Java Apps Have Most Expensive Technical Debt

An analysis of 745 applications by Cast Software finds that Java apps have the most violations of standard development practices per line of code. When application developers are rushed to complete a project, they sometimes cut corners, leading to flaws that are often called "technical debt." If you estimate $75 per hour to repair that technical debt, the average Jave EE app has a technical debt of $5.42 per line. By contrast, Cobol apps fared the best in the study with a technical debt of $1.26 per line.

Bill Curtis, chief scientist at Cast, speculates that Cobol programs did well in the study because many of them are older, while Java apps may have done poorly because "there are many people going into Java now that really don't have strong computer science backgrounds."