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aleph_minus_onetoday at 10:34 AM4 repliesview on HN

> Software written by people that don't use the software themselves. It has happened to me so many times, I come across a piece of software with weird bugs or interactions that would be immediately fixed if the developer just spends 5 minutes using the software like an end user would. Dogfood all the things!

My experience is completely contrary: developers typically do care deeply about such things. The problem is rather that very commonly managers actively disallow these poor developers to apply their diligence to the software that they develop.

I really have a strong feeling that you want to participate in the ugly vendetta against software developers that has been going on for decades ("Replace all software developers"; current season: "Replace them with AI").

Don't do that. Rather fight the people who are really responsible (who are often (project) managers or Scrum masters).


Replies

kube-systemtoday at 4:05 PM

Bugs caused by edge-cases in data are exactly the types of bugs that are usually not caught in smoke tests.

In my experience with large regulated systems, the engineers writing the software don't have the expertise to even know what the correct specifications should be in most cases, and especially in edge cases. Software engineers are not experts in customs and immigration legal requirements and would be relying on heavily on guidance from experts in those fields to determine the proper rules to apply.

In my experience with bugs like this, it is usually scenarios that all parties involved in the design did not consider... especially when implementation is rushed due to tight deadlines.

bombcartoday at 12:13 PM

Sometimes it's so painfully obvious - that you can turn a piece of crApp into something that works well by just modifying yourself or the situation so you're following the path that the developers do.

wat10000today at 1:17 PM

If CEOs were legally required to regularly use their own products as an ordinary customer, the world would be a better place.

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lukantoday at 10:41 AM

"I really have a strong feeling that you want to participate in the ugly vendetta against software developers that has been going on for decades ("Replace all software developers"; current season: "Replace them with AI")."

Paranoia?

There are a lot of devs who don't really like what they develope so don't spend any time dogfooding it. Has nothing to do with devs who are blocked by management.

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