Software Engineering

There are 46 posts filed in Software Engineering (this is page 3 of 5).

Please have a little respect for the past

I enjoy reading Philip Greenspun’s weblog, and he certainly has experience in aviation and software development. His recent post on visiting the Museum of Flight in Seattle throws quite a few digs at the US space program and people who have been a part of the effort. I worked at NASA and Lockheed in Houston from 1985-1997 on the Space Station program, and had the opportunity to work with a great group of people, both contractor and civil servant employees. Things were contentious at times (usually dealing with funding issues from Congress and the Administration), but we got the job done (flew Space Shuttles, came back from the Challenger accident, got the Space Station program back on track). I know that Philip likes to find fault with many things in the United States (and I agree with most of it), but I think he might want to stay with areas he has expertise in and not look for other ways to poke people in the eye.

Haste makes waste, part 157

In today’s episode, I lament when the rush to meet a deadline means that the software is not checked out sufficiently, and multiple problems/errors are discovered, most of which have to get fixed later. Sigh…

Sometimes there are business reasons for shipping something by a certain date. The cost of meeting that date, though, sometimes includes future payments to correct problems. There is no “one size fits all” answer to this topic, but the cost of corrections should be considered as part of the overall cost (unless schedule is king, which means resources will be made available to fix what needs to be fixed). Thoughts, anyone?

 

737-MAX software update still in progress, Collins Aerospace/UTC is involved

From recent reporting, the FAA is still several weeks away from approving the MCAS software changes relating to the Lionair and Ethopian Airlines crashes. In the industry media I read, I had not seen anything whether this was software created by Boeing or by one of its suppliers. This morning, I decided to do a search, and quickly found that it was my company (Collins Aerospace) involved in MCAS software development, and that Collins Aerospace supplies the computer that runs the software. Hoo boy!

  • Washington Post: Boeing’s 737 Max design contains fingerprints of hundreds of suppliers
  • The Gazette (Cedar Rapids IA, former headquarters location of Rockwell Collins/Collins Aerospace): United Technologies is parent company of sensor maker under scrutiny for Boeing 737 Max failure