Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> http://www.gamearchitect.net/Articles/SoftwareIsHard.html?dupe

  It actually *is* possible to have software development which produces
(almost) bug-free programs on schedule and within budget. However, getting
to that point is extremely hard and probably prohibitively expensive.

  I loved that one article (which has also been referenced here in the past)
on how software is produced by NASA. The development system is absolutely
draconian and bureaucratic, where not a single feature or even line of code
is added, removed or modified without the change being carefully documented
and passed through an admission process. The rules are mind-numbingly strict
and bureaucratic.

  However, it works. Where projects of similar size in other, more regular
software companies, have something like 5000 bugs found in beta-testing
stage, NASA software projects have something like 5. And not just critical
bugs. *Any* bugs.

  And they *learn* from the bugs. Every time a bug is found in beta-testing,
they carefully study and document the *reason* why the bug got through to
beta-testing in the first place, through all the safeguards and development
methods, and once the reason is understood, these safeguards and methods are
improved so that similar bugs will never pass again undetected.

  (This idea of actually learning from bugs and documenting them in order
to avoid them in the future is actually a superb idea. However, how many
companies do that? I'd say the amount is really, really small. Most developers
just fix the bug and *forget* about it. Then they are doomed to repeat the
same process again in the future in similar situations.)

  And as said, they not only produce virtually bug-free programs, they do
so in schedule and within budget. How many other companies can say that?

  I liked how the article talked about the one guy who was a developer at
NASA, who wanted to go to the software industry where he could develop
software with more freedom, without all the bureaucracy. He got shocked
at how bad software development was elsewhere, and returned to NASA after
a few years.

  Of course getting to this kind of development must be rather hard and
expensive (at least at first). It also requires a kind of mentality and
expertise that most project leaders just don't have.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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