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From: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Identifying high quality software development efforts
Message-ID: <9502@orca.wv.tek.com>
Date: 12 Nov 90 06:39:11 GMT
References: <1869@shodha.enet.dec.com> <5728@stpstn.UUCP> <1990Oct30.204626.8783@ico.isc.com> <534@pdxgate.UUCP>
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Reply-To: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
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Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
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In article <534@pdxgate.UUCP> warren@eecs.UUCP (Warren Harrison) writes:
>>> Specific examples: U.S: typical 1 to 3 errors/KSLOC, .01 to .1 for critical
>>> software; Japan: some companies report .008 errors/KSLOC. 
>
>When throwing these numbers around, we need to make sure we're not comparing
>apples and oranges. I'm not sure where each individual has gotten their

Indeed.  In addition to the units of measure, we need to be sure that
we are comparing similar types of software.  The design approach and
Q/A method used in an embedded system for a consumer product is quite
different from the techniques used for applications on a general
purpose computer.  I know there should be no difference, quality is
quality, but in practice some markets are more tollerant to bugs and
actually prefer large gains in performance/functionality while
accepting marginally higher error rates.  A good example of this
tradeoff is the X Window System, in it's early releases it was buggy,
but as time goes on it gets better.  It could have been delayed until
all the bugs were worked out, but then the X consortium wouldn't have
gotten the user feedback that allowed them to better tune the product
to the user's needs.

Of course, here at Tek, we achieve high performance/functionality
without the bugs. :-)

							stank

US Mail: Stan Kalinowski, Tektronix, Inc., Network Displays Division
         PO Box 1000, MS 60-850, Wilsonville OR 97070   Phone:(503)-685-2458
e-mail:  {ucbvax,decvax,allegra,uw-beaver}!tektronix!orca!stank
    or   stank@orca.WV.TEK.COM