Recently a client was complaining about a bug that had been introduced in the latest release of their software. She was very upset that the bug hadn't been caught before the release.

While I understand her frustration, bugs are a reality of software. The real test here is how the software company responds to notification of this bug. Will they acknowledge the problem? Will they fix it right away? Will they offer a workaround?

Software bugs are inevitable. Human error is inevitable. How the vendor responds to those errors is what really matters.

When my clients are selecting a new software system, part of the process is reference checks. One question I always recommend is something along the lines of "Tell me when there was a problem with your vendor. What happened and how did they resolve it?" How the vendor responded to any significant challenges will say a lot about the vendor.

The reality is there will always be errors, there will always be bugs, there will always be challenges  with any software. What matters most is how the vendor responds to those issues.

(And by the way, this applies to all of us. We all make mistakes. It's how we respond to those mistakes that really counts.)