Monthly Archives: February 2013

Pick up some trash

Taking a walk today with the dogs, a guy named Phil reminded me of a story about bugs.  Phil dropped his Starbucks cup on the trail, and left me with a choice. I could pick up Phil’s trash or walk on by.  Most of us would choose to pick up the trash, to leave the trail better than when we arrived.

Starbucks cup litter on the trail.

Starbucks cup litter on the trail.

How does this relate to bugs?  Developers appreciate and relate to this analogy when talking about legacy bugs.  This analogy came in handy when we launched a system that automatically assigned the bugs to developers.  Sometimes, the system would assign a bug to a developer who had nothing to do with creating that particular bug. The bug had been in the code for some time, and the original developer could not be identified.

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