Comments on: Doneness! http://www.armedia.com/blog/2010/02/doneness/ Armedia Blog Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:32:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Jimmy Nasr http://www.armedia.com/blog/2010/02/doneness/comment-page-1/#comment-90 Jimmy Nasr Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:41:08 +0000 http://www.armedia.com/blog/?p=300#comment-90 Thanks for the comment Bill. You are right about quality needing to be a part of the company culture. Getting lax on process though is an easy trap to fall into--generally falling into the "we don't have time for this!" or lip-service category. I think an area companies need to pay a lot more attention to is providing valuable and in-context incentives for people to truly adhere to these processes; the reverse is also true of course...see Freakonomics. Thanks for the comment Bill. You are right about quality needing to be a part of the company culture. Getting lax on process though is an easy trap to fall into–generally falling into the “we don’t have time for this!” or lip-service category. I think an area companies need to pay a lot more attention to is providing valuable and in-context incentives for people to truly adhere to these processes; the reverse is also true of course…see Freakonomics.

]]> By: Bill http://www.armedia.com/blog/2010/02/doneness/comment-page-1/#comment-86 Bill Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:19:06 +0000 http://www.armedia.com/blog/?p=300#comment-86 You touched a nerve. One of my pet peeves with myself and others is not being thorough and complete. No matter how good you are at your work, or how long you have done it, you will have blind spots, make mistakes, and leave holes - sometimes big ones. That is why the review process is so very important. It's purpose is to make the project deliverable - data flow, code, documentation, whatever is being handed to the customer, as complete as is humanly possible. Everyone has a stake in success. Years ago I worked on a project team along side one of the Big 5 consulting firms. I was lead on a project "module," and one of my jobs was to review the design and code that the consultants produced. In one review I discovered over 130 defects in code that was supposedly ready for user testing. I wish I could say the consultants learned from their mistakes and the project completed successfully. However, this so-called Big 5 consultancy was very consistent in their lack of quality control. The project failed and literally ended up on pallets, to be hauled off the business property. Millions of dollars, and years were wasted, and professional reputations were ruined. Quality and consistency are supported by good process, but process is not enough. It has to be part of the company's culture. It is uncommon to find individual consultants in one company as committed to professionalism and quality as Armedia's are. You touched a nerve. One of my pet peeves with myself and others is not being thorough and complete. No matter how good you are at your work, or how long you have done it, you will have blind spots, make mistakes, and leave holes – sometimes big ones. That is why the review process is so very important. It’s purpose is to make the project deliverable – data flow, code, documentation, whatever is being handed to the customer, as complete as is humanly possible. Everyone has a stake in success.

Years ago I worked on a project team along side one of the Big 5 consulting firms. I was lead on a project “module,” and one of my jobs was to review the design and code that the consultants produced. In one review I discovered over 130 defects in code that was supposedly ready for user testing. I wish I could say the consultants learned from their mistakes and the project completed successfully. However, this so-called Big 5 consultancy was very consistent in their lack of quality control. The project failed and literally ended up on pallets, to be hauled off the business property. Millions of dollars, and years were wasted, and professional reputations were ruined.

Quality and consistency are supported by good process, but process is not enough. It has to be part of the company’s culture. It is uncommon to find individual consultants in one company as committed to professionalism and quality as Armedia’s are.

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