(from PC Mech newsletter 186)
Weekly Rant: If Software Could Fly
by Tana George
Maybe you have heard the popular joke about a group of project managers who are asked to say how would they feel if they were to fly on a plane and the flight software were developed by their team. Most of the managers were really scared by such an idea, and only one was not worried at all. When asked why he wasn't afraid, he answered that having in mind the skills of his team, they would hardly be able to write a program that will make the plane move, not mention take off and fly in the air.
So, this guy really had a reason to stay calm -- his team wouldn't take a software-managed flight possible, while all the others knew that even the most vigorous tests can't catch all bugs but when the organization in a team is lousy and testing is skipped, then God save the users (or passangers).
Well, this is a joke only. Don't get scared to fly. Even though there is a lot of software on a plane, there are strict regulations about its quality and reliability, so boarding a plane is hardly that risky. But what about other areas where software of suspicious quality is used? What about banking, where billions are involved, or medicine, where human's life is at stake? No software, no problem?
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