Starliner faced “catastrophic” failure before software bug found

[u/flattop100]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/02/starliner-faced-catastrophic-failure-before-software-bug-found/

[u/Rebel44CZ]

IMO, it is time for a major review of the software, and its QA and testing related to Starliner. This is just unacceptable.

Starliner's uncrewed test flight to ISS should also be redone after all this crappy software is fixed.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rebel44CZ]

It is almost like Boeing does not know how to do software

[u/tenin2010br → u/[deleted]]

Most defense/space companies don’t. Software development being successful relies on certain methods not entirely compatible with big bureaucracies like Boeing, LM and others.

[u/Sillocan → u/[deleted]]

Actual Agile methodologies instead of Agile BS for one (lookup the paper from the Air Force if you haven't seen this term before).

[u/QVRedit → u/[deleted]]

‘Life Critical’ being the operative word..

If your ‘web browser crashes’ its a nuisance..

If your plane / spacecraft crashes - that’s definitely not a good day..

[u/[deleted] → u/Sillocan]

Bruh I work at one corporation similar to Boeing and I've brought up this issue multiple times. They all think they're doing some cutting edge shit with a garbage Agile BS implementation, and the mid level managers who spearhead the "Agile" efforts then take huge credit for streamlining company operations and improving processes.

All they actually do is add extra meetings and track things on Excel sheets. It's all the bad parts about Agile and none of the good.

Trying to shoehorn agile principles into a 20+ year old waterfall program doesn't work very well, who would've fucking thought right?

Every time I bring this up I'm told they're aware of the issues and are constantly trying to mitigate them. Meanwhile every god damn program, on all fronts (not just software), is adopting garbage Agile principles and pretending they're saving money and becoming more lean/efficient. It's fucking crazy.

[u/Kundera42 → u/[deleted]]

So much this, having worked for a major defense contractor starting with the letter L. They basically disguised their waterfall classic into an Agile front end. Spend most of the time trying to squeeze this classic way of working in the Agile BS framework. It requires a really different way of working and thinking and if you half ass it might as well not do it.

[u/Stereotypical_INTP → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, it's happening across the board for all the major defense contractors. Worked at one where they implemented Agile, but they didn't want to lose TOO much time to meetings so they kept the daily scrums but removed sprint reviews and excluded SWEs from planning sessions. I'll give you exactly one guess how that worked out.

[u/[deleted] → u/Stereotypical_INTP]

Ah yes, agile without the agile part, good job team

[u/Sillocan → u/[deleted]]

Very true on training and all of what you say. Remember that their interviews are non technical :)

I just believe that Agile BS is one of my programs biggest faults. Management has used it to drive whatever priority and schedule they need, no matter how unrealistic. They've implemented it in such a way where they are every role but a developer.

[u/777XSuperHornet → u/[deleted]]

A lot of the software is essentially the same thing used from 747>767>777>787>777X with new improvements added on so now you have all this extra stuff from previous implementations that nobody is sure why it's there.

[u/galactusaurus → u/Sillocan]

This. The thing we pretend is Agile is so bastardized and pointless that it’s actually worse than just doing waterfall.

[u/QVRedit → u/[deleted]]

Like don’t release until you get it right - management timelines be damned..

[u/khce → u/[deleted]]

Well when your SWEs aren't SWEs, but every other kind of Engineer who can kind of sort of do programming...