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UK Post Office: Error-laden software ruined staff lives
- vanilla-almond 6y agoWill any developers involved in this horrible scandal ever will be held accountable for their work? I wonder if the developers who were responsible for such a bug-infested piece of software realise their work has destroyed people's lives? (They presumably never met the users of their software.) Do those developers even realise it was their incompetence that caused untold misery? Or are they completely detached from the events in this scandal and see themselves as simply cogs in the 'system' and thus blameless? Developers are often quick to point the finger of blame at others (usually management). But this cannot excuse what those developers delivered in this case: software simply unfit for use. The end consequence was the ruin of many lives. Meanwhile, the developers face no consequences.
- zimpenfish 6y ago> Do those developers even realise it was their incompetence that caused untold misery? Whilst the developers did ship broken software, I don't think you can lay the blame for the misery at their door directly - that should be on the management who, when presented with evidence that the software was garbage, doubled-down and decided to prosecute rather than running tests, etc.
- vanilla-almond 6y agoI agree with you that some blame must be apportioned to management. But also I feel it's too easy as a developer to see yourself as part of a team and thus absolved of any individual blame. You're subsumed in the "team" - and ultimately no-one takes responsibly. Even with management at fault, one cannot deny that the developers produced absolute garbage. I hope the developers who worked on this system, no matter how much they feel they are not responsible for the failure of this project, will reflect on how the impact of software they built had devastating consequences on people's lives.