What term describes the ease of modifying a software product to correct defects or meet new requirements?

The term that describes the ease of modifying a software product to correct defects or meet new requirements is maintainability. This concept encompasses the processes and practices involved in updating, enhancing, and fixing software over its lifecycle.

Maintainability is crucial for ensuring that software can quickly adapt to changing needs or be adjusted to fix issues that arise. High maintainability means that the code is well-organized, documented, and structured in a way that developers can easily understand and modify it. This is particularly important in agile environments, where requirements can change frequently, and the ability to make those changes efficiently is a significant advantage.

In contrast, while portability, scalability, and usability address different aspects of software quality, they do not focus specifically on the ease of making alterations to the software post-deployment. Portability refers to the ability of the software to run in various environments, scalability relates to the capacity of the system to handle growing amounts of work, and usability concerns how user-friendly and accessible the software is to its end-users. Each of these elements supports software function and effectiveness but does not directly pertain to the ability to modify the software easily.