By T. D. Sterling
Communications of the ACM,
May 1979,
Vol. 22 No. 5, Pages 283-289
10.1145/359104.359109
Comments
The prevalence with which errors may be encountered by the end targets of a computerized process is assessed. How many and what type of errors occur? How easily are they corrected? What is the reaction of consumers to errors—to a failure to correct them? What can be learned by designers of large management packages from such data?
Results show that with the present state of the art, approximately 40 percent of individuals (or households) having average contacts with different types of accounts experience one or more errors per year. Eighty percent relate to billing. Attempts to correct errors often turned out to be difficult and not always successful.
There appears to be some conflict between computer-using organizations and their public. Also the role of poor management packages including poor software is indicated. While most management systems may be adequate, results of the survey raise concerns about the timeless and the number of designs of very large linked program packages (as EFT for instance).
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