What's the Worst That Can Happen?

by Bob Colwell Computer, August 2005 When engineers design systems to work in the real world -- and what other kind of product-for-profit is there? -- they must repeatedly ask themselves, "What's the worst that can happen?" They may argue that nominal operating conditions are far from those limits; they may even seek relief from those limits in their design if accommodating worst-case scenarios would be prohibitively expensive or technically infeasible. But they must always know where the limits are. Read more