January 6, 2016 at 10:58 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Rulebreaking Developers
January 7, 2016 at 5:49 am
I also find it hard to believe a software engineering team would do this on their own. Ultimately the engine designers were responsible to design an engine that could meet regulatory constraints, and when they couldn't would a software team independently create software that made it look like it could? I don't think so.
A robust software development process also has many phases of testing that should catch out of compliance software changes, so in theory tests also needed to be altered to support the software cheat developed. Could all this be done by a rogue group that hid the changes from managers who never see the actual code? Sure, but it's unlikely. And if it did happen that way, that type of culture is a bigger problem than actual cheat itself.
January 7, 2016 at 6:28 am
There's no way they did this on their own. Management was involved. And I highly doubt there is no way to track down who exactly did it.
January 7, 2016 at 6:42 am
Iwasbornready
I agree that management is likely to have been involved - lets be honest, regardless of where you work (except perhaps the public sector ) if you were responsible for deliberately committing an act the cost your employer millions (or even billions once you factor in loss of reputation) you would be out of the door in a flash. The fact that there have not been any sackings (and the subsequent unfair dismissal case ) would lead me to believe that there is more to this than a few "off the wall" software engineers - watch this space , see if you start seeing senior executives resigning "to pursue other interests" from VM at around the end of this year while not seeing any of the software engineers leaving
January 7, 2016 at 7:07 am
Too true about "unless they can squeeze a little more profit out of it". I recall Siemens having a push for patentable ideas. And I had one, already was using the prototype in my day-to-day. They were excited untill they realized it was a utility for programmers, and not a product to sell. After that it, well, ...
January 7, 2016 at 7:21 am
In working for large companies in the past, I've experience what they call bad barrel environments. This is where they drive success based entirely on performance, regardless of how lower level managers get there. They don't want to know the "how", all they care about is projects getting done cheap. This opens the company up to bad apples or bad front line managers who find ways to cheat the system to get those results. In the long run these decision really hurt the company but those senior managers who don't know any better as they are only focused on short term gains.
I think it is very possible that senior management didn't know. If they didn't know, I feel they are still accountable as it shows they were running a poorly managed environment with a bad culture where engineers felt they had to cut corners to meet unreasonable expectations based on tight budgets.
January 7, 2016 at 7:32 am
... I saw was of a press conference where the upper management of VW seems to indicate that the software developers on the project decided to alter the software...
There are two different engineering teams; the one that works on the components of the catalytic converter system and then the one that works on the software that interfaces between the catalytic converter and the diagnostic output. If what they're saying is that the software team unilaterally decided to implement coding that fakes the performance of the exhaust system, then that's preposterous. What could possibly be the motive, unless they were somehow inventivised by executive management on the down low?
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 7, 2016 at 8:17 am
This is so laughable. We all know, developers only do what they are told, and only do it with the least amount of work to accomplish the task. If it was not in scope, not in requirements, not in project plan, it was not and would not be done.
January 7, 2016 at 8:25 am
If I were on that VW software team, I'd approach the CEO without an appointment, turn in my resignation, and then demand a special $500,000 severance package... with the agreement on my end that I walk away quietly and not speak to the media.
OK, just joking... maybe. 😉
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 7, 2016 at 8:30 am
... When we have better solutions, or we can correct deficiencies, management doesn't want to spend the time or effort to do so. ...
Greed, pure and simple. The drive for quarterly profits instead of long-term viability. Warren Buffet had a wonderful suggestion that will never happen: a 100% tax on stock sales for C-level executives after they leave the company. After a year it's 80%, and goes down 20% (or whatever) subsequent years until it's down to the base rate. Executives would be strongly incentivized to ensure the company would endure rather than meeting Wall Street's demands for quarterly returns.
It's true of so many companies and organizations, and we see it on this site almost every day when people post of being allowed no time to get it right, that it must be got out the door and "we'll fix it later", meanwhile later never comes.
There's also the opposite viewpoint that software isn't released, it escapes and is dragged from the clutching developer's hands.
The thing that I find the most sad about the Volkswagen debacle is I toured their assembly plant in Dresden in June. Absolutely amazing place, it made me very sad when their fudging with emissions numbers was revealed.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
January 7, 2016 at 8:34 am
I completely agree with you Steve, about sometimes management not wanting to improve things. However, it isn't always profit related. I've mentioned here in the last few months that I've got a new job working for a state agency. Early in my employment I was tasked with getting an old ASP.NET app and database working again, which I also wrote about here. The database and the app are both small (a dozen tables total, about 10 web pages), but both are horribly written. I wanted to take the time to redo both and I really don't think it would have taken much time, but I was told not to. I was told to just patch it together so that it works again, so that's what I did. Since this is a state agency, I don't think profit factors into why I was told not to make necessary improvements. There must be other considerations that I'm not privy to. I really wish I could have fixed that database and app.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
January 7, 2016 at 8:34 am
swoozie (1/7/2016)
This is so laughable. We all know, developers only do what they are told, and only do it with the least amount of work to accomplish the task. If it was not in scope, not in requirements, not in project plan, it was not and would not be done.
Well, a developer is not likely to do something like implement a hidden undocumented feature to skew diagnostic readouts; not unless there is an offer of money, promotion, or sex coming from upper management.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 7, 2016 at 8:43 am
"offer of money, promotion, or sex coming from upper management."
Damn, I am asking the wrong questions at the job interviews...;-)
January 7, 2016 at 8:48 am
We could start with a look at motivation. In the US, most developers are salaried. So just why would they spend the extra time?? Beyond that, how would they detect this without knowing the parameters of the test? And then there is the QA aspect of it all.
But here is the killer - the executives admit there is a "culture of rule breaking." If they were honest, they would admit that they wanted this culture. I am confident that outside investigation will find the culture is "break the rules to the benefit of the company." I am certain the CEO didn't know about this. He would fire the person stupid enough to tell him and send the strong message. Don't tell me how, just get it done.
January 7, 2016 at 8:52 am
PGardocki 10922 (1/7/2016)
"offer of money, promotion, or sex coming from upper management."Damn, I am asking the wrong questions at the job interviews...;-)
No, you don't bring THAT up in an interview. Once hired, you have to work your way up to it. Also, if you happen to find yourself mixed up in the same predicament as these VW software engineers, you can, if you play your cards right, spin it in your favor, maybe ask for two of the three. 😉
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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