Testing Prometheus (the movie)

Why was this movie not good? It was not bad!!

1. The actors were beautiful with all star cast 
2. The acting was top notch
3. The direction was also brilliant
4. The CGI and stuff was excellent
5. The cinematography was breathtaking

Most of the geographical aspects of an alien planet were pretty nicely captured. But the movie lacked something. Something was missing. It even irritated quite a number of audiences. It gave the audience a visual treat but stole the original experience they have craved for decades. The core of movie which is the story did not know what it wanted to give to the audience. Resulting in travelling a group of brilliant scientists without letting them know their mission, a pretty girl who works out like crazy but cannot stop running straight, a zombie, an alien snake, a beautiful android who knows too much or just curious, a dead old billionaire who is not really dead, a female scientist (I don’t even want to touch that). And the alien creator guy rips of Michael Fassbender's face Who does that. I don't care what he created and wanted to destroy, he is dead to me!!

Testing Software is kind of like that. Brilliant business analysts that come up with a vision for something better, Artistic UI designers who go for a visual treat, top notch geek developers that develop a product or app, and the QA that test the heck out of every component along with integration testing.

All the items on the check list are checked off. Every item passes with flying colors. And the product is released to the world to deal with. With all its beautifulness and latest and greatest technology and perfection..

1. If the product does not make sense to the user, the user feels stupid.
2. If the product does not give a good user experience, the user feels won’t come back.
3. If the product takes too long to understand, the user is robbed of their time.
4. If the product does not deliver what is said, the user is feels cheated.

Product that meets the promises made to the customer along with a good user experience will last and thrive. Prometheus made the money it deserved same like the iPhone.

How well do you know your QA?

QA efforts valued based on the bugs that make it to production.

Once upon a time in an Asian village, there lived 4 brothers. All the four brothers were doctors.

The eldest brother treated many patients for years. 

1. He charged reasonably for the years of treatment.
2. Most of them advanced to terminally ill condition. 
3. Many of them died. 
4. He talked a lot about all the reasons that lead to the patient's death and how his treatments to save the patient became ineffective due to reasons not in his control. 
5. He was famous all over the village and a little in the surrounding villages too. He was very important to them. 
6. He did not get a bad rep either. People thought he did his best.

The second brother treated patients with care too for months.

1. He charged an arm and a leg as his fees.
2. A few of his patients became chronically ill even after months of treatment. 
3. Most of his patients survived and recovered. 
4. Few of his patients became terminally ill.
5. He explained about all the reasons for why he had to charge so much for the treatment. He also had reasons for why the patient could not be saved for reasons not in his control
6. He was famous in his village. He was important to them.

The third brother treated patients for weeks.

1. All of his patients survived and recovered. 
2. He charged reasonably.
3. He was known by a few people in the village. He was considered to be okay. 
4. People did not prefer to pay enough for his services.

The fourth brother never treated any patients actively.

1. He studied all the patients that came to his brothers.
2. He invested all his time on preventing diseases than curing them. 
3. He was more interested in prevention than cure.
4. He was not known by anyone in the village. He was never paid enough even to cover for his research. 
5. He was not valued as much. And sometimes he was considered pesky and hindering to the specific lifestyle the villagers were accustomed to.

QA people are valued the same way too.

A company values its QA team and invests in it when a lot of bugs make it to production. And seriouslyunder values the QA team that makes sure issues are nipped in the bud. This is when the upper management decides that their code is so clean and bug free, they may not need the QA team who are always asking for more time or resources and sometimes becoming the gate keepers for releases.

Oh! The irony.

Moron Vs. Oxymoron

I had the luxury of working with insanely smart people.
I had the misery of working with mind numbingly inane people too.
I had the luxury of working for morons and reporting to oxymoron.
The moron are okay, they don't know any better. They can be educated.
The oxymoron's they do know better. They purposefully want you to swim against the currents just to prove a point to nobody, not even themselves. They cannot be reasoned with.
I would totally run from these!! And I have.

I am a Bitch

The Circle of Office - 
I am a Bitch (not in general)
I am my boss' bitch.
My boss is their manager's bitch.
The manager is the vice president's bitch.
The VP is the CEO's bitch.
The CEO is the bitch to all the stake holders.
Instead of bitching about this situation, I try to be the best bitch I possibly can be (excuse the expression).

When it comes to working in an office, we are confined to cubicles physically and to the manager’s invisible boundaries. Learn to live and learn to grow.
If you signed up to swim in a pond, do not complain that it is not as challenging as swimming in an ocean. If you signed up to swim in the ocean, do not complain that it is not as predictable as a pond.
Do the best you can. Learn to use the currents. Do not work against them.
If you do, you will fail and a new swimmer can replace you.
One should be replaced for sucking at ones job, not for trying to make a work place better.

Update - Well, this is what I thought, till I worked at Amazon and Porch. When I worked with a great boss, I was myself and it felt great. I was happy. 
No, I don't want to be a bitch in any sense. Not anymore.