A case study of defect introduction mechanisms

Abstract

It is well known that software production organizations spend a sizeable amount of their project budget to rectify the defects introduced into the software systems during the development process. An in depth understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to defects is an essential step towards the reduction of defects in software systems. In line with this objective, we conducted a case study of defect introduction mechanisms on three major components of an industrial enterprise resource planning software system, and observed that external factors including incomplete requirements specifications, adopting new, unfamiliar technologies, lack of requirements traceability, and the lack of proactive and explicit definition and enforcement of user interface consistency rules account for 59% of the defects. These findings suggest areas where effort should be directed. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.