Dunno about baydad...but, yes I have and still do. I've been designing embedded hardware/software products since the early 90s for vet med, aerospace avionics, industrial process control, and consumer electronics...at 5 different companies, and countless leadership regimes (and styles). I've designed, built, manufactured, and provided support for products with unit sales of 6 to 6 million (give or take a couple hundred thousand), and support lives from 5 years to 50. I've started, led, and participated in software teams from 5 to 100 engineers designing software from 500,000 lines of code to 5 million....from simple digital thermometers, to entire military aircraft.

So, I have more than a passing knowlege for what goes wrong (or right)...specifically, in the embedded software product arena....which is quite a bit different than what happens in the mechanical systems arena. I've seen things go pear-shaped in so many different ways that I really hesitate to comment.

Generally, software quality issues (which I think these more "rightly" are vs. reliability), are NOT a result of lowly software engineers. Don't get me wrong....they CAN be. But, it is more typical that the teams are handcuffed in some way by process, culture, resources, staffing or some combination of these. It is more typically a Senior Leadership issue that prevents the engineering teams from being able to do what they "know" is right. Often this is from a heavy handed, micro-management based culture.

Again, that's just speculation based on my range of experience. I used to know a couple of engineers at Garmin (I went to school is Kansas), but I haven't spoken with them in ages, and don't know if they even still work in Olathe.