"Infinite Defects"

[Luc-Etienne Brachotte <Luc-Etienne.Brachotte@art.alcatel.fr>]

  Hello folks ! After introducing the notion "good enough", let me now
  introduce the next famous Microsoft expression : "Infinite Defects" !
  ;-)
  
  let's start with an example, then see more general cases !
  
  1) let's start with an example !
  One of M$ best-selling software is Word for Windows. 
  
      "   The Opus project, later renamed Word for Windows, caused
       staffers to coin the now-famous phrase "infinite defects". This de-
       scribes a situation where testers are finding bugs faster than de-
       velopers can fix them, and each fix leads to yet another bug; under
       these conditions, predicting the schedule and eventual ship date
       becomes impossible"
  
  In "Microsoft Secrets", p40. Same situation for First version of Access.
  Word finally shipped in November 1989 instead of September 1985 !
  
  Sorry for quoting again this book, but you learn so much about
  everything at Microsoft, it is impossible NOT to quote it on the
  "Appraising Microsoft" list !
  
      "Microsoft did ship a Macintosh version in February 1987, but this
       contained so many bugs that Microsoft had to recall the product and
       send free replacements to seventy thousand users"
  
  
  
  2) More general cases !
  Same book, p256, Mike Conte
      "It's been the experience in some embarrassing cases in Microsoft
       that it took eight years to develop a product that was supposed
       to take about two years"
  
      "this situation can lead to a state that Microsoft people have
       called "infinite defects" - projects that continue to generate huge
       numbers of bugs even after the developers think they are finished"
  
  BTW note the plurals "caseS", "projectS". It seems it was the case for
  at least Word, Excel and Access for Windows. Which companies said it is
  easy to develop for Windows ?!!!
  
  p333 : about at least those 3 products :
      "By the late 1980s, Microsoft products had too many defects within
       features, as well as in the interactions among features. ...
       Developers always had to go back and to massive amounts of coding
       to fix bugs and get features to work properly ; the rework would
       then completely throw off schedules."
  
  ...the next sentence is :
  
      "It also became difficult and impossible in some cases to deliver
       reliable products"
  
  ... oh yeasss! great ! and the next :
  
      "Some bugs can never be fixed very late in a project, because
       introducing fixes can create more bugs and lead to the state
       Microsoft came to call "infinite defects.""
  
  
  
  3) Now for the conclusion (and questions ! ;-))
  Roger Sherman, Microsoft's director of testing
      "People learned that they couldn't just throw code together"
      "They had to have code that was testable"
      "And that probably means that the whole definition of the product...
       is bogus as well!"
  
      "It's like driving a race car : They hit the wall, and now they know
       where the wall is !"
     
  
  Bests :-()
  
  -- 
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    (\__/)  .'     )  ))              Luc-Etienne BRACHOTTE
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