Software Engineering Institute

The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) reports that inadequate testing methods and tools annually cost the U.S. economy between $22.2 billion and $59.5 billion, with roughly half of these costs borne by software developers in the form of extra testing and half by software users in the form of failure avoidance and mitigation efforts. The same study notes that between 25 percent and 90 percent of software development budgets are often spent on testing. In this episode, SEI researcher Don Firesmith discusses problems that commonly occur during testing as well as his development of a framework that lists potential symptoms by which each can be recognized, potential negative consequences, and potential causes, and makes recommendations for preventing them or mitigating their effects.