CRASH Report Shows Risks in Java EE Frameworks

CAST (Euronext:CAS), a world leader in software analysis and measurement, today released the latest update to their CRASH Global Benchmark report, which applies advanced analytics to the world’s largest repository of structural data to identify the application development practices that improve or damage enterprise software quality.

Based on an analysis of 152 million lines of code, in 496 applications submitted by 88 organizations across six global industry groups, CAST’s big data analysis found that Java EE applications built without frameworks have lower structural quality overall – meaning they are more prone to failure and costly to maintain – than apps built using frameworks such as Hibernate, Spring, and Struts. Applications built using a combination of technologies, specifically Java EE/C and Java EE/C++, suffered the lowest quality scores.

The use of frameworks has become pervasive over the years – with over 28 Java EE-based frameworks today – as architects and development teams try to keep up with the rapid pace of business and competitive growth. This new analysis suggests that developers still misunderstand how Java EE interacts with other technologies and frameworks, and consequently the resulting impact on structural quality of mission-critical enterprise applications.

“These findings can help IT organizations better understand how choices made in software development can impact the reliability and cost of mission-critical applications,” said Alexandra Szynkarski, research principal at CAST. “Frameworks were introduced to build extensible, secure, and predictable applications. IT executives still have a lot of opportunity on the table to improve development productivity and predictability by implementing a Java EE-based framework.”

Nothing comes free, however. Frameworks implemented without structural quality oversight exhibited more severe system-level violations. So, even if overall quality improves, the criticality of risks increases as well.

Findings from the report include:

• Implementing Java EE frameworks improves the health and predictability of complex business applications, yet less than half of the systems in our large, representative sample do not use any framework.
• Contemporary frameworks have higher structural quality when compared to apps without frameworks – Hibernate and Persistence were 8% better in terms of quality than other frameworks.
• The combination of Hibernate/Persistence with Spring has a lower structural quality score compared to pure Hibernate/Persistence frameworks.

You can read the full research report here: http://www.castsoftware.com/resources/resource/cast-research-labs/java-ee-crash-report?gad=PR

For more information about CAST, visit: http://www.castsoftware.com

About CAST

CAST is a pioneer and world leader in Software Analysis and Measurement, with unique technology resulting from more than $100 million in R&D investment. CAST introduces fact-based transparency into application development and sourcing to transform it into a management discipline. More than 250 companies across all industry sectors and geographies rely on CAST to prevent business disruption while reducing hard IT costs. CAST is an integral part of software delivery and maintenance at the world's leading IT service providers.

Founded in 1990, CAST is listed on NYSE-Euronext (Euronext: CAS) and serves IT intensive enterprises worldwide with a network of offices in North America, Europe and India. For more information about CAST:

• Web: www.castsoftware.com
• Blog: blog.castsoftware.com
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