Same page? Same chapter? Same book?

New team + new people + new product = *lots of things*

Such as:
·         New views and old views
·         Various personalities
·         Different ways of *doing things*
·         Various habits
·         Various definitions
·         Potential confusion

These *things* can be extrapolated to a degree that, while I do not wish to focus on it, may cause a great deal of stress to a team.  Hopefully (before, or at least when it hits the fan) once realized, the need for reassessing and defining the strategy becomes evident.

In our case, it indeed became evident.

The test manager now oversees people from several different teams/products.  The products differ as much as the people/personalities do. 

Not only are the people/products/personalities different, but the overall release season was, well, to put it mildly – yikes!

We knew we needed to make some changes, to the degree that we have control over them, within our testing department.  We needed a new strategy. 

The test manager began to construct the strategy, and brought in a few of us to assist with the nuts and bolts of it.  We went back and forth for some time on the wording of it.  (I know it is hard to believe that I would argue over words/meanings/possible assumption(s) J)  We eventually got the initial strategy together and it is something I feel I can stand behind.

Once we completed that, the test manager did a pretty cool thing, in my opinion.  He sent an email to whole team with the following three questions:

·         Who are we?
·         What do we do?
·         Why is it valuable to the company?

A few people answered.  It would have been *better* in my eyes, if everyone had, but it made me realize something.  While the team may be made up of differing people/personalities, we really *need* to be, initially in the same book, close to being in the same chapter, and ultimately landing on the same page when it comes to our mission.

While thinking on this, I found a darn good blog post from Scott Barber:  Business Value of Testing: Bugs ≠ Mission. 

I have forwarded the link to blog post to my test manager/team.

Quote:  “So, to all you testers I ask:  “Do you *really* know your mission, do you have a task posing as a mission, or do you just do what you do because that’s what testers do?””

 

Com-mun-i-ca-tion

Merriam Webster definitions:

Com – 1. Comedy; comic; 2. Comma; 3. Commercial organization

Mun – abbreviation for municipal

I – (pronoun) – the one who is speaking or writing

Ca – abbreviation of circa, symbol for calcium

Tion – when I searched for this, I received a web page error...

When looking at the word when it is broken down into its different definitions, it hardly makes any sense…

Communication – 1. An act or instance of transmitting; 2a. information transmitted or conveyed; 2b. a verbal or written message; 3a. a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior…

Wikipedia has a page on Wiio's Laws, which deserves some thought… the laws that is, not necessarily the page itself… I have no idea how I have never come across this before, considering how much time I spend attempting to understand people…

Here are the laws:        

1.       Communication usually fails, except by accident

a.       If communication can fail, it will

             b.      If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails
             c.       If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there’s a misunderstanding
             d.      If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails

2.       If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage

3.       There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message

4.       The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds

a.       The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate

5.       In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be

6.       The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance

7.       The more important the situation is, the more probably you forget an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago

Very witty and very wise…  and very likely in any place where communication is essential…

Think about it:

1.       That bug report that was missing a step or was not convincing

2.       That email that did not have a key person on it when you sent it

3.       That attempt at explaining a task to another person

4.       That joke that was not seen as funny to the other person

5.       That meeting that went waaaaaaaay off base for waaaaaaay too long

6.       That memo that “everyone” got except you

It is often good to ruminate about communication break downs, especially if the situation caused some unintended consequences.  Try to take a look at the big picture - then follow it up with trying to look at it from the individual perspectives.  There is usually something that can be used as a lesson in these situations, something that can be applied the next time the situation appears to be similar. 

Recommended Read:  "Are Your Lights On?" by Gause and Weinberg

Note:  It is highly likely that the preceding communication failed… and that the writer forgot an essential part of the communication, however; in order to mitigate the propagation of misunderstands, she will conclude this piece…  

 

Task Tracking…

Over the years that I have been a software tester, I have had multiple instances where I have had to track my time.  I absolutely hated it, it made no logical sense to me.

For the past couple of months, the stakeholders have requested that we report daily on our tasks.  They requested the following information:

•   Work Item Number
• Work Item Title
• Actual Time spent working on the item
• Time Remaining on the item (based off preliminary estimates, or adjustments to those)

My first instinct was “OMG, here we go again…”  I wondered if I could actually do this amidst the daily activities that I do.  I wondered how I could “fudge” this, since I had been finding ways to simplify time tracking every other time it came up because it never seemed to be a manageable request.

Some folks would track every minute detail of their day, from time spent reading emails to time spent talking on the phone.  Some, along with me, would try to understand how much needed/had to be tracked, since we all did it different.  Needless to say, if something has value, it is applied collectively.  If it doesn’t, then what is the point?  Because of this thinking on my part, I would usually just find out how much information was satisfactory, what was expected in the outcome, and make it as painless as possible on myself.

When this new decision came about, I went out and bought two 5.5” X 3.5” spiral notebooks.  One for test notes, the other for jotting down the information the stakeholders desired for daily reporting.

After about a week of doing this, I decided that I really liked it.  It sort of shocked me that I did and I wasn’t sure I wanted to even believe it myself. 

Since then, I have been trying to verbally tell myself what it is about this type of tracking that I like.  And, while I am still not sure how to do this, I did have some wonders about it…

• Does it keep me grounded to my tasks so that I am forced to remember them as I go off exploring?
• Does it make me more accountable to me?
• Does it help me to think of scenarios because I am writing the tasks down?
• Does it help me understand the big picture of the team effort when I hear these items rattled off?
• Does it make me more organized?
• Do I like it because I see the value this could bring to the stakeholders?
• Do I like it because it is a logical way of reporting what one is spending time on?
•  Does it answer my previous questions on time tracking because it limits it to the actual task in question?

Perhaps some of these items are resonating with me, perhaps all of them, I still don’t quite know how to put it together and sum it up in a one word title, as if it were a Bug Report Headline…

What I do know, for sure, is that my previous biased thoughts towards tracking my time were totally pushed aside with the tracking of my assigned tasks, and the time spent on them…  And, as long as I have one of my favorite pens at my reach, I have no problem delivering what was asked of me J

P.S. If the bullet lists in this post look like they do in the Preview... with white shading around them, I think there is a bug involved.  I think, as a user, I would like the ability to copy/paste bullet lists from Word without having to attempt to fix these.  While I did attempt to, I seem to have only eliminated the double dots for the lists, and not the white shading that was showing in the Preview... 

O/T: Ever Changing Social Behavior…

I have been thinking about the growing technologies and the equally growing changes in social behavior.  I started thinking pretty hard on it when Facebook was thinking about letting children under the age of 13 join the social network, and all the “noise” about it in the news.

The arguments seemed to be mostly about how much time children spend outside vs. inside with all the modern gadgets and gizmos.  I wondered if this was a fair way to argue when most of those arguing had Facebook accounts, and never mentioned how much time they spend outside.

A lot has changed since I was a child.  Some of the changes have been for the good of mankind, others – I am not so sure…

I have fond memories of being in a “neighborhood”.  I remember when the social forum was the front porch.  I remember when children were outdoors playing, from early in the day until mother called them in for supper.  I remember when people talked face to face, and when you only had a photo of yourself if someone else took it.  I remember when the phone stayed in the house unless you unplugged it.  I remember when there was one television in households and families not only ate together, but watched television together.

Today, there are radical differences in social behavior.

Today you can meet someone on the computer, and break up with them on the computer.  You can be “friends” with people you don’t even know, let alone have ever seen.  You can carry your phone with you and talk on it everywhere you go, including sharing your half of the conversation with everyone else in the room.  You can take pictures of yourself and upload them directly to your social network in hopes that someone in the virtual world cares enough to comment on it or “like” it.  Today young children get their own televisions in an effort to curb the madness of selecting who gets the remote to choose through the hundreds of channels that are available.

I began to think of what social behavior will look like for my grandchildren… since social behavior goes hand in hand with relationships; I am a bit concerned over what that future could look like.   

I was researching some things about this subject, when I came across a book:  The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption.

“The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption.  Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessy spewed out from the screens and speakers we hold dear.  Just as we have grown morbidly obese on sugar, fat, and flour – so, too, have we become gluttons for texts, instant messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, videos, status updates, and tweets.”

It was an interesting read…

Raising children is hard work.  Teaching them is a daily exercise, in which they learn, not just from what you say, but by what they see you do.  Feeding them requires knowledge of the basic essentials of a healthy diet.  Playing with them or interacting with them by way of sports/exercise is very important.

I want my child to grow up believing that a Friend is someone to talk to, share adventures with, to play with.  I want her to grow up believing that a Friend is someone who “has your back”, helps you when you are in need, walks with you through thick and thin, laughs with you and cries with you.  I don’t want my child growing up thinking a Friend is one of many virtual relationships.

I think that before decisions can be made about how we let our children socially network online, society needs to become more cognizant of the implications of information overload and take a hard look at where all this connectivity is headed.

Commitment… Isn’t as easy as it seems…

If you look at the statistical data on marriage success/failure rates, this statement is already widely known… But I am not even going to touch that one with a ten-foot-pole…

Commitment is a strong word… sometimes folks equate it with Perfection... I think that is a wrong way to look at things, personally – and professionally. 

 

Scrum has three defining elements for Retrospectives:

1. What did we do well

2. What did we do not so well

3. How can we improve

These three elements should speak for themselves, they should open up an understanding of “commitment”…  I am not sure they usually do.

If this were, again, compared to marriage, consider this “counseling”, not necessarily fulfillment of either or all parties involved.  It is about “learning” to be better.  It is about “learning” that failure to meet the “commitment” is really a “teacher” of how to become better, personally – and as a team.

All of the team – Development, Testing, Business Analysts, Etc. can “commit” to delivering items by such-and-such date… but the great “what-ifs” of humanity will generally show up, Murphy's_law  is well-known for a reason, and prevent some, if not all, of the aspects of the team from actually delivering.

So, perhaps, the “meaning” of the word, in regards to Agile/Scrum should be more clearly defined.  Much is talked about in regards to “defining Done”, but I find little to none on the term “committed”, I think (based on personal biases and the psychology courses I have taken) that this subject is a bit taboo – again due to personal relationship experiences that people have.

It seems to me that the founders of these “general process guidelines” (I say this in quotes because there ARE NO BEST PRACTICES, unless they are best for your own circumstances),  expected there to be continuous issues, changes, failures, successes, tweaking, etc. 

The third question can be left out easily if a person or team feels like a success or a failure… either/or would distort the results of even thinking about question 3.  If I feel we did all well, will I think of what can be improved?  If I think all did not go well, will I think of what can be improved?  Or would I be basking in glory or wilting in shame from my personal thoughts... Feelings without knowledge can distort thinking... 

I think, prior to Retrospective, each individual needs to try to think about the questions internally prior to externally.  Instead of asking in the “we” sense, ask yourself first.  Then think about the team, and when you do, try to see if there were any “impediments” they encountered, whether as individuals or as a team.

Regardless of how much we improve our processes, they will always need even more improvement.  Regardless of what we seriously desire to commit to, there will always be good old Murphy showing us his laws…

Respond to Change…

Understand the goal…

Do your best, individually, to meet that goal…

Accept failure as a teacher, not a punishment…

Learn from both success and failure…

Carry on bringing with you what you have gained…

Commitment is a noun, what you do with it – that is the verb….

Remember that perfect things are actually Done, they have no need to be re-visited again... 

Worth the Listen...

"As you commence, then, and before you scatter to the winds, I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance. Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in any more than you would a spouse you’re not crazy about, lest you too find yourself on the wrong side of a Baltimore Orioles comparison. Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages. And read... read all the time... read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon."

Getting Things Done Relies on Attitude as Much as Tools…

Metal is a recyclable product and there are some folks, up here where I live, that will take it off your hands for free because they can earn money for it at the local recycling yard. 

I bought the home I live in a little over 3 years ago and each year I try to get more things moved over to Done… This year was finishing up my kitchen and my annual refactoring of junk… The previous owner was a collector of such… I was a naïve buyer and did not “see” the amount of junk there was until I started changing the property to fit my design…

One of the things that both astounded and arose the anger in me was the misuse of the wooded area on the property… dumping and hiding trash… Last year I hauled two loads of it to the local dump, plus paid to dispose of 18 tires I found there… I have firm beliefs in natural habitats… if you go to them – leave them as they were… do not leave anything behind… totally off-topic…

Anyhow, I found an advertisement from a fellow who does odd jobs, and he happened to have an advertisement for removal of metal for free as well…  Scary as it is in this day and age, I decided I would call and see what he could help me with…

We played “phone-tag” for a couple of days, but then we finally set a date… he, and one of his helpers, came over to assess… 

I asked a lot of questions, to get to understand something of who I invited to my property, and to gain some personal insight… I was impressed with what I found out.  These fellows held full-time, paying positions at a local factory and were doing this for extra money to help support their families… since my father, who worked three jobs at a time when I was young – in order to provide for his family -  I have known none to do this… Trust me, there was a lot of questions…  cause “trust” is not a given for me…

They agreed to take the metal, and when we were looking at the “this-years-junk-removal” pile, he was hesitant to name a price.  I already had a price in mind, so I said, just say what you are thinking… He told me his price, mine was slightly higher, so I told him what it was and said if there were any changes due to items in pile (at the landfill) that I would fix the price accordingly… He never asked for more… he passed the test… He could have thought I knew little of the landfill and tried to get more money out of me – especially because most females have limited knowledge of the whole thing – but he did not.

When they came to take the recyclable metal – which was old/outdated/unused items:  an ancient GM Frigidaire, an old wood burning furnace, and a freezer – up came one issue with one item… The freezer would not fit through the back door of the room that it was in.  A ½ inch more clearance was needed in order for it to be removed…

He told me, “I can’t remove the doorframe to get this out.  I am not comfortable with doing that.”  The word “can’t” -  due largely in part to an Elementary School teacher I had (Mrs. Alderman), does not fit in my thoughts… I recall, to this day, her reprimand of another student who said this… she replied, “Can’t means won’t”.   Because of her words, there have been a lot of situations in my life where I have been told I “can’t” do something, and I have proved otherwise… I have been forced to learn new things and grow through each of these situations… but I was willing to do so, because her words were/are a challenge to me…

I told the young man to go start on the other things and that I would figure it out…

And I did… it took a little time to figure out the tools I would need and the proper plan of attack… but the darn thing is gone and no damage was done…

When I offered them money at the end of removal, the young man in charge argued against it – but I had already determined it was fair, and it is hard to argue with a determined/convinced person..

At the end of the day I learned some things, and I think they did too… And I attribute that to having the “Can Do” attitude on both of our parts…

They worked physically hard for their part… Mine was mostly mental… but we all wanted the job Done… and it was indeed Done J

While this may be an off-topic way of showing what a team effort does, let me be emphatic on the team effort part…   I work with a team where I share some core values: “ I said I will get this Done by such-and-such date” means I “committed” to it… I work with some folks who give up time they do not account for just to "Get R Done"...  I work with a team that pulls out all stops to do what they said they would do… I am proud of us… not because we always succeed, but because of the attitude behind it… the Can Do Attitude...

You do not necessarily have to have the proper tools, the correct processes, the right timing, etc. to accomplish things… you do not have to necessarily always succeed…  but you do indeed need the proper attitude… Have you checked yours lately?