
They Write the Right Stuff - prakash
http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28121/print
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mynameishere
It's been posted around a thousand times, and the standard criticism still
holds: The space program represents a unique, unreproducible environment in
which quality is a benefit that outweighs every possible cost.

~~~
yters
It's crazy the amount of effort they put into the process, and yet the
slightest computer bug blows up a whole shuttle. I forget which shuttle it
was, but an arithmetic bug was replicated in both failsafe systems, and it was
exactly this bug that caused the shuttle to crash. Nowhere is Murphy's law
more true.

~~~
hollerith
There have been two losses of shuttles: 1986 with the failure of the O-ring in
the solid-rocket booster and 1996 with the foam that fell off during lift-off
that damaged a tile on the leading-edge of a wing which caused the shuttle to
burn up on re-entry. Which loss are you talking about when you say, <i>it was
exactly this bug that caused the shuttle to crash</i>?

~~~
aston
Not shuttle. Mars probe. And it was a bad unit conversion.

~~~
yters
Yeah, that's the one.

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johnrob
If normal software buyers were as averse to defects as NASA, all software
development would probably be like this. However, normal customers tend to
prefer more features and overlook defects (relatively speaking).

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Hexstream
"The answer is, yes, the process does _stifle creativity_. [...] It's the
process that offers a template for any _creative_ enterprise that's looking
for a method to produce consistent - and consistently improving -- quality."

Come again?...

"In the modern software environment, 80% of the cost of the software is spent
after the software is written the first time -- _they don't get it right the
first time_ , so they spend time flogging it."

I'd say most sofware _cannot_ be gotten right the first time...

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noonespecial
Cool story, but don't run your startup like that.

If you do, you will deliver perfect software, years too late, that nobody
wants.

~~~
Husafan
Not to say that every project needs to be planned like NASA, but I would like
to know how many start-ups have calculated their acceptable rate of failure
(in their software) prior to launch.

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Husafan
This is one of the coolest things I have ever read. Thanks to OP.

