Topic 5 | Good-Enough Software |
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
There's an old(ish) joke about a company that places an order for 100,000 ICs with a Japanese manufacturer. Part of the specification was the defect rate: one chip in 10,000. A few weeks later the order arrived: one large box containing thousands of ICs, and a small one containing just ten. Attached to the small box was a label that read: “These are the faulty ones.''
If only we really had this kind of control over quality. But the real world just won't let us produce much that's truly perfect, particularly not bug-free software. Time, technology, and temperament all conspire against us.
However, this doesn't have to be frustrating. As Ed Yourdon ...
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