400 years of QA - not much has changed

In a recent ACM Communications article George V. Neville-Neil describes the QA process involved when the Swedish Navy tested the (now infamous) Vasa battle ship:

In 1628 the ship was finally ready for quality assurance (QA) testing. Seventeenth-century QA of ships was a bit different from what might happen today. Thirty sailors were picked and asked to run back and forth, port to starboard, across the deck of the ship. If the ship didn't tip over and sink, then the ship passed the test. You did not want to be on the QA team in 1628. After only three runs across the deck the Vasa began to tilt wildly and the test was canceled. The test may have been canceled, but not the project. On August 10, 1628, in a light breeze, the Vasa set sail. She was less than a mile from dock when a stiff breeze knocked her sideways. She took on water, and sank ... killing 30 to 50 sailors. In response to the catastrophe, the King wrote a letter insisting that incompetence had been the reason for the disaster (even though the King was the project manager and chief architect). Of course, the King could not be held at fault, so the final verdict was an "act of God."

Some personal footnotes:

• QA still using antiquated methods for testing
• Projects continue along blindly believing nothing is wrong even after QA flags serious errors
  
• 'acts of God' still being invoked by managers to explain defects