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Research from Software Improvement Group reveals current state of global software health, predicts industry impact

10 October 2019

New York, Amsterdam, October 10, 2019 – Software Improvement Group (SIG), the independent authority on software assurance, today published the first edition of its Benchmark Report, revealing the current state of global software health and predicting the impact on the software industry. The report, “Through the SIG Looking Glass,” is based on the company’s ten-year analysis of 25 billion lines of code across 250 technologies as well as 190,000 system inspections.

Is software increasing in quality and becoming more trustworthy?
Luc Brandts, CEO of SIG: “Living up to our mission of getting software right for a healthier digital world, we’ve been supporting organizations in gaining quantified insights into their software landscapes. Today, thanks to our clients, we have the ability to look back and reflect on the insights we have collected and make analytical predictions for the future. The report answers questions such as: Has the overall quality of software improved? Which technologies are emerging and declining? Which best practices separate the low from the high performers?”

According to the report:
“Over the past ten years, we saw that applications have shown a small but noticeable increase in overall software quality. Particularly, applications built using low code and/or BPM technology show a strong positive quality trend overall.”

“Although the trend is upward, for the low code & BPM category, we observe a trend that also warrants caution. Most code properties there trend upward, except for two properties that consider architectural quality, Component Indepence and Module Coupling. These properties require attention from the team applying these technologies.“

Magiel Bruntink, Head of Research at SIG adds: “The report shows that application architectures are at risk of becoming too tightly coupled, for example, due to platform-dictated design choices. As a result of this trend, we see an increase of questions on how to measure and prevent new applications from becoming the legacy software of the future.”

Today’s release of “Through the SIG Looking Glass” marks the first edition of the Benchmark Report, where SIG will annually report on whether IT leaders collectively are creating a healthier digital world in which end users can trust the technologies they depend on. The report addresses many different technologies, like Java- and Microsoft-based technologies, legacy technologies like Cobol, low-code and BPM solutions, but also configured packaged solutions like large ERP systems. It provides insights on the use of micro-services and its impact, the relationship between development process quality and software quality, and much more.

Request complimentary access to the report: www.softwareimprovementgroup.com/news-knowledge/2019-benchmark-report/