Software systems are becoming unwieldy in their complexity and, as a result, fragile and prone to code changes that result in the dreaded break/fix cycle. Why is this happening? Will it get better or worse? (Hint: probably not better.) What does this mean for developer productivity?
This white paper examines the current state of complexity within the software industry and offers a directional solution—continuous software intelligence. Whereas software intelligence (“software designed to analyze database structures, software frameworks and source code to better understand and control complex software systems…” according to Wikipedia) has been with us for some time, it is increasingly failing to expose the true, “as built” structure of software systems. Continuous software intelligence digs deeper into code structures by examining post-compile binaries, actual runtime behaviors, and database interactions in order to develop a searchable, complete, and accurate picture of complex software infrastructure.
