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Replying To:
Verification is a hard problem (none / 0) (#10)
by RainyDayPursuits on Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 01:19:06 PM PDT

What it really comes down to is that software has bugs because producing bug-free software is very difficult. There are lots of valid reasons why it is difficult, with the complexity of the sofware itself one of the primary reasons. Some companies just don't want to expend the effort to tackle the hard problem. Some companies don't want to spend the money it takes to solve the hard problem, often for valid business reasons. (If a company spends twice as much and takes twice as long to test and debug as their competitor, they are longer out of the market longer, their product costs twice as much, and it sells fewer copies because most consumers are price-oriented, not quality-oriented.) Most companies try to find an optimal balance of cost vs. quality for their product. Ultimately, the market drives quality. If customers refuse to buy products that are below a level of quality, companies will respond. Everyone likes to say they make buying decisions based on quality, but they really want the best price. If all products in a category are below the quality bar, however, people are still going to buy the programs because they have tasks that need doing. As long as there is a strong downward pressure on price, companies will try to reduce costs by testing "just enough", which is never enough to make a rock-solid product.


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