Introduction to Software Testing

Why (Cont’d)

• Design engineers didn’t understand how their systems would be used:
• installation environment
• operator training, ignorance
• owner ignorance, greed
• over-riding of safety features

Who was usually blamed?

• operators (“pilot error”) usually
• owners sometimes
• ... but never the design engineers.

Enter the government!

• The steam engine was considered an icon of a forward thinking, prosperous society.
• “Too much is at stake.”
• “The private sector will regulate itself.”
• “The market will self-correct. Bad corporate citizens will be punished by the consumer.”
• Sound familiar?

So we get more HPSEs

• BOOM!
• In 1817, UK parliament decides to investigate; forms a Select Committee to investigate dangers of HPS.
• The Committee recommended, among other things, frequent boiler inspections.