All Tech Is Broken

07 February 2017

Photo: Unsplash

Tech is still broken and still, no one cares.

Our lives rely on technology in every sense yet we have become immune to the fact that it is fragile and badly built. Five years ago Scott Hanselman wrote a blog entitled “Everything’s broken and nobody’s upset”. It resonated with me then and it still holds true today, perhaps even more so. In the post, Scott lists many issues he encountered over a week. The issues cover a wide range of both Windows and Apple related software and apps. He also pointed out when you do experience an issue you end up in one of two situations.

“Here’s the worst part, I didn’t spend any time on the phone with anyone about these issues. I didn’t file bugs, send support tickets or email teams. Instead, I just Googled around and saw one of two possible scenarios for each issue.

1 No one has ever seen this issue. You’re alone and no one cares.
2 Everyone has seen this issue. No one from the company believes everyone. You’re with a crowd and no one cares.

Sadly, both of these scenarios ended in one feeling. Software doesn’t work and no one cares.”

He summed up by asking why the situation was so bad and stating that he knew we could do better.

He is right! We can and should do better.

Here are the immediate things that I have experienced over the last week:

• Setting up an Amazon Dot. The setup wizard in the Android app did not work and I had to Google to find alternative web-based setup mechanism.
• The official Reddit android app has the power to reboot my phone randomly.
• After reinstalling Windows and running the setup for Dropbox on a data drive, it did not resync the existing directories. It instead installed the Dropbox directories within the existing directories.
• The Great Suspender Chrome add in regularly loses the original page I suspended.
• My son’s iPhone refuses to keep a particular wifi password. It only affects one network and doesn’t do it for any other network.
• Outlook configured with Google App Sync has stopped searching email. This could be Windows related as it has affected my whole team.
• tmux has stopped working at all on my Arch laptop. It appears to be related to a screwed up locale which occurred during an update.

So what has improved over the last 5 years? On the face of it, not a lot. Who is to blame? Everyone! Users need to be much more demanding and less forgiving. Product teams need to do a much better job to meet the increased user expectations.

Why is it that modern software company’s feel they can release untested and sub par products? Where is the pride in the companies and teams that build apps and services? Would we accept this quality from a firm of Architects? “Yes, I know there is a door in the wall but it doesn’t open. You will have to climb in through the window”. There would be an outcry.

Why do users feel unable to report issues and head to Stack Overflow or other support sites instead? Do company’s distance themselves once their app or service is released? Why do company’s not watch the support sites like Stack Overflow? Or do they and they disregard everything but the most damaging (security exploits etc).

The following four reasons are key to the problem:

• Pace of development. There is a very real need to develop increasingly difficult software fast. Not just quickly but really really fast. Competitive advantage, proving an MVP for funding, adding a killer new feature. In the past, I have often been asked to start a new feature while wrapping up the current one.
• Quality Assurance. Tester’s, Quality Analysts, call them what you will. They are the missing members of too many development teams. Yes, we have automated tests and they are great. They are also written by the developers. True quality assurance is an art form. They should in place as early in your development teams existence as possible. Arguing that the business team can test the features they requested is not right on many levels. Firstly, most non-product team members will only ever test the Happy Path. Secondly, testing should not be an “also responsibility” for someone. It should be their primary focus and they should be given the time to focus on it.
• Too many targets. Desktop, web or phone? OS? Runtime? Web Server? Database Server? There are many possible options and teams test against a limited combination of hardware and software stacks. How many times do you hear “it works ok on xyz ….” I do not really care if I run jkl ….
• Conflicting implementations. A standard is a standard. If you are going to implement it then do so in whole or not at all. Do not bend it to suit your corporate will or advantage. This relates much more to web browsers and their conflicting implementations. We are in 2017 which makes it more laughable.

This is a serious issue that needs addressing. Nothing has improved in the lat 5 years. With the wider adoption of AI and AR on the horizon do we want quality and reliability to still be an issue in 5 years time?