* * * * *
                                        
                              World Class Software
                                        
> But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What
> makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never
> crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is
> perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats:
> the last three versions of the program – each 420,000 lines long-had just
> one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17
> errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000
> errors.
> 
> . . .
> 
> Software may power the post-industrial world, but the creation of software
> remains a pre-industrial trade. According to SEI's studies, nearly 70% of
> software organizations are stuck in the first two levels of SEI's scale of
> sophistication: chaos, and slightly better than chaos. The situation is so
> severe, a few software pioneers from companies such as Microsoft have
> broken away to teach the art of software creation ( see “Drop and Code me
> Twenty!” [1])
> 
> . . .
> 
> In this software morass, the on-board shuttle group stands out as an
> exception. Ten years ago the shuttle group was considered world-class.
> Since then, it has cut its own error rate by 90%.
> 

Via Slashdot, [2] They Write the Right Stuff. [3]

I love stuff like this.

[1] http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/dropcode.html
[2] http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/19/050258
[3] http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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