[SystemSafety] automobile software

[Les Chambers]

Good luck with redefining "bug" Chris. It's gone into the language and is an integral part of "the common work of the tribe". The most important mission of a definition is to convey meaning, juice up the imagination and to trigger action. We've known for millennia that the best way to achieve this is with strong metaphors. American poet Robert Frost stated it cleanly: "a metaphor explains this in terms of that where this is new and that is familiar". Most normal people have a problem completing a sentence without using a metaphor of some kind. Bug achieves its mission by associating the software error with something insidious, creepy crawley, filthy, itchy, scratchy, destructive, disease carrying, scary and unwonted. Error is far too clinical and has no emotional charge.

"Technical debt" is another fantastic example of a definition wrapped in an effective metaphor. I covered the concept once in a seminar with some high-ranking air force officers. It wasn't the first time they've heard it but they were grateful for some positive reinforcement on using the term. As it happened they were about to enter a management meeting to discuss that very concept. They were about to inherit some "buggy" software from a subcontractor and they knew it was going to cost them on into the future. How to represent that reality to non-technical senior military officers? Technical debt resonated with everyone (everyone's got a mortgage). The meeting title was changed to include those words so everyone started on the same page, imaginations appropriately juced.

This raises another of my favourite subjects: there's what's defined in the standard and then there's what's in common use. Standards developers should recognise that "what's in common use" often represents valuable experience and should be incorporated into the standard even though it may sound "rough and all-unable". One can go too far though I suppose, for example redefining "anomaly" as "cluster f..k" (I cite: Clint Eastwood, Movie: Heartbreak Ridge).

But there you go.

 

Cheers

Les

 

From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Chris Hills
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 8:23 PM
To: 'The System Safety List'
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] automobile software

 

Hi All

(having stired the hornets’ nest by started the thread on the  definition of reliable SW )  

 

Can I ask that we stop referring to software “bugs” but call them software ERRORS  They are an error and that does not have quite the same dismissible cute association of “bugs” 

 

Part of the problem (with the industry and wider public)  is the perception and acceptance that all software has bugs.  I think there will be a less forgiving nature  or acceptance if we face reality and say “software errors”    It may be semantics but try the tweet below

 

“After a lengthy talk with @ Chevrolet management they admitted they DO NOT acknowledge SW Errors: they are By DESGN @mtbara really?

 

Not acknowledging errors gives a different impression that not acknowledging the  “bugs” that  everyone has in software. Also saying SW errors are by design is going to be interesting to defend.

 

 

 

Regards

   Chris 

 

Phaedrus Systems Ltd         

FREEphone 0808 1800 358    International +44 1827 259 546
Vat GB860621831  Co Reg #04120771
Http://www.phaedsys.com <http://www.phaedsys.com/>   chills at phaedsys.com 

 

 

From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Robert Schaefer
Sent: 28 April 2016 19:30
To: The System Safety List
Subject: [SystemSafety] automobile software

 

I’ve been following the twitter feed of Jonathan Zdziarski, a forensics scientist.

https://twitter.com/JZdziarski

 

two of his recent tweets:

 

1. FYI  <https://twitter.com/chevrolet> @chevrolet has informed me they no longer support last year’s software, even if there are flaws affecting safety/usability.  <https://twitter.com/mtbarra> @mtbarra

51 retweets37 likes

Reply

 

Retweet

 

51

 

Like

 

37

 

More

2.  <https://twitter.com/JZdziarski> Jonathan Zdziarski ‏@JZdziarski   <https://twitter.com/JZdziarski/status/725411063718658048> 23h23 hours ago

After a lengthy talk with  <https://twitter.com/chevrolet> @chevrolet management, they admitted they DO NOT acknowledge software bugs; they are BY DESIGN  <https://twitter.com/mtbarra> @mtbarra really???

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/mailman/private/systemsafety/attachments/20160430/ef71ea77/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3685 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/mailman/private/systemsafety/attachments/20160430/ef71ea77/attachment-0001.jpg>