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NIST Estimates Sloppy Coding Costs $60 Billion/Year

Posted by timothy on from the numerical-imperative dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "Computerworld is reporting on a government study just released that software bugs are costing the U.S. economy an estimated $59.5 billion each year, with more than half of the cost borne by end users and the remainder by developers and vendors. Better testing could allegedly cut that by one-third."

10 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious joke by Violet+Null · · Score: 5, Funny

    It originally only cost the economy $6 a year, but there was an unfortunate rounding error in the code that figured out the total cost...

  2. Re:Costing the U.S. economy? by zulux · · Score: 3, Funny


    Fixing mailbox bugs in Outlook alone cover my car payments.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  3. OTOH by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 2, Funny
    Other costs that America finds affordable:

    Football pools -- $241 billion/year

    Alcoholism -- $1533 billion/year

    Drugs -- $800 billion/year

    Coffee breaks -- $526 billion/year

    Bathroom time -- $715 billion/year

    Krispy Kreme Donuts -- $445 billion/year

    Software company lawyers -- $440 billion/year

    Neckties -- $211 billion/year

    Slashdot -- $688 /year

  4. Offset Piracy? by cloudscout · · Score: 5, Funny

    So does this $60 billion offset the amount of money that the software industry claims they lose to software pirates?

    How much money do software pirates lose by using illegal copies of sloppily coded software?

  5. As a game developer... by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 5, Funny

    How much money do MY bugs cost? Do fatal bugs in my code actually RETURN productivity to the workforce? Do bugs in my code actually make money for the US economy?

  6. Re:Not just "sloppy coding" by SirSlud · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is why software, by law, should explode like an atom bomb when a sigfault occurrs. ;)

    .. if we were developing bridges, etc, you'd see alot more caution and listening on the part of management and achitects (nevermind that for *some* reason, more managers in the engineering biz are .. gasp, actually engineers!) if there were physical costs to buggy software, rather than (mostly) economic costs.

    Anyhow, I'm glibly musing, but for the record, I totally agree with you.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  7. Doesn't cost me that much by AintTooProudToBeg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sloppy coding earns me approx. $31.75/hr!

  8. Back of the envelope calculation by washirv · · Score: 5, Funny

    US Population: approx 0.25Bn
    Cost of Windows XP: $200
    Total cost: $50Bn
    Yeah sounds about right

  9. In further news.... by timeOday · · Score: 2, Funny

    experts estimate that friction costs the economy $200 billion per year.

  10. so the BSA owes us? by fermion · · Score: 3, Funny
    1. This article implies that bugs cost the end user around 30 Billion.

    2. The BSA tells us that piracy costs the idustry about 11 biliion.

    As far as I can tell, the software industry owes us around 19 Billion in refunds.

    Isn't playing with fake statistics wonderful?

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black