The advent and rise of broadband technologies and new applications and services have led to a complex heterogeneous scenario in which providing Quality of Service (QoS) has become a compelling issue. Furthermore, the competitive condition of the telecommunications environment has caused user's perception of quality to become one of the most differential factors for service providers. Due to this fact, QoS must not only attend to specific technical metrics, but more important, QoS criteria should be defined to assure the level of quality to fulfil the users' requirements. In this new context, the definition of effective user-oriented QoS management models and frameworks has become a matter of contention. This chapter aims to provide readers a comprehensive analysis of the entire significance of a user-centered approach for quality of service management. For this purpose, a review of the most important issues related to the subject is provided.

<span lang="en">This paper proposes the deployment of a network software platform for experimentation called LabQoS that will allow the scientific community to establish scientific experiments relating to measure the performance of applications and services on the Internet and other network environments. Previous experiences have already deployed measurement systems, but they don't incorporate the concept of control of the scenario to enable the performing of experiments. This LabQoS capacity makes it an innovative platform unique in its approach. A module called Test Environment Builder has been designed in order to monitor the operating parameters, and to propose adaptation strategies to handle the scenario control variables. We define an experimental data model that identifies the entities to be considered in the management of the platform. Assessment mechanisms are proposed to study the dynamic sensitivity of the control variables with respect to the parameters. LabQoS is based on QoSMETER architecture that addresses technological aspects such as user management, deployment tools, data collection, reporting, security, etc.</span>