The New York Times takes a stab at turning the Windows testing program into a Dan Brown thriller with the story lede, "On a whiteboard in a windowless Microsoft conference room here, an elegant curve drawn by a software-testing engineer captures both five years of frustration and more recent progress."

But the curve is just an illustration of the tired "80/20 rule," found in Middle Management for Dummies and economics textbooks.

The rule that 80 percent of x comes from 20 percent of y is a fundamental guide — but shouldn't those testing the world's most popular desktop operating system already know this stuff? How about a more meaningful graph — like one illustrating the record six years it's taking to get an edition of Windows out the door?

A Challenge for Exterminators [NY Times]

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