by Dave Murphy
One percent of the bugs in Microsoft Corp.'s software cause
half of all reported errors, with 20 percent of bugs responsible for 80 percent
of the mistakes, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday.
Microsoft Corporation chief executive Steve Ballmer reported
yesterday that 20 percent of all software bugs cause 80 percent of all errors
and a stunning one percent of the bugs cause half of the errors.
Ballmer stated in a memo, "Let's acknowledge a sad
truth about software: any code of significant scope and power will have bugs in
it," a comment much like the one that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made
earlier this year. "We've been amazed by the patterns revealed in the
error reports that customers are sending us," Ballmer wrote.
Dave's Opinion
I'm not surprised at the numbers in Ballmer's statement,
although I'm surprised that he made it. I've never taken Ballmer for one to
willingly admit to a Microsoft failing. He seems to me to be the consummate
Microsoft advocate.
The numbers seem to play out, in 1906 Vilfredo Pareto, an
Italian economist, wrote that 20 percent of Italian people owned 80 percent of
their country's accumulated wealth. Over time, the 80/20 rule, sometimes known
as the Pareto's Principle or the Vital Few and Trivial Many Rule, has come to
be applied to many relationships. Pareto's rule essentially states that a minor
number of catalysts are responsible for a major number of effects, keeping a
standard ratio of 20:80. While the 80/20 rule is expected by many people, I'll
bet only software engineers recognize that most of the recognized problems in
code are caused by just a handful of errors, the major errors.
References
Microsoft: Microsoft.com
Dave Murphy is founder and membership director of ITrain,
the International Association of Information Technology Trainers. ITrain is the
global professional society for IT trainers.