Analyzing factors of defect correction effort in a multi-vendor information system development

This paper describes an empirical study to reveal factors influencing defect correction effort in software development. In the study we collected various attributes (metrics) of defects found in a typical medium-scale, multi-vendor information system development project in Japan over a six-month period. We then statistically analyzed the relationship between the defects' attributes and the correction effort. The analysis confirmed the well-known principle "defects are the more expensive the later they are detected" by revealing that defects detected in the "system test" were 4.88 times more expensive than those detected in the "coding/unit test". Another principle "defects are more expensive the longer they survive in software" was also confirmed by revealing that defects, which survived two or more development phases, were 4.44 times more expensive than those detected immediately. We also identified other factors, such as defect reproducibility, severity, and the cause of detection delay, that had a significant influence on the correction effort.