How to Write the Right Stuff

I came across the following article about the process of writing the software by the shuttle software group.

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html

 

December 31, 1996

As the 120-ton space shuttle sits surrounded by almost 4 million pounds of rocket fuel, exhaling noxious fumes, visibly impatient to defy gravity, its on-board computers take command.

 

The Interesting thing is that the article reminded me what we study in our software engineering class and forget after joining work in the name of this is not a textbook case.

 

According to the article, shuttle software group does not focus on individual errors, but on process. So if they find an error , they go after why that error occurred, and fix the cause.

 

Another thing that they do is really hard software testing. Testing team consists of software developers, but their focus is on finding bugs instead of writing software.

 

They also maintain detailed record of errors, why it happened, how it was found, how could it impact other part as well.

 

I really recommend reading this article.