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You might be interested in the Rogers report (the commissioned report on the causes of the Challenger disaster; the committee included notable luminaries such a

You might be interested in the Rogers report (the commissioned report on the causes of the Challenger disaster; the committee included notable luminaries such as Feynman). At the end of each chapter it summarizes the findings of the committee. It lays a lot of blame on (among other things) managers accepting escalating risk with each successive launch because "it was OK last time", managerial structures and reporting procedures that failed to communicate critical information upward, and lack of organizational separation between engineering and QA. PDF linked here: https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/SignificantIncidents/assets/rogers_commission_report.pdf https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/SignificantIncidents/a... The Challenger disaster is a commonly used case study in engineering classes, especially when discussing engineering ethics or communication with clients/managers.

deleted 8y ago
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consp 8y ago
During my time as an engineering student doing certain projects we had a tile on the wall which read (translated) "Because it was like that last year ..." to remind us to always check everything and not assume they did it correctly previously or it was a good idea. Maybe in their understanding it was correct, but you should never assume it is good for you unless you have checked it and you can explain why it is a good idea. This was not related to the challenger disaster in any way, just to show the ideas of the report are more broadly applied. > The Challenger disaster is a commonly used case study in engineering classes, especially when discussing engineering ethics or communication with clients/managers. Yes, and so is the Mars Climate Orbiter to some extend, though no ethical questions there.
- randlet 8y ago
  There's still an ethical component with the orbiter because of the amount of money involved.
  - consp 8y ago
    My bad, I was looking at it from an engineering perspective and forgetting the money flows.

deleted 8y ago

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consp 8y ago

During my time as an engineering student doing certain projects we had a tile on the wall which read (translated) "Because it was like that last year ..." to remind us to always check everything and not assume they did it correctly previously or it was a good idea. Maybe in their understanding it was correct, but you should never assume it is good for you unless you have checked it and you can explain why it is a good idea. This was not related to the challenger disaster in any way, just to show the ideas of the report are more broadly applied. > The Challenger disaster is a commonly used case study in engineering classes, especially when discussing engineering ethics or communication with clients/managers. Yes, and so is the Mars Climate Orbiter to some extend, though no ethical questions there.

randlet 8y ago
There's still an ethical component with the orbiter because of the amount of money involved.
- consp 8y ago
  My bad, I was looking at it from an engineering perspective and forgetting the money flows.