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I think we're saying the same thing? That was my point. You're never going to achieve zero bugs no matter how much time you give yourself. Focus on getting the

I think we're saying the same thing? That was my point. You're never going to achieve zero bugs no matter how much time you give yourself. Focus on getting the critical path right and creating a good experience, and then get it to customers for feedback on where to go next. [The above does not necessarily apply in highly regulated industries or where lives are on the line]

ElectricalUnion 3y ago
I would say that also applies on highly regulated industries or where lives are on the line. On those you're of course expected to do safety and testing up to the limit of the "value of a statistical life"s within the expected project impacts, but it still has time and budget limits.
- colinmorelli 3y ago
  The part I was suggesting does not apply is the statement "Focus on getting the critical path right and creating a good experience, and then get it to customers for feedback on where to go next." Most software engineering is about making sure the happy path works well. When lives are on the line, you need to also plan to minimize the possible damage that can happen when things go wrong.
BobaFloutist 3y ago
I like to think of "zero bugs" as the asymptote. As you spend more time, you discover increasingly fewer (and less significant) bugs per unit of time. POSSIBLY at the limit of infinite time you hit 0 bugs, but even if you could, would it be worth it? Doubtful. I can think of far better ways to spend infinite time.
- zamalek 3y ago
  0 bugs is actually impossible. A cosmic ray can flip a bit and change the behavior of your software. We live in a fundamentally unreliable universe. We aren't taught how to write reliable software because very few people know how to write reliable software. It doesn't help that academia has a hard crush on OOP, which is a bag of accidental complexity - and complexity is a breeding ground for unreliability.
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    I think if a cosmic ray flips the bit and changes the behavior of your software, you can still reasonably brag that you wrote 0-bug code. It's not your fault that happened, you didn't do that. The code you wrote had 0 bugs.
reactordev 3y ago
Yup, I also like how you call out "get it in-front of customers" as a step in the whole chain. Often sorely missed. Sometimes a bug to you, is a feature to them (gasp!)... so either make it a first class thing or train them on the correct path (while you fix the "bug").

ElectricalUnion 3y ago

I would say that also applies on highly regulated industries or where lives are on the line. On those you're of course expected to do safety and testing up to the limit of the "value of a statistical life"s within the expected project impacts, but it still has time and budget limits.

colinmorelli 3y ago
The part I was suggesting does not apply is the statement "Focus on getting the critical path right and creating a good experience, and then get it to customers for feedback on where to go next." Most software engineering is about making sure the happy path works well. When lives are on the line, you need to also plan to minimize the possible damage that can happen when things go wrong.

BobaFloutist 3y ago

I like to think of "zero bugs" as the asymptote. As you spend more time, you discover increasingly fewer (and less significant) bugs per unit of time. POSSIBLY at the limit of infinite time you hit 0 bugs, but even if you could, would it be worth it? Doubtful. I can think of far better ways to spend infinite time.

zamalek 3y ago
0 bugs is actually impossible. A cosmic ray can flip a bit and change the behavior of your software. We live in a fundamentally unreliable universe. We aren't taught how to write reliable software because very few people know how to write reliable software. It doesn't help that academia has a hard crush on OOP, which is a bag of accidental complexity - and complexity is a breeding ground for unreliability.
- BobaFloutist 3y ago
  I think if a cosmic ray flips the bit and changes the behavior of your software, you can still reasonably brag that you wrote 0-bug code. It's not your fault that happened, you didn't do that. The code you wrote had 0 bugs.

reactordev 3y ago

Yup, I also like how you call out "get it in-front of customers" as a step in the whole chain. Often sorely missed. Sometimes a bug to you, is a feature to them (gasp!)... so either make it a first class thing or train them on the correct path (while you fix the "bug").