Yes, it is. Now. And I don’t mean the technical wonders, the oohs and aahs. I mean the childlike irresponsibility, the protection that not many – or even any – other industry enjoys.
Last week a Czech bank (Ceska Sporitelna) lost about 1 million crowns for a software bug. It’s not the first time when a software bug causes some financial damage, either directly – like here, offering bonds for the wrong price -, or indirectly, and it won’t be the last. And what is weird, that no penalty will be paid by the software company.
I don’t know any other industries where the the company, whose flawed product causes such a loss can wave a piece of paper crying with glee “See, I wrote it here that it is your own risk to use it, I owe you nothing. Tough, baby.” Sure, in every industry companies try to wiggle out of responsibility, but nothing like “I wrote it in the contract that whatever happens, I am not responsible for the results”.
I hope it will end soon, really soon. Maybe then the general quality of software products will improve. I doubt that after a company had to shell out a few million to pay for damages, the same company will eagerly rush into senseless deadlines and accept any and all offers, knowing that if he can pull it off without too many evident bugs, he is ok.
Maybe, if the software companies will have to take responsibility for the hurried, rushed, buggy work they deliver, then they will be more sensible, more mature and will be more restricted in accepting impossible deadlines.
Or, maybe they will simply work it into the price. After all, it’s not only the software companies who are guilty. The customers are just as guilty, wanting everything for yesterday, even if they know that the promise the supplier made does not mean anything,
So, I hope the Golden Age will end soon, and we will enter into a more sensible age, when if a software got delivered, you have a fair chance that it will work correctly.
What do you think?