• A recent report from the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) notes how poor quality software is impacting businesses in the US.
• The same is anticipated for South Africa, with it expected to cost local businesses billions. 
• The situation is said to only worsen, as economic constraints will place added pressure on businesses.

South African businesses are in for a tough time in the coming year as economic constraints worsen and access to necessary skills becomes more scarce. Compounding the issue, according to a report from the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ), is poor quality software.

This as the implementation of poor quality software is said to cost US business an estimated $2.08 trillion back in 2020. Here, the CISQ found that operational software failure was the leading cost contributor, reaching an estimated $1.56 trillion in 2020, which is up 22 percent from 2018.

Sergio Barbosa, CIO of Global Kinetic, believes South African businesses will suffer from the same problem, with poor quality software anticipated to cost local companies billions of Rands in the coming months and years.

“These are truly staggering numbers amounting to around ten percent of the country’s GDP that year. Unfortunately we believe South Africa to be comparable, if not worse. We have seen that in an effort to save costs, local companies often fall for the low quality code trap. Many will either outsource to low-cost development destinations, or they will just throw more and more developers at the problem,” he explained.

“When you commoditise software development and make decisions based purely on cost, the casualty will be quality. And too few leaders fully understand the implications waiting for them down the road,” added Barbosa in a press release sent to Hypertext.

The CIO notes that even as a best case scenario, organisations running on low-quality software will struggle to release new features. This in turn will impact those company’s ability to deliver on customer expectations.

“If you are constantly fighting fires just to keep software running there is no way you can expect to stay on schedule. Nor will you be able to respond to changing market conditions or the changing needs of your customer. Even if you manage to avoid the potential critical system outages, you are likely to experience complaints from frustrated customers. Companies are learning the hard way that software is as essential in the modern company as sales is,” stressed Barbosa.

With companies set to face tighter budget constraints next year, there will be a temptation to cut corners wherever possible.

According to Barbosa, tech leaders and product owners should be on high alert in the year ahead and do their best to avoid such scenarios, especially as it usually results in increased expenditure down the line to address problems resulting from cutting corners in the first place.

“Most companies will be facing tighter budgets in 2023, but taking a short-term outlook on software quality could directly impact your ability to deliver to customers, build new features and, in some instances, could actually put your company’s survival at risk. The good news is managed services teams can help you course-correct before any lasting damage is done,” he concluded.

[Image – Photo by Microsoft 365 on Unsplash]