[zumda]

To be fair, especially the landing sequence (the only thing they couldn't really patch) was very well defined from the start. They knew exactly what the Rover had to do, when he had to do it and what steps were involved.*

Generally software just doesn't work that way. (But maybe that was that you implied with "some contexts". In that case, I agree with you)

* I'm not saying they weren't trying out things until they decided how to land the Rover, but when they wrote the software they had very clear requirements.