Compare that to the shuttle design where lives are on the line and the software has to just work. The microsoft spec approach is really to just ``wing it''
The difference is that Microsoft is able to externalise almost all risk and accountability. The same principles of "defect management" are applied to aerospace hardware and Microsoft software. The only difference is the acceptable threshold for bugs. For the space shuttle, bugs are minimised until the budget is exhausted. For Microsoft, bugs are minimised until it costs less to to say "Oh, heck. Just ship it."