What really happened to the Boeing 737 Max?
Written by Lisette Zounon, CSM, CSP, DTM
On the morning of Sunday, March 10, 2019, I woke up to the news of an airline crash in Ethiopia. My childhood best friend lives in Ethiopia. So, my first thought was to go on social media and check on her. Fortunately, she marked herself safe. Unfortunately, about one hundred and eighty-nine people lost their lives that day. Days following the tragic news, actual facts started surfacing about the Boeing 737 airplane that crashed that day.
In this article, I would like to look deeper into what truly happened that day if possible, though I may not be able to give technical reasons behind the crash.
I have been obsessed with airplane crashes because I believe that airplanes are one of the safest ways to travel. Whenever there’s an airplane crash, I always want to know what happened and why it happened.
I have read numerous articles and listened to numbers of the program detailing the cause of the Boeing 737 max crash. The New York Times came up with a long expose summarizing what happened.
In a nutshell, what really happened to the 737 Max to crash can simply be identified as a harmless software mistake and a lack of training of the pilots on the new minor software change.
In my 15 years of experience in software development, I have heard and learned way too many times how a small and harmless error could bring a system down and cost customers millions of dollars in waste, and worse, loss of lives, as it was in the case of Boeing 737 Max jet. These tragic crashes like the Boeing 737 Max jet happen much more than one may realize. I am certain a Quality Assurance engineer or test engineer found the so-called small bug and shared it with the team, but someone somehow decided that it was not important to fix it, and decided that fixing that little bug would have been too costly. Furthermore, the pilots were not informed of the new change or the impact the change would have on the airplane; moreover, the pilots were not trained on the new change. How could an airline authorize a pilot to safely carry passengers to a destination without that pilot having the adequate or proper training to maneuver the jet, or any knowledge of awareness of the impact of a change made in the software system?
Personally, the reason why I got into software development and quality was precisely to help deliver software that impacts positively the world. Whenever I hear of a break in the system or any defect in a software system, I am deeply disappointed because such a mistake could have been easily avoided.
In the next couple weeks, more will be known of 737 Max jet when a Boeing official testifies before the congress. One should never take for granted the importance of quality and the great impact QA professionals have on software delivery. Moreover, software should never be delivered to the end-users without prior effective and efficient training. Why design and deliver a software system if its users do not know how it works?
These are the two services we provide at ZSI; a managed QA service and adequate training on the software for our clients. Let Zsquare Solutions Inc solve your quality challenges and ensure your users can understand and use your software as it is intended. Contact us today for a 30min consultation.
Resources :
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/business/boeing-737-crashes.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/16/world/asia/lion-air-crash-cockpit.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/business/boeing-737-crashes.html
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