The Blind Leading the Blind

Banzen gathered the Spider Clan and said:
Master Suku is too far away to oversee your next release,
and there is no abbot left to guide you.
How will you seek out the errors in your code?

The first monk said:
Who better to know the faults of a pig than another pig?
I will review my brother’s code, and he mine.
We shall be each other’s eyes.

The second monk said:
The pig may know itself inside and out,
but only the chef can say if it is roasted well.
I will trust the eyes of our testers, whose sacred duty is finding flaws.

The third monk said:
The succulent pig may be roasted to perfection,
but the chef’s life is forfeit if the Empress wanted beef.
I will demo the application to our customers, and trust their eyes only.

The fourth monk said:
The chef deserves to lose his head if he sent an idiot to take the order!
To trust others is to eschew responsibility.
I will use the application day and night, and trust my own eyes.

The fifth monk said:
Before you wait tables yourself, ask a physician if your hearing is poor!
To trust oneself is to embrace arrogance.
My automated unit tests will be my eyes.

The sixth monk said:
It is a poor physician who judges the body by only examining the feet.
Make the patient run a dozen li!
My automated web-crawler will be my eyes.

The seventh monk said:
It is a pig’s physician who judges the body by only what can be seen.
Let blood and bile be gathered!
My static code analyzer will be my eyes.

The eighth monk covered his head with his robe, and said:
Seven roads begin here; this blind man must remain behind.
Yet if seven go and say what they’ve seen, I will see further than any.
All of these monks will be my eyes.

Banzen remarked to his apprentice Satou:
The second monk does nothing.
The eighth monk does nothing.
What does your third eye tell you?

Satou answered her master:
The nothing of the second monk has virtue,
But the nothing of the eighth monk has eight times as much.
The eighth should be the new abbot, and the second his servant.

Thus was the eighth monk elevated,
and the second monk corrected.