[cornholio]

Mission critical software is created by processes, not individuals - unlike, say, surgery or legal counsel, that are delivered in person.

A single programmer shouldn't be able to kill using his keyboard, and if he can, something is very wrong with the way that mission critical software is produced.

To maintain the analogy, if a law firm is using the services of paralegals that haven't passed the bar exam or have no formal training, I will not be concerned even if they handle most of the legwork in my case, because I assume they are part of a team and their work is well scrutinized.

[bb88]

> Mission critical software is created by processes, not individuals.

I worked on software for the military, which was under a process (heavily regimented, I might add), and yet US soldiers still died when the software failed. It wasn't one person with a keyboard, it was a group decision and politics that allowed it to happen.

Processes in the end are still run by people. Sometimes people do the thing they think is right, yet end up with a result which is very very wrong.

[AstralStorm]

Adding certification to the mix won't fix the faulty process at all though.

[bb88]

If you don't have an audit trail of the decisions made, you can't fix the problem.