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Secret Breathalyzer Source Code Has 19,400 Errors

Written By
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Web Webster
Web Webster
May 15, 2009

“Among its findings are:

“1. The Alcotest Software Would Not Pass U.S. Industry Standards
for Software Development and Testing: The program presented shows
ample evidence of incomplete design, incomplete verification of
design, and incomplete “white box” and “black box” testing.
Therefore the software has to be considered unreliable and
untested, and in several cases it does not meet stated
requirements. The planning and documentation of the design is
haphazard. Sections of the original code and modified code show
evidence of using an experimental approach to coding, or use what
is best described as the “trial and error” method. Several sections
are marked as “temporary, for now”. Other sections were added to
existing modules or inserted in a code stream, leading to a
patchwork design and coding style.

“The software development life-cycle concept is governed by one
of the nationally and internationally recognized development
standards to prevent defects from entering the software during the
design process, and to find and eliminate more defects as the
software is coded, tested, and released to the field. This concept
of software development using standards requires extensive and
meticulous supporting data, and notations in source files, and a
configuration management system. None of this methodology is
evident in the Alcotest code. Further, the decision method of how
to allocate the architecture and assignment of tasks does not match
any of the software standards. This further substantiates that
software development standards were not used to verify or test the
software, including the ISO 9000 family of standards.”

Complete
Story

thumbnail
Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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