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Subject:Re: Test Phase and Corporation Reengineering From:Marcia Coulter <NOTJUST -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 6 Mar 1995 10:11:02 -0800
Mike Uhl wrote:
>One of the roles I played as a technical writer during the test phase
>of software . . . was to liaise between the testers and the
>programmers. . . .What I tried to do was get problem information from
>the testers to the programmers *before* the testers wrote them up
>officially....
Bev Parks responded:
>...The "shortcuts" Mike descibes are very common, but they are also a
>way of skirting the system and could cause more serious problems in the
>future.
Robert Plamondon responded to both:
>...You test it during the development phase, so you can make something
>that works.
>This sort of under-the-table quality conspiracy has always been around,
>but since it flies in the face of corporate class strictures, crosses
>department lines, and depends on the desire to produce a better product
>as its sole motivating factor, it doesn't fit in with corporate
>thinking very well, and is constantly being forgotten and reinvented.
Actually, this type of cross-departmental communication fits *very well*
with a very hot management topic: Reengineering the corporation. Some of
the top corporations are recognizing that formal department structures
and the strictures that get placed on interdepartmental communication
are not only anti-quality, but anti-quantity too. Too much time gets
taken up with memos and forms whose sole purpose is to control the
movement of information and "things" between departments.
So what do they do? Form project teams where programmers, testers, and
technical writers can work together.
So, Mike if someone gives you flak about crossing lines, just let them
know that you're actually on the vanguard of a new movement.
(For a really exiting book on this topic, see "Reengineering the
Corporation" by two guys whose names I forget at the moment. It's in
the management or business section of most major bookstores.)
-------------------------
Marcia Coulter
notjust -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
