Kakonomics is an idea from game theory that tries to explain why people will settle for poor outcomes, for less than they’ve a right to expect. I think that this is relevant to software development and so I wrote this article.
The article also appeared in Teatime with Testers magazine, in the May 2011 edition (PDF, opens in new tab).
In the following edition (PDF, new tab) the article was reviewed by Jerry Weinberg, one of the true greats of software testing. I was delighted to see that he was pleased with the article.
Why Do People Happily Accept Poor Quality?
This question is important for testers to ask, and seek answers. James Christie has done a fine job of laying out a set of reasons based on Kakonomics. Our job is not to change people’s attitudes about quality. Our job is showing people exactly how some product behaves (as exactly as we can). If they don’t care about quality, they’ll ignore what we show them. On the other hand, some people care too much about quality as they define it. We don’t need people pushing testers.
James Christie's Blog 