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> Do those developers even realise it was their incompetence that caused untold misery?

Whilst the developers did ship broken software, I don't think you can lay the blame for the misery at their door directly - that should be on the management who, when presented with evidence that the software was garbage, doubled-down and decided to prosecute rather than running tests, etc.

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I agree with you that some blame must be apportioned to management. But also I feel it's too easy as a developer to see yourself as part of a team and thus absolved of any individual blame. You're subsumed in the "team" - and ultimately no-one takes responsibly.

Even with management at fault, one cannot deny that the developers produced absolute garbage.

I hope the developers who worked on this system, no matter how much they feel they are not responsible for the failure of this project, will reflect on how the impact of software they built had devastating consequences on people's lives.

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