Comment by skrebbel

Sounds like ASML, except that Oracle has automated tests.

(ASML makes machines that make chips. They got something like 90% of the market. Intel, Samsung, TSMC etc are their customers)

ASML has 1 machine available for testing, maybe 2. These are machines that are about to be shipped, but not totally done being assembled yet, but done enough to run software tests on. This is where changes to their 20 million lines of C code can be tested on. Maybe tonight, you get 15 minutes for your team's work. Then again tomorrow, if you're lucky. Oh but not before the build is done, which takes 8 hours.

Otherwise pretty much the same story as Oracle.

Ah no wait. At ASML, when you want to fix a bug, you first describe the bugfix in a Word document. This goes to various risk assessment managers. They assess whether fixing the bug might generate a regression elsewhere. There's no tests, remember, so they do educated guesses whether the bugfix is too risky or not. If they think not, then you get a go to manually apply the fix in 6+ product families. Without automated tests.

(this is a market leader through sheer technological competence, not through good salespeople like oracle. nobody in the world can make machines that can do what ASML's machines can do. they're also among the hottest tech companies on the dutch stock market. and their software engineering situation is a 1980's horror story times 10. it's quite depressing, really)