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This is one of my favorite articles about software quality.

Software: So Bad, It Can Only Get Better

by Paul A. Strassmann

Computerworld

December 9, 1996

Software can easily rate among the most poorly constructed, unreliable and least maintainable technological artifacts ever invented by man — with perhaps the exception of Icarus’ wings. 

Nobody would tolerate telephones that crash every other day. Nobody would buy a house if taxes and upkeep were seven times the purchase price. Nobody would acquire a microwave oven if it meant rewiring the entire house every time some other new appliance was plugged in. Absolutely nobody would spend a year’s rent to replace all doors because somebody attached the hinges with only two screws instead of the required four.

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