The need for standards in software
quality assurance plans was outlined
by F. J. Buckley, chairman of the Computer Society's Software Engineering
Standards Subcommittee, which is
responsible for proposed IEEE Standard
P730.1 Buckley addressed one
obvious motivation for the standard:
software failure can-and does-cause
large-scale social and financial loss.
He cited a recent Florida case in which
a man's vehicle was incorrectly identified
by law enforcement computers
as being stolen. During attempted apprehension,
he was killed by police
gunfire. Clearly, this and other cases
like it in our age of product liability
produce a financial-and moral-obligation
to quality assure critical software.