Software Integrity

Approximately 250,000 cell phone subscribers lost service for most of Tuesday this week in Vermont and neighboring states. According to the Brattleboro Reformer, a “software issue” caused the problem, which caused the loss of Unicel̵

With JavaOne commencing this week, there will be much persuasion for those not yet upgraded to Java 6 to do so. Although not as rich in features as the move to Java 5 was, Java 6 still has benefits. My favorites include: - A scripting engine (Rhino)

Ford Motor Company announced this week that it will recall 65,000 Volvo V70 and XC70 cars because of a problem with the software that controls the side-impact air bags. Apparently the recall applies only to cars in Europe. According to Volvo’

Tom and Mary Poppendieck are two leading evangelists of Lean software development who share their experiences at conferences on a regular basis. Their first book was an excellent introduction to lean principles and tools, and this book continues the

Glitch Watch is a bit abbreviated this week by virtue of the fact that I am on the road which severely limits the amount of time I have available to sort through the mail bag. However, one story did catch my eye this week. Irish airline Aer Lingus

When investigating Lean for the first time, books and articles that give an overview of the principles and tenets of Lean can appear to be contradictory. For example many managers may question how Cease Inspections can be advocated where a basic prin

Stillwater, MN: the Stillwater Lift Bridge got stuck in the open position for more than two hours this week after its controlling computer got “confused”. According to Minnesota Department of Transportation spokeswoman Mary McFarland-Bro

Problems with a new $3m automated trip reservation system caused difficulties last week for disabled users of Chicago’s paratransit system. Apparently, computerizing the dispatch system was supposed to make things better for the roughly 6,000

When your manager says: “We expect you to write good quality code,” many people, especially junior developers, will freeze, thinking about code structure, performance, best practices, company coding standards, patterns… the list goes on a

Wednesday last week in Lake Placid, FL, residents were warned to boil water after a computer glitch caused the town’s water storage tanks, which together hold some 300,000 gallons, to run dry. By Friday, the water was back on, and certified dr