Reengineering Required: Quality Deficits of Industrial Software

A lack of comprehension, obstacles to changing the source code, and a high number of defects increase the costs of developing and maintaining software. Unawareness or ignorance of existing quality deficits may boost development costs and result in situations where an expensive rewrite or complete abandonment are the only viable options. This paper summarizes recurring quality problems that we often find in industrial software during our quality audits. These problems highlight areas where reengineering is required and continuous quality control is advisable.