Guesswork vs Formal Verification
Developers should use guesswork when dealing with ambiguous requirements, debugging complex systems without clear logs, or in time-sensitive situations like hackathons where quick decisions are needed meets developers should learn and use formal verification when building systems where reliability, security, and correctness are paramount, such as in aerospace, medical devices, financial systems, or autonomous vehicles. Here's our take.
Guesswork
Developers should use guesswork when dealing with ambiguous requirements, debugging complex systems without clear logs, or in time-sensitive situations like hackathons where quick decisions are needed
Guesswork
Nice PickDevelopers should use guesswork when dealing with ambiguous requirements, debugging complex systems without clear logs, or in time-sensitive situations like hackathons where quick decisions are needed
Pros
- +It helps in moving forward by making reasonable assumptions, such as estimating API response times or hypothesizing bug causes, but should be followed by validation to avoid errors
- +Related to: debugging, agile-development
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Formal Verification
Developers should learn and use formal verification when building systems where reliability, security, and correctness are paramount, such as in aerospace, medical devices, financial systems, or autonomous vehicles
Pros
- +It helps eliminate bugs that might be missed by traditional testing, reduces development costs by catching errors early, and is essential for compliance with standards like DO-178C for avionics or ISO 26262 for automotive safety
- +Related to: model-checking, theorem-proving
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Guesswork if: You want it helps in moving forward by making reasonable assumptions, such as estimating api response times or hypothesizing bug causes, but should be followed by validation to avoid errors and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Formal Verification if: You prioritize it helps eliminate bugs that might be missed by traditional testing, reduces development costs by catching errors early, and is essential for compliance with standards like do-178c for avionics or iso 26262 for automotive safety over what Guesswork offers.
Developers should use guesswork when dealing with ambiguous requirements, debugging complex systems without clear logs, or in time-sensitive situations like hackathons where quick decisions are needed
Disagree with our pick? nice@nicepick.dev