[SystemSafety] Collected stopgap measures

[Martyn Thomas]

I agree with Steve. But "We just need get developers to start doing it."
is the heart of the problem.

I have spent four decades proving (at least to myself) that developers
are not swayed by reasoned argument, exhortation, reports from respected
professional societies and national academies, examples of the
successsful use of rigorous engineering, or academic research
programmes; nor are Boards of Directors persuaded by direct approaches
or any of the above – they ask "what do other companies in our industry
do? Are we competitively exposed?".

Progress in engineering is too often triggered by major catastrophes but
the industry is so widespread, important and competitive that it would
seem to need a global calamity. And it would still need legally enforced
regulation before most companies changed. International standards have
the power to force changes but they are written by people from the same
companies that are resisting making the necessary changes.

Tony Hoare once wrote:

/We are like the barber-surgeons of earlier ages, who prided themselves
on the sharpness of their knives and the speed with which they
dispatched their duty -- either shaving a beard or amputating a limb. /

/Imagine the dismay with which they greeted some ivory-towered academic
who told them that the practice of surgery should be based on a long and
detailed study of human anatomy, on familiarity with surgical procedures
pioneered by great doctors of the past, and that it should be carried
out only in a strictly controlled bug-free environment, far removed from
the hair and dust of the normal barber's shop./

Martyn

On 16/11/2018 12:41, Steve Tockey wrote:
> I would propose that the question of how to professionally engineer
> software has already been answered. We just need get developers to
> start doing it.
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