78.3% of European organisations fail to take action to address poor software quality

Survey reveals that quality initiatives are failing to gain traction

Research from Compuware has revealed that European organisations are neglecting quality in application development. 78.3 % of companies are failing to consistently apply a formal quality assurance (QA) methodology. It is therefore unsurprising that almost half (49%) of these organisations have not applied a quality programme like CMM or Six Sigma to their development procedures, in order to drive continuous quality improvement. The negative impact of not implementing a quality programme is widespread inconsistency, with 44.5% stating that quality was managed at a departmental level and that different methodologies were being implemented.

"Project failure is exceptionally costly to businesses. Industry analysts estimate that 50% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives, and in most instances the cause of the problem can be laid at the feet of poor quality from the offset. Improving quality is vital to avoid high profile failures and revenue loss, but the research would indicate that, rather than being at the top of the business agenda, quality isn't even on the radar. Businesses are really missing a trick and as such are struggling to develop applications that support rather than hinder business needs. It's something of a vicious circle that in many organisations is resulting in revenue loss. But until quality is recognised as a key component for success, it's a circle that companies are trapped in," commented Sarah Saltzman, solutions manager, Compuware.

"Effective quality assurance is all about understanding and determining risk, and to do this you need to get the input of IT, business and the user community. Operating in silos means that development teams aren't getting the right level of input to understand risks correctly and as a result we continue to see organisations wasting millions of Euros/Pounds on development projects that ultimately fail."

The survey also revealed that quality isn't being taken as seriously as it should be within organisations. Shockingly, almost a quarter (23.9%) admitted that their QA team was not made up of trained and experienced individuals. A further 30.5% are experienced and well trained but do not have a full-time team manager. The worrying result of so many QA teams being left to flounder is that 42.4% of teams are not capturing historical metrics that could be used to improve software quality. An additional 12% admitted to capturing these metrics but not reviewing them. Just 14.1% of businesses said that they had a formal plan in place for improving application quality and that they consistently performed post-deployment analysis and acted on the results.

"High-level buy in is essential to improving software processes and I am astonished by the number of QA teams that are not properly trained or experienced. At present it would appear that developers are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. For quality to claw its way up the business agenda, developers must start talking in a language that the business can understand. Steps must also be taken to prove that development isn't a black hole, but a function of IT that is striving to improve its processes at every turn in order to deliver tangible business benefits. In order to do this we must see the approach to quality maturing. At a very basic level this means capturing historical metrics and actually applying them, training staff and adopting a consistent enterprise wide approach to managing quality," continued Saltzman.

"Quality is the backbone of any successful businesses, but until organisations acknowledge this fact then they will continue to make a rod for their own back."

The research was conducted recently by Compuware amongst major enterprises across Europe.
In total, 184 IT executives were surveyed.