects should be carefully addressed throughout the software development process, including legal issues, accountability, fairness, transparency and AI implications. An understanding of how social, ethical and social aspects play into the interpretation and realisation of quality on both sides of software use and development is important to advance the field towards better software.

TOPICS

This track is open to a wide range of topics related to human, ethical and social aspects for quality software, including, but not limited to:

– Modelling software quality from a psychological perspective.
– Decision-making in the software quality process.
– Awareness of quality concerns among software practitioners.
– Cultural, cognitive, and affective aspects related to software quality.
– Methodological questions of researching human, ethical and social aspects for quality software.
– Empirical studies examining software quality from a human, ethical and social aspects perspective.
– Novel methods and approaches for enhancing software quality through improvement of software development work systems.
– Impact of AI on human, ethical and social aspects for quality software.
– Ethics, moral values and principles of conduct implications for quality on both sides of software use and development.
– Legal issues, accountability, fairness and transparency implications for quality software.
– Impact of developers’ well-being and team “health” for producing quality software (work-life balance, burnout prevention, stress management, team morale, hybrid work etc.).