Uninspired

What am I thankful for this year? Well, my motto this year is based on my foot doctor’s advice “Let the pain be your guide.” I took this to heart. After years of lay-offs and fear of lay-offs, I’m thankful I’m in a position where I can get 3 jobs in one year, pick and choose, and finally have the opportunity to review, reprimand, lay-off, fire and interview employers instead of taking whaterever is offerred, out of desperation, and putting up with whatever is dished out because of fear. I have learned a lot about my world view and what is important to me this year. I’m thankful for Hubby, certain cats and dogs, my God-son, my Grandparents, my banjo instructor, the “ex-pirations,” friends, gin, and let’s not forget my foot doctor, who have all helped me learn a lot this year. I am also thankful for you, dear reader – I can’t believe you actually continue to read this darned blog!!

Enjoy your Holiday weekend slowly with people who make you feel good.

When I first started working in the software industry 9 years ago, process was all the rage. All the books were about requirements, specifications, defect tracking, metrics, and project estimation. A few years ago, I went to a PNSQC conference where several software QA gurus (imo) were present and a huge backlash against process was evident. Of course, all of those guys were consultants and had been for quite some time. It is a lot easier to be a guru when you work for yourself, swoop in and tell companies what to do, then swoop out. It is also much easier to be the person at the top who dictates and controls the process or lack-thereof. The perspective of a worker bee, who has to get tasks done within the dictated framework, is a bit different and is something I don’t hear addressed often in the ongoing debate around process.

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Well, today is Election Day in the good old U.S.A. I just dropped my ballot in the box, and I also dropped my two weeks notice in my boss’ in-box.

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Recently I sat in a QA team meeting where half of the QA staff was questioning the “usefulness” of the QA Test Plan, which was a more generic long term plan, and suggesting a plan geared toward the current phase of the company which is in a start-up “get a few key customers interested” phase. Half of the QA team wanted to be more involved in hearing and learning about the key customers’ issues. They wanted to develop the test plan more around the current “key customers” and worry about the future once these customers were satisfied. The other half of the team was pretty quiet – neither agreeing or disagreeing with the manager who felt that it was best to start developing the QA department in a way that is geared toward long-term plans, and let project managers and tech support deal with the current key customers.

Both arguments are valid, but unfortunately, the manager missed the boat on why. I think the manager believed that the QA team was concerned about the fact that bugs were found by the current key customers and that QA would be blamed for this. The manager made a point of saying that the company had never played the blame game and that QA would not be held accountable for these issues. (The company does not have any formal accountability requirements.) Therefore, the manager was comfortable with continuing on the current path of worrying about the more generic future and letting go of the current key customer specifics.

Being blamed was not even remotely the concern of the team-members who questioned the current plan. Meeting their personal accountability standards was what they were concerned about – or in a nut-shell, job satisfaction.
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