Software development organizations are under more pressure than ever before. Development costs continue to rise. There's a growing need to get products to the marketplace quickly, which creates accelerated development schedules. Pressure to cut costs is leading to reduced development resources and more outsourcing. And software applications are more complex.

All of these factors can make it difficult to maintain code quality while managing costs. Minimizing defects is one of the most effective ways to keep development costs down, which is a priority for just about any organization. And because the cost of fixing defects increases exponentially as software progresses through the development lifecycle, it's critical to catch defects as early as possible. The costs of discovering defects after release are significant: up to 30 times more than if you catch them in the design and architectural phase.

High costs aren't the only concern. If you release software containing bugs or performance issues, you can potentially suffer damage to your reputation and lose customer confidence. And loss of customer confidence can lead to a decrease in revenue.

This paper talks about why it's important to take a proactive approach to improving overall code quality using static and dynamic analysis. It then shows how IBM Rational Software Analyzer and IBM Rational PurifyPlus software can be used together to reduce the number of defects in your company's code.