According to the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ), badly made software has cost the U.S. around $2.08tr in 2020. The Cost of Poor Software Quality in the US has then tried to identify what cost the most.

It was reported that unsuccessful IT initiatives and software projects, poor quality in legacy systems, and operational software failures are the three major causes. Moreover, operational software failures alone can lead to the loss of the value gained by speed to market.

Poor quality software can have terrible consequences. Indeed, the report gives the example of the serious software bugs that prevented Boeing’s Starliner from docking with the International Space Station in December 2019, hence putting the spacecraft at risk and getting a $410m charge. The creation of bad software also led to the deadly crashes of two Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

The report highlights that this is mainly due to an IT talent shortage. Indeed, many organizations have stated that there are not enough good software developers around to develop new and efficient software.

Therefore, the report showed that only 2% of the worldwide population can code and that the need for developers is expected to grow by 24% over the next seven years. Moreover, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that US software developer jobs will see an increase at a rate of 22% in the next decade.

In order to reduce the number of operational failures, the report emphasizes the need for better software defect detection and remediation of identified vulnerabilities. It also urges developers to prioritize software quality and organizations to promote a culture that supports software excellence.