Case Study: Chapter 7

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

VIGNETTE “Boeing Dreamliner Faces A Few Bumps in the Road”

Questions to Consider:

1.) Is this example of software problems holding up the introduction of a major new product and impacting a firm’s customers and suppliers unusual, or is it a common occurrence?

Ans: Yes, because not all software products is 100 percent totally not damage some have defect.

 

2.) What can organizations do to reduce the negative consequences of software development problems in the production of their products and the operation of their business processes and facilities?

Ans: In order to reduce negative consequence of the software development, insure that the quality is high and good performance. These are important factors on which customers make purchasing decisions.

Patriot Missile Failure

Discussion questions:

1.)   With the benefit of hindsight, what steps could have been taken during development of the Patriot software to avoid the problems that led to the loss of life?  Do you think these steps would have improved the Patriot’s effectiveness enough to make it obvious that the missile was a strong deterrent against the Seud?  Why or why not?

Ans: To prevent some problems the first steps could have been taking during development of the Patriot software is checked carefully to avoid in danger and serious problems.

2.) What ethical decisions do you think the U.S. military made in choosing to deploy the Patriot missile to Israel and Saudi Arabia and in reporting the effectiveness of the Patriot system?

Ans: The U.S. military made in choosing to deploy the Patriot Missile to Israel and Saudi Arabia because in the desert they have a field area and far in accident.

3.) What key lessons from this example of safety-critical software development could be applied to the development of business information system software?

Ans: There are many reasons why safety is very important. For example, how would you demonstrate that a system was absolutely safe? Even if it continued to operate without any threat to safety for several years, there may be no guarantee that it will not fail in the next 24 hours. Changes in the environment, hardware failures, untested modes in software systems can all work together to expose systems in ways that had not been done in a previous period of safe operation.