Wouter,

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 23:29:28 +0200, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:

> Note that the failure of the first Ariane 5 was caused by using software
> that was space proven (but on another rocket!) instead of writing new
> software (even testing with the new rpcket parameters was not deemed
> necessarry, because the software was space-proven!).

Makes you wish there was a crime of "Negligent Software Management", doesn't it?  

Makes me wonder why I bothered with the level of detail of test-cases I had to write for a pensions system 
once:  there was an "effective" date and the logic had to behave differently depending on where it fell in 
relation to a Start and End date.  The tests had to have the effective date well before, the day before, the 
day of, and the day after the Start date, well after, the day after, the day of and the day before the End 
date, and in between the Start and End dates well clear of both.  9 tests just for one item of data!  

And these rocket scientists were allowed to do no testing at all???

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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