How can the same people do both of these things?



  • I was asked to write two integration systems for a new client, a major TV network with three letters in its name.  Let's call them XYZ.  XYZ also uses Product X and Product Y, which need to be able to communicate with our system.  Hence the integrations.

    One of them, we'll call it S1, is a query system.  Product X sends us a SOAP message, and we respond with information regarding open inventory.

    S2 is an import system. Product Y sends us a SOAP message, and we import very important accounting data into a queue, then send a message back to Product Y when the user processes it.

    Both systems were specced out in an admirable level of detail.

    Clearly, S2 is the more delicate system, as it 1) changes data on our system, instead of simply querying and 2) deals with freaking accounting information.

    We tested the heck out of S1.  We set it up on a staging server containing a backup of XYZ's database, and for the better part of a year, once a week I got on a call with a handful of guys from XYZ, my product manager, guys from the company that made Product X, and guys from 3 other companies whose products are also involved in this system, and everyone talked over issues that they'd found. We revised the spec a few times to respond to unanticipated challenges, we fixed bugs, and by the time we put the whole system into production, everything ran beautifully.

    S2... well... it just sort of went forgotten, until one day a couple weeks ago, I get an IM from my product manager.  "They just put S2 into production over at XYZ, and they're finding a bunch of bugs with it."

    *dies*

    So now for the past couple weeks we've been running around fighting fires on the XYZ production system, mostly fixing protocol disagreements and similar things that would have been found if we'd had an extensive testing phase for S2 like we did for S1.  How can the SAME PEOPLE get S1 so completely right, and then pull a ridiculous stunt like this on S2? What is this I don't even...



  •  Lessee, a television network with a three-letter name that WTFs the simplest things?

    Gotta be Fox.



  • @da Doctah said:

    Lessee, a television network with a three-letter name that WTFs the simplest things?

    Gotta be Fox.

    No, and if I didn't say who it was for a reason.  But it's not Fox.  Good guess, though.

     



  • So... why weren't you testing S2? You kind of missed that point. Did people just forget about it?



  • The network must be ABC.



  • It does seems odd:

    S1: read-only inventory query system, low risk: "Let's test the heck out of it!"
    S2: writeable system with accounting impacts. high risk: "That's too hard... lets do more S1 testing!"



  • Maybe they were planning an extensive testing phase for S2, but some PHB pushed someone into pulling the trigger way early.  Maybe he did it because S1 had such an extensive testing phase:  "We can't wait two whole years for this!  Someone needs to light a fire under these people."




  • @Mason Wheeler said:

    How can the SAME PEOPLE get S1 so completely right, and then pull a ridiculous stunt like this on S2?
     

    WERE they the same people? Kinda sounds like S1 was under the control of an experienced project manager and S2 owned by some beancounter with unrealistic viewpoints of cost, time and quality.

    Look up the team hierarchy, see where the split occurred.



  • Does this have to do with XYZ's online store?

    Because if it did that would explain why my gf hasn't gotten the gift I ordered for her yet and my credit card wasn't charged until a few days after the order...

    She is very upset and starting to get annoying >:(



  • @this_code_sucks said:

    Does this have to do with XYZ's online store?

    Because if it did that would explain why my gf hasn't gotten the gift I ordered for her yet and my credit card wasn't charged until a few days after the order...

    She is very upset and starting to get annoying >:(

     

    Nope. It's got nothing to do with any online store.

     


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