I. M. Wright's "Hard Code"

Chapter 5. Software Quality—More Than a Dream

In this chapter:

March 1, 2002: "Are you secure about your security?"

November 1, 2002: "Where’s the beef? Why we need quality"

April 1, 2004: "A software odyssey—From craft to engineering"

July 1, 2005: "Review this—Inspections"

October 1, 2006: "Bold predictions of quality"

Some people mock software development, saying if buildings were built like software, the first woodpecker would destroy civilization. That’s quite funny, or disturbing, but regardless it’s misguided. Early buildings lacked foundations. Early cars broke down incessantly. Early TVs required constant fiddling to work properly. Software is no different.

At first, Microsoft wrote software for early adopters, people comfortable replacing PC ...