What other consequences could the m

What other consequences could the manager’s decision have? Suppose the company
later uses some of your modules in another project, say one that evaluates patients for
inclusion in research studies on new drugs. Some diseases and drugs affect people in
different ethnic groups differently. Inaccurate data could threaten the health or life of
people in the studies and distort the conclusions in ways that harm other people who
laterusethedrugs.But,youmightsay,weemphasizedinChapter8andSection9.2.3that
people who reuse existing software, especially in a safety critical project, should review
the software and its specifications to ensure that it meets the safety standards of the new
project. That is their responsibility, you say. But if your way of handling missing data is
not in the specifications, how will they know about it? Perhaps someone will notice that
the specs are incomplete. Perhaps they will test the modules thoroughly before reusing
themanddiscoverwhatthecodedoes.However,wehaveseenenoughexamplesofhuman
error to derive a lesson for a responsible professional: Do not count on everyone else to
do their jobs perfectly. Do your best to make sure your part is not one of the factors that
contribute to a failure.