Insights into the Prevalence of Software Project Defects

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of the effort distribution along the software development lifecycle on the prevalence of software defects. This analysis is based on data that was collected by the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) on the development of 4,106 software projects. Data mining techniques have been applied to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of the project activities and to identify a link between the effort distribution and the prevalence of software defects. This analysis has been complemented with the use of a hierarchical clustering algorithm with a dissimilarity based on the likelihood ratio statistic, for exploratory purposes. As a result, different behaviours have been identified for this collection of software development projects, allowing for the definition of risk control strategies to diminish the number and impact of the software defects. It is expected that the use of similar estimations might greatly improve the awareness of project managers on the risks at hand.