Poor software design costs a lot

For 2020, the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) determined the total Cost of Poor Software Quality (CPSQ) in the US is $2.08 trillion (T). The largest contributor to CPSQ is operational software failures. For 2020 estimated that it is ~$1.56 T, a 22% growth over 2 years – but that could be underestimated given the meteoric rise in cybersecurity failures, and that many failures go unreported. The underlying cause is primarily unmitigated flaws in the software.

The next largest contributor to CPSQ in unsuccessful development projects totaling $260 billion (B), which rose by 46% since 2018. The project failure rate has been steady at ~19% for over a decade. The underlying causes are varied, but one consistent theme has been the lack of attention to quality.