I'm looking for a short story I found on the web a few years ago
called something like "The Bug of the Seven Layers". It was about a
programmer that found a complex bug in an application that showed up
only because of a complex and subtle interaction between seven layers
of code. The manager wouldn't let him fix it before the product
shipped, and it ended up ruining a program he wrote later. I thought I
found it on Steve McConnell's website, or else it was someone else who
writes about software. I have not been able to find it using several
search engines.

The story you are looking for is "The Bug in the Seven Modules" by
Andy Oram. It is available online at the following link.
http://praxagora.com/andyo/parody/bug7mod.html


Additional Information
-----------------------
According to the author, it is a parody of Nathanial Hawthorne's "The
House of the Seven Gables". The link below is the author's explanation
of his parody.
http://praxagora.com/andyo/parody/hawthorne.html

Andy Oram's Home Page
http://praxagora.com/andyo/index.html

Search Strategy
-----------------
"short story" bug seven


- Hammer

Exactly what I was looking for -- thanks! (I was thrown off by
including "layers" in all my searches rather than "modules")