Re: The Mythical Man-Month

[<neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Keith is correct. The folks in QA understand that quality
is not something injected into a product by the QA department,
nor is it something that comes from the shop floor doing a
good job (although that helps), or the engineering people
creating processes that ensure good techniques are used.

Instead, it comes from the corporate board room. Those are
the people who decide what's good enough to ship. They may
not establish the exact specifications, but they'll approve
the slogans, official or not, that are heard, felt and
implemented by the management. "We don't want it right, we
want it Monday." "We ship no wine before its time." "FUD."
"Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back." "Give 'em
the razor, sell 'em the blades."

They can defend the quality effort, or they can defund it.
Quality is manufactured (or destroyed) in the board room. 

--Peter Neilson

Keith Hood said: 
> > 
> >   Richard Lewis responds:
> >    
> >   Right on!   I still do not get why this is so hard
> > for so many business analysts - let alone
> > developers.  I mean - this is supposed to be their
> > job.   Any insights as to why most BA's have such a
> > hard time maintaining a user view?
> >    
> 
> In all cases, the reason why anyone on a development
> team can't maintain focus on user issues is because
> upper management doesn't. 
> 
> Too often, organizational issues override operational
> or product-related issues. People will always take
> their clues from the top on what is and is not
> important in the organization; that is, on what may or
> may not affect one's employment. If the bosses are
> more concerned with cutting development lifecycle
> costs than with making the UI work right, then the UI
> will never work right.
> 
> This is not an indictment of BAs - it's a statement of
> the fact that in order to have a career, you have to
> keep happy the guy who signs the checks. Even if the
> product doesn't work.


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