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Comment by std_throwaway | Hacker News Reader

Maybe engineers would be more careful if they were held liable for the faulty designs they produce. This safety system wasn't designed by marketing. It was designed by engineers and deemed sufficient. Several people signed off on it. Boeing is working hard on rectifying every possible flaw and it is doing so under close scrunity. Blame shifting won't help us to get out of this mess and get those planes flying again. Now is the time to work out a solution with the regulators and get those planes delivered to the customers who eagerly await them.

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> It was designed by engineers and deemed sufficient. Several people signed off on it.

In a company with failing engineering quality, what typically happens is that, of all the engineers qualified to sign off, management over time tend to choose the ones who are more willing to sign off. The more careful engineers who refuse to sign off, or attempt to negotiate harder for safety before signing off, are not promoted over the less careful engineers. The result is that the engineers in a position to sign off increasingly comprise the less careful ones.

Who is to blame in this case: the management who drive the process that selects the less careful engineers, or the less careful engineers?

I'm surprised that you think this is a solution - this won't solve anything besides making it easier for management to blame engineers because it doesn't target the people making the ultimate judgement call - the leadership.

The leadership (including the board who are proxies for stockholders) is ultimately liable - they hire, fire, set the strategy, values, and goals for the company. They reap the rewards of profits and take on some risk. That's the difference between a regular employee and an officer. When you have a business that involves public safety like car and airplane manufacturers, a large part of your business should be ensuring that everyone from the lowest level employee to the CEO is at or above industry standards for safety.

Unless there were fraudulent numbers then I don't think holding the engineers responsible makes any sense. Product owners set the stage and place the blinders on the engineers. Good product owners will do so in a productive way, careerist con artists will do otherwise.

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