Large Software
COBOL
Software Inspection and Defect Metrics
Simulink

• The average cost of software code is estimated to be $25 per line for routine software and as much as $200 for safety-critical software in avionics and medical applications.
• According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual increases in output per hour in the computer manufacturing industry accelerated from 8.8 percent in 1988 to 21 percent in 1992 and 39 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, output per hour for software publishers, which was growing at a 58 percent annual clip in 1988, fell into negative numbers by 1999. (www.dol.gov)
• It is predicted that roughly 3.3 million US business-processing jobs will have moved abroad by the year 2015. (www.itfacts.biz)
• Gartner reports that India remains "the undisputed offshore leader," with China and Russia emerging "as strong contenders." Gartner also predicts that 1 in 4 IT jobs will be outsourced to India by 2010. (www.gartner.com)

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• The initial specifications of COBOL were presented to the Conference on Data System Languages (CODASYL) in 1960. The development of COBOL is largely attributed to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who headed the committee to develop a standard business language.
• 200 billion lines of COBOL code (as much as 70 percent of the world's active business applications) existed in the year 2000, with an expected growth of 5 billion lines of code per year for the next four years. (www.gartner.com)
• Because most of the world's business software is written in COBOL, COBOL systems make up the bulk of software being outsourced.
• IDC reported in 2004 that 2.35 million software engineers exist in the US. Today, America has more than four times as many software developers as India, and nearly seven times as many as China. (www.idc.com)
• As of 2002, there were roughly 2 million COBOL programmers still active in the world; that number is expected to drop to 1.5 million by 2007. (www.gartner.com)
• Most universities in the US do not require COBOL in their computer science curriculum; even more do not offer courses in COBOL.
• The average age of federal government IT workers is just shy of 50, and a recent survey across mainframe programmers in the U.S. finding the average age to be between 42 and 49. (news.com.com)

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• IBM pioneered the early adoption and later evolution of software inspections. They were introduced there in the 1970s.
• Software inspections are strict and close examinations conducted on several aspects of code including requirements, specifications, architectures, etc.
• According to the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, a major defect missed during the inspection process that moves into the next phase of development may cost two to ten times to find and correct.
• An undetected minor defect may cost two to four times to detect and correct.
• A software engineer trained for software inspection may review 250 to 500 lines of code per hour for new development and from 1000 to 1500 lines of code per hour for maintenance.
• A survey recently reported by the TCS R&D Center in Pune, India found that manual productivity in creating new code is 10-20 lines of code per day with 60 errors in 1000 lines of code.
• After training an engineering team to manually inspect code, a company can expect to detect 50% of the defects present. It may take 12 to 18 months to achieve expert practice where defect detection is expected to range from 60% to 90%.
• According to Gartner, only 32 percent of the 2.5 million Java developers in the world have "genuine knowledge." This implies a serious lack of high-level development skills and a possible penchant for error. (www.gartner.com)
• Gartner reported that more than 25 percent of critical data within Fortune 1,000 companies is incomplete or inaccurate. Additionally, many executives aren't even aware that they're working with flawed data. According Tom Friedman, head analyst in the study, those who are aware of flawed data often reach for the wrong technology to fix the situation. (www.gartner.com)
• ROI for software inspection is calculated by Net Savings (Cost of Avoidance minus Cost of Repair) divided by Detection Cost.
• Costs associated with software inspections include the initial training of practitioners and managers, ongoing inspection sessions, and ongoing management and use of data for defect prevention.

*For the Software Inspection fact sheet, all facts that do not include a source were taken from the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute.

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• "Simulink is a platform for multidomain simulation and Model-Based Design of dynamic systems. It provides an interactive graphical environment and a customizable set of block libraries that let you accurately design, simulate, implement, and test control, signal processing, communications, and other time-varying systems." (www.mathworks.com)
• Companies that use Simulink include Boeing, DaimlerChrysler, Honeywell, Motorola, Nissan, Segway, Texas Instruments, Toyota and Xerox. (www.mathworks.com)
• Simulink is used in the aerospace, automotive, communications, defense, electronics and semiconductor industries. (www.mathworks.com)
• "Today's high-end vehicles contain more than 70 microprocessors controlling engine, chassis, safety, and driver systems, and the software content in vehicles is projected to grow at a double-digit pace over the next five years. Engineers at every major automotive manufacturer and supplier in the world use MATLAB and Simulink to develop these systems." (www.mathworks.com)
• William Kimberley, in the June 5005 issue of Automotive Design and Production, reports that, "In the current Mercedes-Benz S-Class there are, depending on the options, more than 50 controllers controlling different functions while 600 signals pass along the cables and around 150 electronic messages are multiplexed onto three buses. It was necessary to write 600,000 lines of program code to make that car 'smart'." (www.autofieldguide.com).
• Richard Goering of the EE Times reports that, "Dataquest recently discovered a new category of 'system architects' who primarily use Matlab or Simulink products from The MathWorks. If the revenue for those products were included in its report, Dataquest said that The MathWorks would claim 41 percent of the [electronic system-level] design and simulation market." (www.eetimes.com)

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