Patent ID: 8560379

Claim:
A computer usable medium having stored thereon, a computer program for calculating the cost of ownership of a software product obtained from a first proposed supplier including a cost of software failure factor estimation, wherein the computer program when executed on a computer causes the computer to: predetermine the quality level of an ideal supplier of said software product; determine deviation in quality level of said first proposed software supplier from said ideal supplier level; estimate the difference in product defect rate at the quality level of the first proposed supplier from the defect rate of said ideal supplier; estimate the cost to compensate for a damage resulting from each defect based upon the intended use of said software product; determine a cost of software failure factor for each unit of said software product obtained from said first proposed supplier by multiplying said difference in defect rate by said cost to compensate for damage resulting from each defect; calculate the cost of failure factor for a second proposed supplier of said software product; determine the price per unit for said software product respectively charged by said first proposed and said second proposed suppliers; and select a supplier by comparing the differences in said cost of failure factors between said first proposed and second proposed suppliers with differences in price per unit charged by said suppliers.