Fri, 06 Jan 2006

When Bugs Aren't Allowed

The article cited does list some very interesting ideas on building correctness into the system from the get-go. But in a business environment, there's always a perceived time pressure to release software: this can be mitigated somewhat by trying to release in stages, but marketing doesn't always see things the way engineering does, so there's usually a disconnect between expectation and reality.

When you're writing software for an air traffic control system, military avionics software, or an authentication system for the NSA, the delivered code can't afford to have bugs. Praxis High Integrity Systems, who were the feature of a recent IEEE article, write exactly that kind of software. In "Correctness by Construction: A Manifesto for High-Integrity Software" developers from Praxis discuss their development method, explaining how they manage such a low defect rate, and how they can still maintain very high developer productivity rates using a more agile development method than the rigid processes usually associated with high-integrity software development.

(link) [Slashdot]

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