Padma was in a bad mood as there was intense pressure from customer/management to cut on testing time and approve a half-baked system. She knew it was a wrong thing to do and it will backfire in the not-too-distant future. She was in a terrible mood, and everyone tried to cheer her up.
Kaushik said that when organizations get the basic processes wrong, there will be trouble round the corner. When we conduct classes for beginners in Bridge, one of the most basic errors which is oft repeated by Beginners is ruffing in the long trump hand or taking a finesse as soon as they spot one irrespective of whether it is required or not.
Kingo added, “You can’t blame them because they see them as trick taking opportunities and the realization that it does not yield extra tricks comes only with experience and lots of practice. It is the same issue with pre-mature delivery of software. You think you have pacified an angry customer by delivering some code and spend the next six months firefighting to ensure the system does what it is supposed to do.”
Prabha felt sorry for Padma who was a person with a lot of integrity and would not approve an item unless she was satisfied the code was functioning as per expectations. She had a consoling tone and said, “One should not worry too much about it. Sometimes customers cooperate and go through the teething problems without too much finger pointing and one may get away with it. You can look at it like a grand slam bid on two finesses which makes on a given day. Cheer up, who knows, it may just work out. “
Kaushik, the best bridge player in the group summed it up nicely – ”People learn about errors by experiencing it a couple of times whether it is Bridge or Software Development. One of the most famous quotes on training is “I hear, I forget; I see, I remember; I do, I learn”. Experiential learning is the best method of learning. It is fine if people make mistakes and learn from it. It is a huge problem when people make mistakes and keep repeating the same mistakes again and again”
Padma was feeling better and had a smile on her face. She did not feel all that guilty having signed off on a system without proper testing.
Tailpiece:
Goofy recollected the terrible mistake when he tried to jump over a ditch and fell into the ditch. He learnt from it and was always careful when he had to jump over something. Once bitten, twice shy.
