We break form our blog run on sprint meetings due to incoming flambé du jour.

Sometimes we see organizations that are afraid to use the most fundamental of tools, for example, fault tracking from verification.  Instead of using a tracking and visibility tool, we pass back and forth excel sheets behind the scenes. Why would we do this?  We do not want to have a paper trail for things that “make us look bad”.  Fault tracking systems do not make people look bad. Fault reporting and tracking systems are used for just that – it is not a personal attack. The tool allows those who are in the project (including the management hierarchy) to interpret the real state of the project.  This information allows for altering decisions, changing resource allocations and ultimately understanding whether we are getting closer to a product that should or could be launched.

If you do not like what the fault tracking and reporting system is telling you, do not abolish a rational approach and tool, but find ways to alter (improve) the performance.  It does not make you look bad; it shows you where you can improve. Imagine a football player telling the coach not to measure his speed or telling the coach the number must be fudged, or do not recorded it. Take it on faith that I am getting better, faster. Make the teams plans based upon what I tell you and not on what you have objectively measured and can be verified. Seems to me this is a significant source of organization malady.

Esse quam videri