All American Airlines Flights Grounded

[Coito ergo sum]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100637190

[klr]

Do you want to modify that title to indicate that it's due to the reservation system being down? Otherwise, people will assume that it's either due to a bomb scare, a strike, some general aircraft safety issue ... but not transaction software.

[cronus]

I thought it was a bomb scare.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I hoped it was a bomb scare.

[cronus]

I hoped it was a bomb scare.

Perhaps, only because I worry about contrails.

[Svartalf]

Hey? the BOOKING system caused that? maybe we rely a bit too much on all those bits and bytes...

[klr]

Hey? the BOOKING system caused that? maybe we rely a bit too much on all those bits and bytes...

Maybe they outsourced it to the cloud, and/or to some poor overworked Indian.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Surely they had a known good back-up system ready to swap in at a moment's notice, didn't they?

[klr]

Surely they had a known good back-up system ready to swap in at a moment's notice, didn't they?

I assume you post with tongue firmly in cheek*.

Seriously: While certain components of the system probably have some redundancy designed in, it's obviously not the case for every part of it. The system is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain, and all that jazz. Who knows where the problem is?

I'm sure The Register will have a good take on this tomorrow and in the days to come.

Oh, and it would be a right larf if this happened to Ryanair. I'd love to see Michael O'Leary losing his rag about something like that.

[SteveB]

Lucky me. I'm flying Southwest.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Surely they had a known good back-up system ready to swap in at a moment's notice, didn't they?

I assume you post with tongue firmly in cheek*.

Seriously: While certain components of the system probably have some redundancy designed in, it's obviously not the case for every part of it. The system is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain, and all that jazz. Who knows where the problem is?

The problem almost certainly lies in the last software update (and inadequate testing!) Letting an update to a critical system go live without a way of backing out the changes if a fault emerges is commercial software stupid error #1. Sadly, not having a regression plan in place can save lots of money... until it ends up costing 100 times as much when you have to close everything down to work out why nothing works!

If I only had a penny for every time a penny saved turned into a pound lost...

[klr]

I'm sure that whatever the fault turns out to be:

(a) No senior management at the airline will pay the price.
(b) If anyone is to take the chop, it will be at or slightly above minion level.
(c) No big external supplier/software provider will suffer any long-term financial consequences, because the airline is probably completely dependent on them by now, having outsourced all the vital tech and the knowledge.
(d) A clear and honest explanation will be not be forthcoming. It'll be the usual hand-waving and fudging to obscure the true nature of the problem.

Damn, why am I so cynical?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I'm sure that whatever the fault turns out to be:

(a) No senior management at the airline will pay the price.
(b) If anyone is to take the chop, it will be at or slightly above minion level.
(c) No big external supplier/software provider will suffer any long-term financial consequences, because the airline is probably completely dependent on them by now, having outsourced all the vital tech and the knowledge.
(d) A clear and honest explanation will be not be forthcoming. It'll be the usual hand-waving and fudging to obscure the true nature of the problem.

Damn, why am I so accurate?

Yep - the problem with software design is that it's middle-management all the way down!

[klr]

Yup. The way outsourcing is going, middle managers will actually have no one beneath them to manage inside the company*. They'll just manage relationships with key IT hardware/ software/ service suppliers. I keep asking people what's going to happen once all the vital IT knowledge has left an organization, and it is completely at the mercy of IT suppliers.

*It's an inversion of the normal state of affairs. Managers normally like to have more and more people to manage. But programmers are unruly folk, and awkward to manage. For one thing, they like to tell the truth. Better to get rid of them all, and just work with someone at their own level, who represents an external provider. Perks go up, no irksome subordinates.

[Cormac]

I hoped it was a bomb scare.

Perhaps, only because I worry about contrails.

Did you mean "chemtrails"?