Following our last post on how log analytics and code analysis tools are becoming all the more essential in the world of complex and distributed systems, this post will introduce 5 amazing facts on exactly how much time is spent on debugging and code fixing in the software industry.

1) On average, a developer creates 70 bugs per 1000 lines of code (!)

2) 15 bugs per 1,000 lines of code find their way to the customers

3) Fixing a bug takes 30 times longer than writing a line of code

4) 75% of a developer’s time is spent on debugging (1500 hours a year!)

5) In the US alone, $113B is spent annually on identifying & fixing product defects

So if you thought that your developers are spending their time on making your dream a reality… you better think again, most of your budget is spent on debugging, and when debugging takes a lot of time, versions are delayed.

We found a great (and very simple) illustration of what happens to your revenue when a product release is delayed (credit to initialstate.com)

All in all, it is apparent that R&D and QA are spending ever-increasing timespans on finding and solving problems on software systems, which are getting more complex by the minute.

In our next post, we’ll discuss ways to reduce these long resolution times and budget spending.