Software's Chronic Crisis: A Quiz

Many software development projects are over-budget and behind schedule, and the software produced is often unreliable and unusable. Take the short quiz below to test your knowledge about the alarming state of software development productivity and software quality.

1.    The typical software development project takes _____ months.

    (Parikh, G., and Zvegintzov, N. (1983). Tutorial on Software Maintenance. Silver Springs, MD: IEEE Computer Society.)

2.     To be considered a large system, a system today must contain at least _____ lines of executable code.

    (Fairley, R. (1985). Software Engineering Concepts. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.)

3.    What percent of the $92 billion software market is commercial "shrink-wrap" personal computer products?

    (Gibbs, W. Software's Chronic Crisis. Scientific American. Sept 1994.)

4.    For a medium-sized software system, how many lines of executable source code are typically produced per day per person (averaged over the entire period of development).

    (Boehm, B. (1981). Software Engineering Economics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.)

5.    The approximate number of errors found in every 1000 lines of executable source code during development of a software system is _____.

    (Mills, H., Dyer, M, and Linger, H. (Sept 1987). IEEE Software, pp20-.)

6.    Approximately what percentage of software system that begin development are finally completed?

    (Jones, T.C. (1981). Program quality and programmer productivity, T.C. Jones (ed.), Programming Productivity: Issues for the Eighties (pp. 130-161). Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer Society Press.)

7.    Most errors found by users in software are the result of

    a. coding errors.
    b. difficulties understanding the problem statement.
    c. system integration errors.
    d. errors in the design of the solution.

    (Basili, V.R. and Perricone, B.T. (Jan. 1984). Software errors and complexity: An empirical investigation. Communications of the ACM, 27(6), pp556-563.)

8.    The cost of owning and maintaining software is typically _____ times as expensive as developing the software.

    (Lientz, B., and Swanson, E. (1980). Software Maintenance Management: A Study of the Maintenance of Computer Application Software in 487 Data Processing Organizations. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.)

9.    A 1979 study by the Government Accounting Office found that for software development contracts:

    ___ % were used as delivered.
    ___ % were used after rework.
    ___ % were abandoned or reworked.
    ___ % delivered but not used.
    ___ % paid for but not delivered.

    (Comptroller General. (1979). Contracting for computer software development. General Accounting Office Report. (FGMSD-80-4). Washington, D.C.)

10.    A more recent study (1995) of 365 Information Systems professionals found the statistics on software development project:

    ___ % successful.
    ___ % operational (but less than successful).
    ___ % cancelled.

    (source: PC Week magazine).

11.    During the 1990's, software maintenance accounted for what percent of the software budget for an information system organization?
    In 2015, what percent of the Federal government's IT budget was spent on operations and maintenance?

    (Source: Pressman, R. (1992). Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.)
     (Source: Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems)

12.     A 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that software defects cost the U.S. economy _____ per year.
    a. $100 million.
    b. $500 million.
    c. $1 billion.
    d. $60 billion.

(Source: Infoworld, June 2002).

13.     The average project spends about ____ percent of its time on unplanned rework; fixing mistakes that were made earlier in the project.

(Source: Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell)

14.      A defect introduced in requirements and removed after release costs how much more to repair than if detected during requirements?

(Source: Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell)


ANSWERS

1.    The typical software development project takes 12 to 23  months.

2.     To be considered a large system, a system today must contain at least 50,000 lines of executable code.

3.    What percent of the $92 billion software market is commercial "shrink-wrap" personal computer products?  less than 10%.

4.    For a medium-sized software system, how many lines of executable source code are typically produced per day per person (averaged over the entire period of development). Less than 10.

5.    The approximate number of errors found in every 1000 lines of executable source code during development of a software system is  50 to 60.     

6.    Approximately what percentage of software system that begin development are finally completed?  70 to 79%.

7.    Most errors found by users in software are the result of

    b. difficulties understanding the problem statement.

8.    The cost of owning and maintaining software is typically 2 times as expensive as developing the software.

9.    A 1979 study by the Government Accounting Office found that for software development contracts:

2    ___ % were used as delivered.
3    ___ % were used after rework.
45    ___ % were abandoned or reworked.
20    ___ % delivered but not used.
30    ___ % paid for but not delivered.

10.    A more recent study (1995) of 365 Information Systems professionals found the statistics on software development project:

16    ___ % successful.
53    ___ % operational (but less than successful).
31    ___ % cancelled.

Only 16.2% of software projects are completed on-time and on-budget. In larger companies, a meager 9% of technology projects come in on-time and on-budget. In addition, about one third of all projects will be canceled before they ever get completed. Further results indicate 53% of projects will cost an average of 189% of their original estimates. In financial terms this analysis revealed that over $100 billion in cancellations and $60 billion in budget over runs occur in the Software Sector annually.
source:The Standish Group Chaos Report www.standishgroup.com

11.    During the 1990's, software maintenance accounted for what percent of the software budget for an information system organization?
    Fed govt in 2015?

   a) 60% b) 75%

12.     A 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that software defects cost the U.S. economy _____ per year.
    d. $60 billion.

13.     The average project spends about 80 percent of its time on unplanned rework; fixing mistakes that were made earlier in the project. 

14.      A defect introduced in requirements and removed after release costs how much more to repair than if detected during requirements?  50 - 200 times.