The
quality of software is considered important by only 40% of
CIOs.
A study by Original Software into the views of 100 top-level
executives and CIOs on software quality reveals the corporate
apathy.
When asked how the importance of their
software quality is perceived within the business, more than
40% of CIOs admitted "not at all" or "as a nice to have".
The Original Software study follows a recent IDC survey which
revealed that more than 40% of all software applications are
released with between one and ten critical defects, with the
management being fully aware of this at the time of issue.
"Such disregard is surprising given the number of high-profile
horror stories the media have recently reported about poor software
quality," said Colin Armitage, CEO at Original Software.
He said, "The launch of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow was a PR
disaster due to a 'systems fault', a failed ERP installation into
American LaFrance caused the fire-engine company to go into
bankruptcy, and medical equipment killed hospital patients when a
flaw in the computer code caused systems to administer heavy
overdoses, to name just a few examples."
The greatest software quality assurance (SQA) challenge for CIOs
was balancing cost and resource (53%). This was followed by the
quality of the software and its risk to business (30%).
The survey revealed that of companies who had invested in
software testing systems, only 6% were happy they had met their
objectives - the primary ones being to produce higher quality
applications (62%) and improve resource efficiency (28%).