Charles, My response wasn't directed at just "what to do when the bosses don't listen", but also how to "not push your ideas to the point that you alienate the bosses you are trying to convince". Again, unless you are an officer of a company, or are the owner, you are often NOT in a "decision making" role. Therefore, the only thing you can do is to try and convince people to test a product before deployment. But you can't force your bosses to do something. And if you try to do so, you will risk your job and your professional reputation.
Again, manpower issues and money issues are the key here. Even if the tools are free, it takes the use of "x man-hours" to test a product, when those "x man-hours" could be used towards something viewed as "more profitable" or more important to the company by upper management. This is especially true when you are in a very small shop as I am. I can push all I want, but if I push too much, I run the risk of alienating the very people I am trying to convince. And if I do alienate my "bosses", what have I gained for my group and "my cause"? Nothing. In fact, by pushing too far, I could end up hurting my group and my "cause" more, by not giving my management team a "graceful out" once they realize that I was probably right all along. This is called politics. And the higher you move up as an IT professional, the more important the "how well you play the political game" becomes vs. "how often you are right and your boss is wrong". Perhaps someone else on this list has a better approach to convincing their management team for taking the time and the money to do things such as testing. I'm always interested in hearing other/better approaches. But for me, this is the way I have approached all "opposition" to any IT recommendation that may be viewed as "not necessary, too costly, etc.", testing included. As I mentioned before, people and companies both make mistakes, and hopefully learn from them. Sometimes you just have to let your upper management make what you know is a decision that will probably come back to haunt them, and then just move forward from that point on. Celeste -----Original Message----- From: charles arehart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 1:10 AM To: JRun-Talk Subject: RE: load testing (was RE: Difficult To Reproduce Session Issue) Well, those are all good thoughts, Celeste, and surely helpful to many. But my point wasn't "what do we do if the bosses don't listen" so much as "why aren't we pushing testing (especially load testing) more". I think there's a sense in many that it's not important, or it's too difficult, etc. While it's true that many sites may not get thousands (or tens of thousands) of hits in a day, it's reasonable for one getting just hundreds to get several at once, and there are clearly issues (like the one that touched off this thread) that may be triggered with just such a low level of load. If I seem to be on a bit of a bandwagon for load testing, even for "smaller shops", I am. And as has been pointed out, cost of tools isn't really the issue. I'm curious for the kinds of arguments against it that have either kept people from pursuing it or, even in the face of these assertions of the low costs and good benefits, why they would still say "nah, not going to bother". /charlie > -----Original Message----- > From: Haseltine, Celeste [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 10:55 AM > To: JRun-Talk > Subject: RE: load testing (was RE: Difficult To Reproduce Session Issue) > > > Charlie, > > I just try to point out the business cases for testing. With many > owners/managers, it comes down to money and time, with time also being > related to money. As a professional, I ALWAYS write up my > business case in > a 1 page summary, which hits the highlights as to why ANY > software product, > internet or otherwise, should be tested. <snip> ______________________________________________________________________ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
