You're both right - inopinatus and ldarby. It was clearly a miscarriage of justice - hence the lawyers and court case and resignation of the Post Office CEO. But it absolutely needed to be investigated by a dedicated, professional Software Incident Investigation Board.
The miscarriage of justice is the truly awful, shameful part of this incident and it all came about because of the 'less than honest' stance of the post office leadership. To be fair to them, they were probably advised to act in this manner by their lawyers.
The difference between an aircraft/train/boat/car/oil rig accident and a software incident is that we immediately know that an aircraft/train/boat/car/oil rig accident has happened. Professional investigators are usually on the scene long before the lawyers have had their first cup of coffee. With a software incident, lawyers have wrapped their fingers around everything long before we even know that something has happened. For the incident investigators to do their job properly, it would probably be best to keep all lawyers out of the picture until the investigation is complete. But the chances of that happening are slim.
I also agree with PHK about the expense issue. There are so many examples of huge expense to discover the cause of an aircraft accident. Just think of MH370 or AF447 (military submarines were used to try to find both wrecks). Also oil rigs. How about Deep Water Horizon? Huge amounts of money was spent to figure out exactly what happened. Similar sorts of money should be made available to discover the causes of software incidents. It's far too easy for companies to hide a software incident and then hide behind lawyers while blaming others.
Bugs should be reviewed and dealt with by a profession independent investigation board, not by lawyers.
The miscarriage of justice is the truly awful, shameful part of this incident and it all came about because of the 'less than honest' stance of the post office leadership. To be fair to them, they were probably advised to act in this manner by their lawyers.
The difference between an aircraft/train/boat/car/oil rig accident and a software incident is that we immediately know that an aircraft/train/boat/car/oil rig accident has happened. Professional investigators are usually on the scene long before the lawyers have had their first cup of coffee. With a software incident, lawyers have wrapped their fingers around everything long before we even know that something has happened. For the incident investigators to do their job properly, it would probably be best to keep all lawyers out of the picture until the investigation is complete. But the chances of that happening are slim.
I also agree with PHK about the expense issue. There are so many examples of huge expense to discover the cause of an aircraft accident. Just think of MH370 or AF447 (military submarines were used to try to find both wrecks). Also oil rigs. How about Deep Water Horizon? Huge amounts of money was spent to figure out exactly what happened. Similar sorts of money should be made available to discover the causes of software incidents. It's far too easy for companies to hide a software incident and then hide behind lawyers while blaming others.
Bugs should be reviewed and dealt with by a profession independent investigation board, not by lawyers.