Your Software is Mission Critical

If an autopilot fails, or a weapon system malfunctions, lives can and will be lost. As a result, significant checks, practices and concepts go into designing the software for such systems. But the code we, as developers in a wide range of jobs and fields, write can be just as critical - a delayed benefits submission because of a server error causes somebody to become homeless; a mistake on an immigration system causes a family to be deported; a misrouting of a delivery driver causes a car crash.

As developers we should explore the culture around what we build - move fast and break things doesn't work if you're dealing with real people's real lives. Are there lessons of software development, design, project management, that we can learn from "mission critical" software production, and apply to our "normal" development projects that can ultimately save frustration, jobs and even lives in the process?