My girlfriend and I watch Holmes on Homes
quite a bit (it's on 3 different channels here in Canada). If you
aren't familiar with it, it's about this big guy, Mike Holmes, who's a
contractor (think houses, not software you geeks!) trying to fix the
messes left behind by other contractors. Every episode is basically
about a new family who's lives are ruined by the crappy, and expensive)
work done by contractors.
It almost always starts off with a little problem "we noticed some
water leaking" and quickly grows into a nightmare - "the foundation
wasn't properly laid out so your roof is broken and has snow in it -we
have to fix both (and by the way, your electrical isn't up to code)."
I guess there aren't really any laws (in Canada at least) that protect
home owners from this kinda stuff - which is one of the things Mike it
trying to raise awareness of (and change).
Every time I watch the show, I'm reminded of the software industry. It
always starts off as a "water leak" and ends up as a "redo your
foundation". Eric Wise recently blogged about a good example - and I've seen other similar failures with my own eyes. Shouldn't there be some accountability and/or liability? I think my dream job is to be an software auditor/inspector or something...maybe I can even use the line "your fired!"...oh to dream!
