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?

Read: Boeing software outsourced

Bloomberg: Boeing’s 737-MAX software outsourced to $9/hour software engineers

Read: Unloved patches

Read: Banks scramble to fix old systems as IT 'cowboys' ride into sunset

If I ever get tired of working in the aerospace industry, looks like there is plenty of need for old COBOL programmers….

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

Philip Greenspun makes it sound simple, after the damage has been done. The trick is to figure this out before there is an accident.

Read: Discussing Social Networks, Again

I think that any tool can be a social network, we should start networking with whatever we have!

Read: Java’s Forgotten Forbear

An interesting history of an early Pascal development environment. Turbo Pascal was also an early success for PC software development.

(via Dave Winer) – I used Fortran as my first professional programming, interesting to see that there are still so many users…

How embedded software projects run into trouble

Jack Ganssle has written articles for his top ten list of how embedded software projects run into trouble. Most of this could apply to any software project! Here are the links: