Thursday 6 March 2014

Art of balancing

I love how in the process of making and releasing software you (as a team) constantly have to balance technical and business risks. You can't have it all, you most likely will have to go to production with a list of known issues, because if you don't do it, you might lose a client or a market. World moves fast and doesn't wait for anyone. I find that some testers and developers don't really get it, and they insist on blocking the release until all major (in their opinion) issues are resolved.

I say: don't block a release, but make sure that product owner knows of all the technical risks you are aware of, their likelyhood and severity, and the risk mitigation plan (which btw might include install/user guide instructions for workarounds). Let product owner decide if this risk is worth being taken. It might cost more to get rid of the issue than it would cost to fix it even if it indeed appears in production.

As a technical specialist I might strive for perfection, but as a problem-solver I always come back to practical solutions.

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