Class 710 Trains And Software Problems
There is a lot of chatter in various web sites and publications, and from some London Overground employees, that the late arrival of the Class 710 trains, is down to bugs in the train software.
I have heard or read phrases like “computers-on-wheels” and “thirteenth software upgrade”, which surely doesn’t bode well.
I am reminded of something said, by a Senior Maager of a Computer Company at a conference in the 1960s.
If it takes, one man a year to write a program, then it will take two men, two years and two hundred and fifty-six men, two hundred and fifty-six years.
I have written a lot of software and generally my work was accepted as good. Or at least, no-one ever told me anything I wrote was rubbish!
My guess is that Bombardier have used too many programmers and many are too far from Derby.
The Anonymous Widower 
I, too, remember that quote from the 1960’s. Its message remains profoundly true. You cannot throw money at a software problem.
Comment by Alan Boyce | January 16, 2019 |
The only thing that works is fire the dross and hire quality!
Comment by AnonW | January 16, 2019 |
There was a joke at one company I worked on contract for that went “if a man and a woman can produce a baby in nine months, then a team of twenty engineers with a good manager should be able to produce one in one month”.
In the same vein there were the helicopter and brain transplant jokes.
Comment by Mark Clayton | January 16, 2019 |