FW: [XP] Quality is free...

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Blum
To: extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 15.8.2003 23:46
Subject: Re: [XP] Quality is free...

Hi Dađi!


>> This is precisely the problem: the customer is NOT aware of it and I 
>> am NOT
>> very willing to deliver low-quality work.

>Ultimately, that leaves you only one choice - don't deliver low quality 
>work. What can your manager do if you're not done yet?

Pressure me into delivering in spite of the low-quality.

>> The project manager does not see a
>> reason to tell the customer this though :-(

>That's a rather tough one. At least from here, it looks like your 
>manager willingly delivers substandard work and deceives the customer 
>about it. Which, in all likelihood, just means that we're missing a 
>piece of the puzzle. There are very few people out there who'd really 
>knowingly do that.

I agree. She is just annoyed if I bring this quality issue forth because she
believes that delivering substandard work at the right time is better than
delivering high-quality work at a later date or reducing the scope of the
release.

>> This is not being put in the hands of the customer, it is being 
>> handled this
>> way by us because the manager says we need to reach that "deadline"!

>How did she arrive at that deadline? As a first effort to get things to 
>change, can you get involved in the process of setting the deadline?

The deadline was pretty much fixed in stone since the application won´t
deliver business value to the customer unless it contained a certain set of
features.

>>> The customer just needs to be made aware of the fact that she is 
>>> simply
>>> borrowing against future development effort. Development effort you
>>> "saved" this time will simply accrue interest and be due later on.

>> I keep telling my manager this and she realizes this is a problem but 
>> she
>> sees this as our problem not the customer´s.

>Maybe it only is your problem. Can you show her how it affects the 
>customer? And if it is your problem, can you find a way how it would 
>become less of a problem for your company?

It is the customer´s problem since he will incur higher cost for future
work. The way to make it less of a problem for me or my company is to focus
more on delivering high quality work, use the Planning Game to gauge our
velocity and communicating more with our customer.

>>> Maybe she needed the complete working version exactly at the
>>> deadline,
>>> and is indeed willing to pay the price for bugs and cleanups later on
>>> -
>>> this is her call to make. Just make sure she's aware of the cost.

>> This is the mistake we are making, not making the customer aware of
>> the
>> ramifications of such an aggressive deadline. But now the customer 
>> thinks
>> everything is pretty dandy and the next part of the application will 
>> go on
>> with full speed, no refactoring needed! How can we best reverse this 
>> cycle?

>Can you make the likely problems for stage 2 visible to your manager? 
>Even better, can you demonstrate how those problems might have been 
>caused by shortcuts in stage 1, without offending her? Can you offer 
>help with the estimation of the next iteration?

I must do all of the above :-)

>Good luck,
> - Robert

Thanks, I´m gonna need it :-)
Dadi.


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Received on Monday, 25 August 2003 04:22:22 UTC