[SystemSafety] A Fire Code for Software?

[Steve Tockey]

See also Nancy Leveson’s “High-Pressure Steam Engines and Computer Software” (www.sunnyday.mit.edu/steam.pdf<http://www.sunnyday.mit.edu/steam.pdf>)


发自我的 iPad

On Mar 6, 2018, at 10:48 AM, "Chuck_Petras at selinc.com<mailto:Chuck_Petras at selinc.com>" <Chuck_Petras at selinc.com<mailto:Chuck_Petras at selinc.com>> wrote:

So Jack Ganssle has written a good article <http://www.ganssle.com/tem/tem345.html#article2[ganssle.com]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ganssle.com_tem_tem345.html-23article2&d=DwMBAg&c=zVFQZQ67ypsA9mYKSCqWmQHiVkCCaN-Gb60_N6TVnLk&r=zCwDz0h_ezUCVpbXoLT-zh0iTVdbymfdnT16kGAgelNE5W_nOFK-pESbjJCRy2gv&m=EXlK2RTydJ9dFQ3M6TTCTNQByQGVSNvelRsEfZBJZKA&s=V9mvQe_kIPN3s8Q3ISK7OtnaRX7M7m3ghABaqDqWGwc&e=>> recounting the history of fire codes and comparing that to software. Here are some out takes.

"Fires like at the MGM were once common occurrences. Sweeping fires are today so unusual that the once dreaded word conflagration sounds quaint to our modern ears. Yet in 19th century America a city-burning blaze consumed much of a downtown area nearly every year."

"Fire has been mankind's friend and foe since long before Homo sapiens or even Neanderthals existed. Researchers suspect proto-humans domesticated it some 790,000 years ago. No doubt in the early days small tragedies - burns and such - accompanied this new tool. As civilization dawned, and then the industrial revolution drove workers off the farm, closely-packed houses and buildings erupted into conflagration with heartrending frequency."

"I quoted the Iroquois fire's report earlier. Here's that sentence again, with a few parallels to our business in parenthesis: 'They (the software community) seemed to be under the impression that they were required only to fight flames (bugs) and appeared surprised that their department was expected by the public to take every precaution (inspections, careful design, encapsulation, and so much more) to prevent fire (errors) from starting.', "

"Do you want fire codes for software? The techie and libertarian in me screams 'never!' But perhaps that's the wrong question. Instead ask 'do I want conflagrations? Software disasters, people killed or maimed by my code, systems inoperable, customers angry?' No software engineering methodology will solve all of our woes. But continuing to adhere to ad hoc, chaotic processes guarantees we'll continue to ship buggy code."

"When researching this a firefighter left me with this chilling thought: 'I actually find bad software even more dangerous than fire, as people are already afraid of fire, but trust all software.',"



Chuck Petras, PE**
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc
Pullman, WA  99163  USA
http://www.selinc.com<http://www.selinc.com/>

SEL Synchrophasors - A New View of the Power System <http://synchrophasor.selinc.com<http://synchrophasor.selinc.com/>>

Making Electric Power Safer, More Reliable, and More Economical (R)

** Registered in Oregon.
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