[jamesmunns]

Having worked in a couple of safety critical companies, there are things you definitely HAVE to do, but some companies do it better than others.

Some companies have process and development practices down pat: things go smoothly, and meeting the qualification process objectives is easy, because the work has been done right the whole way.

Other companies have less established or less consistent process. They generally meet the process objectives and deliver a working product, but the development process is often more of a struggle, and there is often a lot of "cleaning up" of missed pieces at the end of the release process.

This is just to say: companies and products in the safety critical space don't necessarily have some intrinsic quality, just a higher minimum bar.