Measuring the Economic Impacts of an Inadequate Infrastructure

for Software Testing

By:David Hoang

Martin Hoffman

Remove more bugs

Detect bugs earlier

Locate bugs faster

Improved infrastructure can…

The longer it takes the more is costs…

Fewer bugs in software operations stage

Lower maintenance costs

Change in avoidance activities

What does this mean for the User?

Custom Products:

no formal release

more resources needed for implementation (developer)

post-purchase service (developer) 3rd party integrators

Custom vs. Commercial Software Products

Estimating Software Developer Costs

Data collected: Company’s total pre-release testing and post-release service costs. Surveyed developers.

Additional resources required due to an Inadequate infrastructure for software testing:

Labor costs

Software costs

Hardware costs

After-sales service cost

Delay costs

Reputation costs

Estimating Software User Costs

Software purchase decision

Evaluation of products

Lack of information on the quality of products

Unable to compare across products based on price and quality uncertainty of bugs and interoperability increases

Installation and Integration

Higher for custom products

Business operations

System failures

Software User Cost Categories

labor costs

failure costs

performance cost

redundant systems

delayed profits

sales forfeited

Estimating Software Bug Costs

Cost of bugs still remaining with improved sw testing infrastructure.

Estimate the total cost of bugs to the userDetermine linearly related costs and nonlinearly related costs

User inputs:total costs associated with bugsgeneral change in total costs in a 75% reduction in bugs

Cost of product failure or installation is linear with the number of bugs

Redundant system costs is not linear.

Difference in cost reduction is industry dependant.

Estimating Software Bug Costs

Industry-specific User Costs

Industries encounter different types of costs

Two industries were selected:Financial services – FEDI/clearinghouse software usersTransportation equipment manufacturing

Quality Categories:

Functionality Reliability Usability Efficiency Maintainability Portability

Questions?