[Info-vax] Current VMS engineering quality, was: Re: What's VMS up to these days?

[Paul Sture]

On Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:28:18 -0800, Keith Cayemberg wrote:

> On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 1:57:37 PM UTC+1, Paul Sture wrote:
>> There was at one time an excellent write up about the way software
>> development was done at NASA.  I'm pretty sure the link was posted here
>> on comp.os.vms but I have long since lost the reference, and Google
>> didn't help the last time I looked.  There's also the possibility that
>> the article is no longer on line, and that would be a shame.
>> 
>> --
>> Paul Sture
> 
> Yes, I believe I remember reading that article. It concerned the
> "on-board shuttle group," a branch of Lockheed Martin Corps space
> mission systems division. The detailed organization of their intensive
> development process was impressive. Now that the shuttle is museum
> history, I wonder if Lockheed managed to keep the group together for
> other such extremely high spec projects.
> 
> I found that article here...
> 
> They Write the Right Stuff
> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html
> 

Thanks very much.

Although that article is dated December 2007, it's a reprint, probably 
from 1996, for it contains this sentence:

"This spring, the European Space Agency's new Ariane 5 rocket blew up on 
its maiden launch because of a little software problem."

http://www.astronomytoday.com/exploration/ariane.html

"The next version, Ariane 5, ...

 On July 4, 1996, its maiden voyage ended in failure attributed to 
computer error."

P.S. I had a brief attempt to find the original article (ISTR reading 
this originally on a plain text web page) and came up with a free ebook 
download here:

"Professional Software Development: Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality 
Products, More Successful Projects, Enhanced Careers
By Steve McConnell"

http://ebookfreepdf.appspot.com/2010/01/free-chm-ebook-professional-
software-development-shorter-schedules-higher-quality-products-more-
successful-projects-enhanced-careers

short link:

http://bit.ly/AmFEQ5

Unfortunately that leads to a Dropbox account which has been suspended 
for generating too much traffic, a neat lesson about hosting stuff on 
Dropbox. :-)

-- 
Paul Sture