Robust software - no more excuses

Abstract

Software developers identify two main reasons why software systems are not made robust: performance and practicality. We demonstrate the effectiveness of general techniques to improve robustness that are practical and yield high performance. We present data from treating three systems to improve robustness by a factor of 5 or more, with a measured performance penalty of under 5% in nearly every case, and usually under 2%. We identify a third possible reason why software systems are not made robust: developer awareness. A case study on three professional development groups evaluated their ability to estimate the robustness of their software. Two groups were able to estimate their software's robustness to some extent, while one group had more divergent results. Although we can overcome the technical challenges, it appears that even experienced developers can benefit from tools to locate robustness failures and training in robustness issues.