12.6 Next Steps

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The path to higher software quality is significantly improved software testing. Standardized testing tools, suites, scripts, reference data, reference implementations and metrics that have undergone a rigorous certification process would have a large impact on the inadequacies currently plaguing software markets. For example, the availability of standardized test data, metrics and automated test suites for performance testing would make benchmarking tests less costly to perform. Standardized automated testing scripts, along with standard metrics, also would provide a more consistent method for determining when to stop testing.

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