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Therac-25 : Programmer POV | Dilemma: Should the software programmer give…
Therac-25 : Programmer POV | Dilemma: Should the software programmer give the go ahead on the Therac-25 program knowing that he was the sole author to deliver the software on time? Or should the programmer have another programmer look over and review his program before approving the program?
Alternative 1: Programmer has another colleague look over their program before approving the program.
Pros
Program is easier to read since multiple people will work on it and this allows future changes to the software to be made if needed by other programmers besides the authors.
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Cons
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There is a possibility that some patients may have more severe cancer if they don't get the treatment that the Therac-25 could provide, assuming it works correctly
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Relevant Facts
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In previous models of radiation treatment devices, hardware was in place to prevent radiation over dosage. But this responsibility was transferred to the software of the device in the Therac-25.
Hospitals were told that the Therac-25 had "so many safety mechanisms" that it was "virtually impossible" to overdose a patient.
The program was written by one person, this is considered a poor programming practice by today's standards
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Our choice
Our group chose Alternative 1. Regardless of how much money the company may have to spend to ensure that the Therac-25 works safely, you can't put a price on a human life. Choosing alternative 1 also ensures that there is an extremely small chance that legal battles ensure due to patients being harmed or killed by the Therac-25. AECL can spend the extra money on adding extra programmers to the project knowing that they could possibly be saving a lot of money in legal battles and they could possibly make more if the Therac-25 has no issues and more hospitals buy it.
Alternative 2: Programmer gives go ahead on the program without peer review and editing, debugging, and error checking
Pros
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Therac-25 is released sooner, netting the AECL quicker revenue
Patients could possibly be saved from the Therac-25 if it were to work properly since it will be in operation sooner
Company that writes the program is able to save money by not having to pay another programmer to review the original programmers code
Cons
No peer editing / review
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Programmer easily overwhelmed, leading to code faults
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Lack of reliability due to limited testing and based on the fact that one person wrote the program; so the possibility that fatal errors occur are high
If something happens to the sole programmer, the entire program may have to be scraped and rewritten since only the program author understands the code fully.
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