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Subject: Rational for resignation from *****
From the very beginning of my employment at *****, I found the company's attitude towards software development to be a troublesome one. The high standards that seem to be in place for other disciplines are not enforced when it comes to software development, which is rather worrying given the high risk factors of the systems involved. I have tried, during numerous occasions in the past 20 months, to bring a change to that habit, but I am afraid that I have not been successful. I think that the principle reason for this is a false but deeply rooted belief that software is "easy", and all that is required to make it work correctly is a small change here and there. I believe that is the reason for the lack of updated documentation and measures to ensure software quality and proper functioning. The fact that the most basic quality assurance measures are not applied and the absence of an orderly software maintenance life cycle were always a source of great concern to me. Among these missing measures I can mention compulsory code reviews per ***** development site, the usage of static code analyzers and documentation maintenance. In fact, code is officially reviewed only once a year, after it has been tested (it must be the other way around, of course), but even then it is not compulsory and done by personnel that was not involved in the development of the code in question, and do not have specifications to verify that the code complies with the safety and functional requirements. Some product's code is not reviewed at all. I believe I can summarize this by asserting a lack of culture of quality when it comes to software development at *****.
I am also deeply disappointed by the lack of support from management when dealing with what I regard as severe software problems that might have direct impact of human safety. I often found myself wondering what needs to happen in order to change this complacent attitude; I finally realized that only a dramatic event is likely to have the desired effect, but I do not feel that I can take the responsibility to write software under such circumstances.
I would like to thank everyone at ***** for having helped me to carry out my duties to the best of my ability.