Laws of Software Development: Murphy’s Law in Software Testing

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

Image credits: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/crowdstrike-update-pushing-windows-machines-blue-screen-big1c/; https://www.alamy.com/murphys-law-red-grungy-rectangle-stamp-sign-image366622322.html

This article is one of the “Laws in Software Development” series:

• 80/20 Rule
• Broken Window Theory
• Parkinson’s Law: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
• Sturgeon’s law: “ninety percent of everything is crap”
• Murphy’s law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”
• The 10,000-Hour Rule: “The key to achieving true expertise is simply a matter of practicing”
• Brooks’ Law: “Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.”
• Hosftadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”
• Conway’s Law: “Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.”
• …

Table of Contents
· Murphy’s law
∘ 1. IT executives often neglect the importance of quality.
∘ 2. Lacking E2E Test Automation
∘ 3. Lacking a real Continuous Testing process.
∘ 4. Need to understand the limits of Manual Testing
· My own experience with Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s law

Murphy’s law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” [source: Wikipedia]

Software testers like to quote Murphy’s Law to support their work.

On 2024–07–19, Windows Blue Screen of Death causes a massive outage globally.

Sydney Airport on 2024–07–19. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7220005397602992128

More detail in this video.