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[–] Gargilius 1 point 5 points (+6|-1) ago  (edited ago)

I can imagine exactly how it might have happened; some poor cubicle dwelling code monkey schmuck got himself (yeah, it was most probably a dude) a priority one bug in his queue that had to be fixed yesterday, but had to be fixed with a minimal / most localized / least intrusive patch possible because one can't make big changes when the big deadline is looming so near, otherwise it won't ever pass code review, and QA would bitch about it, and it had to be fixed in software of course, because the hardware engs couldn't be bothered, and the technically clueless management was breathing down his neck hard. So he did something like if ( pTestMode ) fudgeTheNumbers() else zoomZoom(); patch and he was able to go home and finally get some rest after a multiweeks death march of all nighters, and keep his job, while the managements and execs got to share their new product launched in time fat bonuses.

Now, that same poor schmuck is going to take the fall.

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[–] FlintRockBone 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

That wouldn't happen in any professional development environment I've ever been a part of. Anything involving critical sub-systems has a code review before it's accepted into the stable source control branch. And if one rogue engineer can push code unnoticed into the stable branch then you have a poor software release process. Although maybe I've just been spoiled by being on teams that take software stability and security seriously.

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[–] Gargilius 1 point 2 points (+3|-1) ago 

...out of curiosity, not questioning your creds, but how many years have you been working in this industry?

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[–] Adynatos ago 

I can only speak about one consumer electronics megacorp, but it totally happens. What's more, there were extensive systems to show who commited some patch, some rarely used (and often circumvented because there was no time) systems to show who did a code review (usually some other engineer), but there's no trace of managerial decisions leading to that patch. Someone tells team leader, who tells project leader, who tells engineers. There's no git for managers and the company acts to shift the blame to the smallest cog possible. I think that if VW goes with it and some happless dev is blamed, they will demoralize their current employees and turn away possible new ones. They will lose more than money.

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[–] Acerebral 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Even if this is the case, it is management's fault for setting unreasonable expectations and deadlines, being intolerant of delays necessary to ensure compliance, and failing to put in place a company culture that frowns on that sort of solution.

And that's assuming the exec isn't lying, which I think he is.