Software Arsonists

Society will never forgive a fireman who is suspected of setting fires to appear heroic. Fortunately, there have been only rare occurrences of such behavior. Not quite so with software.

A multi-billion dollar industry that is yet to solve a problem that is seemingly important to the end users. Each new release touts 'fixes' - to the problems the programmers have created in the first place. And we have to cough up more money for this new release. And you got to love the 'dated' versions of software.

In my organization, every one was cheering a group that has supposedly solved 'performance' problems in their application. I asked a simple question: Aren't they the same guys who wrote the over-engineered bloat-ware to begin with?

Don't get me wrong. I am part of that industry. And I have been young too. And I have had my share of bad programs. But over the years I have become more of a cynic.

See, I am an Electrical Engineer who drifted into Software for one simple reason. Yes, I admit it - money and opportunities to make money - modest by comparison to some other professions, but pretty good in comparison to some others.

Software is not an engineering discipline. And most respectable folks agree with that. Most engineering disciplines do not change as dramatically in such short time frame as does software.

My criticism is not contained to software vendors. Even at companies that can ill-afford to write and maintain software invariably end up with an IT organization. And those organizations have yet to fulfill their mission. Instead they are fixing their numerous blunders and getting paid to do so.

And even folks who do not use computers often have heard the standard fix for your 'computer problem' - just reboot. Every software programmer must ask himself this question: Does your doctor/surgeon have the 'reboot' option? And what would happen if doctors were more like software programmers.

Sure, there are some bad physicians too. And they get sued. Is it time software programmers get sued as well? I think so.