Abstract
The software once developed enters in to the $2^{nd}$ phase of its useful operational life, where it performs its functions for which it has been developed. This is an important phase of software life, wherein the developers and users have to assess the performance of the software to prolong its operational life with efficiency, effectiveness and economy. Performance of the software is based on the measurement of the quality characteristics to ascertain that it is meeting or exceeding the needs of customers in terms of its functionality, usability, efficiency, reliability, availability, maintainability, portability etc. These software quality attributes defined under ISO 9126 provide an overall good framework for assessing the performance of the software. This paper describes a Software Performance Assessment (SPA) model using the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) paradigm which has been applied to the operational software in real context with successful results.