August 12, 2017 at 12:57 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The art of getting it right
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
August 25, 2017 at 3:58 pm
Great editorial.
I agree totally with the idea that it's worth checking everything, even the bits that don't matter. But not just because that makes sure you get to practise tthings you might otherwise not practise enough. There's another important reason; you shouldn't ssume something doesn't matter (and hence doen't need to be tested) just because it's obvious to you that it doesn't matter. If the average person received two cents for every time they mistakenly believed that something obviously didn't matter, that would bring in enough pennies to buy them a few beers every month; and if a brilliant person or an expert had the same income per mistaken belief of obvious irrelevance that would get them even more beer money than that average guy.
Tom
August 26, 2017 at 6:47 pm
Good article. One of the things you indirectly brought up was "reputation". Not only does the DBA have a reputation but the company has a reputation. I'm get angry when someone justifies not taking care to do things right by saying "It's not like lives depend on this". How very wrong they are. Even if not fully deserved, bad news travels faster than a fart in an elevator and can cause the company to lose existing business and prevent it from getting new. That can lead to layoffs or, in the not so rare case, a company to go out of business. The lives of many of the employees that are laid off or cause the company going out of business are suddenly and surely thrown to the ground. It is possible that someone could literally die if their treatments for some disease or condition had to stop because they couldn't afford it without medical benefits. Even if no one dies, it can have a serious effect on someone. I have a good friend that lost his house and still can't get one thanks to what the foreclosure did to his credit history. I can also vouch for the pain because it almost happened to me, as well, and it was all because the company was more interested in meeting some damned self imposed schedule rather than doing things right. On company laid off half of its local-living 3200 employees. It was terribly difficult for them to find a new job because there was little else.
Even if a customer doesn't find the fault, rework is (IMHO) about 8 times more (sometimes, much more) expensive than doing it right the first time. Heh... and at the pace some managers would try to hold you to, rework is going to happen even if they don't build time into their schedule for that.
Don't just do it "good enough" because it's usually not. Do it right because lives do actually depend on it.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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