Read “We Did Nothing Wrong: Why Software Quality Matters” by Deborah Gage and John McCormick in Baseline Magazine on March 4, 2004. This paper details a number of software systems that failed in spectacular ways, with most of the focus on a radiation machine made by Multidata called the Cobalt-60.
As you read, think about the following:
- What fault(s) contributed to the failure of the Multidata machine?
- Are there quality-control procedures that might have made a difference?
Question for Recitation
Before you come to this recitation, write up (on paper) a brief answer to the following (really—we don’t need more than a sentence or so for each question):
- What was the Cobalt-60?
- How did it fail?
- Why did it fail?
(There are multiple possible answers to each of these questions.)
