Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering

"Reliable systems are built by rigorously tested, incremental bottom-up engineering with an ‘attitude of highest quality’"

http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/Richard-Feynman-Challenger-Disaster-Software-Engineering

"We have also found that certification criteria used in Flight Readiness Reviews often develop a gradually decreasing strictness. The argument that the same risk was flown before without failure is often accepted as an argument for the safety of accepting it again. Because of this, obvious weaknesses are accepted again and again, sometimes without a sufficiently serious attempt to remedy them, or to delay a flight because of their continued presence."

http://www.ralentz.com/old/space/feynman-report.html