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BUSINESS IS PERSONAL MARK RIFFEY CRITICAL PROCESS TESTING:
HBOTH EXPENSIVE AND CHEAP
OW DO YOU PERFORM CRITI- cal process testing? Critical pro- cesses are sensitive to any fail-
is a similar tactic.
An instrumental part of your testing
ure, not just the major ones we tend to worry about most. When your products get out into the real world, they encoun- ter a mix of simple, complex and very complex environments. Likewise, they are often used in a mix of simple, complex and highly integrated work ows.
“Any failure” is often an easily over- looked, simple little environmental thing. These little things didn’t cross someone’s mind early enough in the design, creation, production and test- ing processes. The simplest oversight or miscalculation about the nature of envi- ronments can easily derail a complex product.
Can’t See the Forest for the Trees
A rather disconcerting program- ming-related comment I’ve heard for decades is “works on my machine,” other- wise known as “WOMM.” In context, the full comment might be, “I tested the pro- gram and it works ne on my machine.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean any- thing. As Mike Tyson has said, “Every- one had a plan until I hit them.” Likewise, every program has been “tested” until it has been deployed.
A WOMM comment implies that the program wasn’t tested in an environment more complex than the one used to cre- ate it. In other words, testing wasn’t any- where near as comprehensive as it should have been.
Don’t be so quick to think that your shop is immune to this simply because my example refers to software. A mar- keting process or sales process is just as likely to su er from a lack of proper test- ing. This is the classic “Can’t see the for- est for the trees” situation. Those creat- ing your products are often focused too close to the product’s development to truly understand how it is normally and properly used in the eld.
Management Has a Testing Responsibility Too
Not understanding how your products and services are used in the eld is a dis- advantage for your creative team. A fre- quent problem with all testing (not just critical process testing) is that it occurs too close to the environment used to develop the process. I’ve mentioned that I often proofread a written piece by read- ing it aloud. I do this because the use of a second media reveals obvious problems hidden by familiarity with a piece. Add- ing environments to your testing process
is making sure that the shifts in environ- ment are properly covered. If your teams aren’t exposed to the reality of the envi- ronments where your products and ser- vices are used, it’s more di cult to take them seriously – much less know those environments even exist.
Making this happen is management’s responsibility. Allowing your creative team to spend the money and time to experience the real world environment where their products are used is huge. Taking a step beyond that to allow time for testing in real world scenarios and environments will pay huge dividends. These investments pay o in both prod- uct quality, and with the vision of your creative team being more in touch with your clients’ reality.
Whose Responsibility is Multi- Environment Critical Process Testing?
Your creative types (programmers, engineers, etc.) may feel the duty of testing on a broad range of environ- ments falls entirely to your quality con- trol team. After all, your quality control team is usually tasked with a mix of test- ing new changes and testing for regres- sions (ie: new problems created in exist- ing functionality) across many di erent environments.
That might seem the same job as devel- oping in and for multiple environments, but it isn’t. When complex environments are involved, your programmers, engi- neers or other creative folks might often think their time is too valuable to spend creating and testing on a number of dif- ferent environments. They have a point, but that doesn’t mean their development has to occur in the simplest environment possible. Left untreated, product cre- ation will occur on the systems and tools closest and most familiar to the creative team. This leads to WOMM but also to designs that don’t re ect the reality of the environments where your creations are actually used.
The real world is far more complex any single programmer or engineer’s work environment. If you aren’t provid- ing a range of ready to use work environ- ments for them, the natural thing is for them to use the tools that are already available. This isn’t ideal for them or for your clients.
Think about and invest in your cre- ative people and critical testing process: Expose them to reality.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? Email him at mri ey@ atheadbeacon.com.
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