Software defect reduction top 10 list - Computer

R ecently, a National Science Foundation grant enabled us to establish the Center for Empirically Based Software Engineering. CeBASE seeks to transform software engineering as much as possible from a fad-based practice to an engineering-based practice through derivation, organization, and dissemination of empirical data on software development and evolution phenomenology. The phrase “as much as possible” reflects the fact that software development must remain a people-intensive and continually changing field. We have found, however, that researchers have established objective and quantitative data, relationships, and predictive models that help software developers avoid predictable pitfalls and improve their ability to predict and control efficient software projects. Here we describe developments in this area that have taken place since the publication of “Industrial Metrics Top 10 List” in 1987 (B. Boehm, IEEE Software, Sept. 1987, pp. 84-85). Given that CeBASE places a high priority on software defect reduction, we think it is fitting to update that earlier article by providing the following Software Defect Reduction Top 10 List.