Thursday, May 01, 2008

The price of software testing

A special File on 4 this week alleged that the new baggage handling software at Terminal 5 had never been properly tested before it went live

This reminded me of the conversation I overheard on the train

Most of it was highly technical & the man sitting near me was impressively expert. One piece of news given to him by the manager with whom he was talking took him considerably aback – the client was not going to get sight or use of the software re-write until the hand-over at the end of the contract

Clearly a new policy to cut costs, & the expert supposed they knew what they were doing

In a wider context one can see that this constant pressure to reduce costs, or at least to keep them under control, stems from the central tenet of economic policy – to keep inflation in the prices of current goods & services under control

Somehow we never thought to worry about asset price inflation. Persuaded ourselves it is A Good Thing. Makes us all rich