Introduction to Software Testing

Why?

• There was an awful lot of money to be made.
• No real economic advantage to being responsible.
• Companies could just turn out more HPSEs and pay off whoever they had to when an HPSE exploded.
• So what's to be done in a situation like this?

History ...

• In the US, there were calls for standardization of training and professionalism, suggestion for a government academy of steam engineers.
• Back in the UK, Watt and Boulton tried to raise the alarm; they succeeded in slowing the adoption of HPS technology.

Boiler technology

• The technical Achilles’ heel was the boiler, which was apt to explode.
• Boiler technology lagged behind the rest of steam engine technology.
• Not cost-efficient to consider boiler improvements.
• Little understanding of underlying scientific principles.
• While boilers had been around for eons, they were only now being used in such stressful situations.