On Software Failures (Part I)

03/07/2004

Okay, the microwave oven thing is much worse than I suspected. I had many readers write in and report that yes, in fact they did have to reboot their microwaves. Some more frequently than others.

And it’s not just microwave ovens. Reader Isaac Gouy writes in with the following riddle:

How can you tell that the California SuperLotto kiosk applications are written in Java? Just read the exception at the bottom of the screen…

Ouch. So much for winning the lottery. I wonder if any SuperLotto players have complained to the gaming commission, or the store?

For all the readers who told me they had to reboot their microwaves because they were hung (all in the “off” state, mercifully), no no one admitted to taking their defective products back to the store, or complaining about them to the manufacturer.

And that’s exactly the problem. Until there is some sort of massive lawsuit or public outcry, nothing will change. Why should it? What motivation does a company have to improve its software development efforts? What personal motivation do you have to write better software?

Do you get paid less for every bug you create?

Do you get a bonus for bugs fixed? (this of course, has it’s own problems. Remember the Dilbert cartoon where Wally takes up this offer with glee, proclaiming “I’m writing me a mini-van!” ?).

(I’ll assume you answered “no” to the above.) Jerry Weinberg tells us that things are the way they are “because they got that way.” Most software is poorly written and bug-ridden today because there is no corporate motivation to write better software.

Our only motivation is personal: our own pride in the craft. This may explain why open source projects seem to enjoy such success. I’ve had more than a few people tell me they enjoy working on an open source project because they have the opportunity to “do it right”, unencumbered by the political difficulties engendered by the ferocious drive to boost this quarter’s figures at all costs.

So why is most software so crappy? Because we, as consumers, allow it to be so; we accept it as is and put up with it as best we can. Like the customer of the inept tailor, we would rather learn to walk funny instead of getting a suit that fits well.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of walking funny.