Software Quality and Reliability

The quality and reliability of software is often seen as the weak link in industry's attempts to develop new products and services. The last decade has seen the issue of software quality and reliability addressed through a growing adoption of design methodologies and supporting CASE tools, to the extent that most software designers have had some training and experience in the use of formalised software design methods.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of software testing. Many developments applying such design methodologies are still failing to bring the quality and reliability of software under ontrol. It is not unusual for 50% of software maintenance costs to be attributed to fixing bugs left by the initial software development; bugs which should have been eliminated by thorough and effective software testing.