As someone who spent my career designing and building complex IT systems I can only call bs in the excuse given for the software problems with the ATC system. There are at least three errors I can see without even looking at the system:
1) no backup system when the system failed. As a critical system I would want at least two probably three backups available and failsafe. One of which would be manual
2) Insufficient testing. If one piece of data can cause the system to crash there is absolutely no way the system has been tested properly
3) Cut price development. The above leads me to believe this mission critical piece of software has been offshored to people with little understanding or care for the outcome. If you live in India and the British ATC system you wrote goes haywire it's not going to affect you once you've been paid and left the contract
We have had issues like this in the Netherlands recently with trains. Things break down and it takes days to fix them. Simple solutions like getting people home by bus or trajectory changes that were common in the past, are completely overlooked. It is like a bunch of schoolkids has taken over the national rail.
As someone who spent my career designing and building complex IT systems I can only call bs in the excuse given for the software problems with the ATC system. There are at least three errors I can see without even looking at the system:
1) no backup system when the system failed. As a critical system I would want at least two probably three backups available and failsafe. One of which would be manual
2) Insufficient testing. If one piece of data can cause the system to crash there is absolutely no way the system has been tested properly
3) Cut price development. The above leads me to believe this mission critical piece of software has been offshored to people with little understanding or care for the outcome. If you live in India and the British ATC system you wrote goes haywire it's not going to affect you once you've been paid and left the contract
We have had issues like this in the Netherlands recently with trains. Things break down and it takes days to fix them. Simple solutions like getting people home by bus or trajectory changes that were common in the past, are completely overlooked. It is like a bunch of schoolkids has taken over the national rail.