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Industry Benchmark on Software Defects

A Few Key Findings From the Industry Benchmark on Software Defects

In a world full of opinions, we have the facts. Identify the overlooked, wasteful, and high ROI practices in your software development lifecycle.

Industry benchmark on software defects
30+ Years
Of benchmarking real software projects against actual outcomes
600+
Software development practices measured against defects, satisfaction, and delivery
9:1
Systems engineering beats "shall" statement compliance
35:1
Systems engineering beats silo engineering
01 — About the study

30+ years, 600+ practices, one honest dataset

The "Industry Benchmark on Software Defects" is a 30+ year benchmarking of 600+ software development practices versus actual outcomes — escaped defect rate, customer satisfaction, and on-time delivery.

Facts over opinions

"Shall statement" compliance isn't sufficient

For decades we've heard that "Shall statement" compliance is the answer. Shall statements are necessary, but they aren't sufficient on their own.

Systems view

Losing sight of the integrated system

When people focus on individual shall statements in isolation, they lose sight of the integrated system those statements are supposed to serve.

Process isn't a cure-all

Too much process drains resources

We've been programmed to believe process can cure just about anything. The data shows it can't — excess process drains resources better spent on design and test.

02 — Key findings

An integrated systems engineering team beats compliance-driven and siloed engineering.

The results show that an integrated systems engineering team is more effective than compliance-driven engineering or engineering conducted in silos. See our full benchmarking study for 600+ more trends.

Latest statistics from our reliable software industry studies show just how large the gap is between the winning approach and the popular alternatives.

Comparison
Ratio
Systems engineering driven vs. "shall" compliance driven
9:1
Systems engineering driven vs. silo engineering
35:1
Systems engineering vs. no design
50:1
Systems engineering driven beats shall compliance driven 9 to 1 and silo engineering 35 to 1

Systems engineering driven beats "shall" compliance driven 9:1 and silo engineering 35:1

SEI CMMI versus defect density

Process can be overkill

Infographic showing three stages of requirements: no formal, textual statements, visual design flows; defects rise from stage 1 to 2 and baseline is least defects

Systems engineering beats shall statement compliance 9:1 and no design 50:1

03 — Why it matters

The facts you need to ship with minimal warranty cost and recalls

In a world full of opinions, we have the facts you need to develop software with minimal warranty cost and recalls while actually improving on-time delivery. The benchmarking study also shows which popular development factors are wasteful or overkill, as well as the overlooked practices that add value.

01 — AEROSPACE & DEFENSE

Aerospace & defense

Where even a single failure can be critical.

02 — HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL DEVICES

Healthcare & medical devices

Where consistent performance is directly tied to patient safety.

03 — MANUFACTURING & INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS

Manufacturing & industrial systems

Where downtime quickly becomes expensive.

04 — ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

Energy & infrastructure

Where reliability keeps essential services running.

05 — SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY

Software & technology

Where uptime and stability are everything.

04 — Where the data leads

From benchmark to machine learning model

§1Prediction

Machine learning models trained on 30+ years of outcomes

Source

From this massive database of practices and defect data, machine learning models evolved to predict the quantity and types of defects.

Result

Requs AI Predict and Requs AI Edge Case — tools built directly from this benchmarking data.

§2Taxonomy

A published, industry-adopted defect taxonomy

Origin

This benchmarking study also led to the publication of the Common Defect Enumeration (CDE).

Use it

The benchmarking data gives you the tools to reduce failures, improve system design and maintenance, and build more reliable operations over time.

Questions about our studies? We're happy to answer them.

Get the full 600+ trend benchmarking study, or talk to us first.