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Why Companies Don't Fix Bugs

(idiallo.com)
177 points foxfired | 1 comments | 07 Apr 25 20:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.678s | source
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esafak ◴[08 Apr 25 03:56 UTC] No.43618222[source]▶
It depends. Some other reasons:

1. It's an enterprise product and the economic buyer doesn't know or care about bugs as much as checklisted features.

2. The company is not connecting the impact of fixing bugs to their bottom line. Or they are and estimate the impact to be low.

3. The code base is due for a rewrite so it would be a waste.

4. It's a side bet not worth the extra resources.

replies(6): >>43618291 #>>43618343 #>>43618422 #>>43618825 #>>43618896 #>>43619003 #
1. SOLAR_FIELDS ◴[08 Apr 25 04:13 UTC] No.43618291[source]▶
1 and 2 is the actual answer for any BigCo that I’ve been involved with. It’s quite simple: does fixing the bug affect the money firehose in the short or medium term? If so, fix it. If not, go work on things that involve widening the firehose of money.

3 is sometimes given lip service, but ultimately the only way 3 ever gets done is if someone in upper management pretends to care that 3 is important. Which is pretty rare

4 also happens but everyone thinks they are skunkworks engineer even when they are not