Creating a Software Engineering Culture

Chapter 11. The Quality Culture

There is absolutely no reason for having errors or defects in any product or service.

—Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free

Bug. Defect. Error. Fault. Incident. Anomaly. Problem. Spoilage. Imperfection. Leaders in the software industry disagree on just what something found to be wrong with a computer program ought to be called. Some object that “fault” suggests that it is somebody’s fault that the program has something wrong with it (often it is). But “bug” makes it sound as if these things just come out of nowhere, all by themselves (usually they don’t).

An “incident” sounds like something from a Robert Ludlum novel; “anomaly” is a broad-reaching euphemism for anything out of the ordinary; “spoilage” makes it sound ...