End of Software, The: Finding Security, Flexibility, and Profit in the On Demand Future

Chapter 7. No Problem, No Worries

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently estimated that software bugs and errors cost the U.S. economy $59.5 billion annually. A report titled “The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing” was commissioned by the NIST, a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, which develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology. According to the study, software developers already spend approximately 80% of development costs on identifying and correcting defects. However, despite these efforts, more than half of all errors are found downstream in the development process or during post-sale use. This dramatically impacts ...