Monday, February 22, 2010

Man and the machine ....

Can a software be produced and maintained using a machines in a factory … like Google does?

Notice, with their machinery and factory setup, they have been able to cut down the testing cycle to 4 minutes... Sounds unbelievable .. I think it is ..

Google produces Innovation machines and IT vendors set up factories… So back to Factories and start oiling machines. Probably we should change IT designations to map roles on assembly line shop floor … - foreman, supervisor (this is there already in some sense), operator, inventory manager, assembler…. As few expect, IT work will eventually be a factory job. For one, my wife and kids would be happy. I can then work in shifts and come back home at sharp, say 5:30.

It is interesting to watch what Google is doing ….though their innovation factory recently had an outage…. With “Buzz” having “bugs” related to privacy...

You know what … as a tester, bugs make me happy… that is an eccentric , one sided view …especially with those who boast “machines and factories” of software. After all we are very far from the day when truly software will be produced in machines, requirements will be read from humans through bar-code type readers, we would be able recall software as cars (instead of sending a patch) and there would software garages.

Dreaming …!!! Someone woke me up... It is a brand new Monday….

Shrini

7 comments:

Able Weis said...

Fantastic thought and love your blog. Just needed a little assistance on Software Testing. What would you recommend and why? I just checked out QAI's offerings, but what is your opinion on the same? - http://bit.ly/qaistp

Jassi said...

Interesting Post Shrini, wow when will I start writing like you,Pradeep,Mr James,Ajay,Pari :)))

Cheers,
Jassi

Anonymous said...

Google is fully loaded with bugs.. I still remember by college days in 2006.

Brazilians screwed ORKUT by stealing cookies.

P.S. Gmail is still not safe

Sumitm

Kashif Ali Habib said...

Nice Article Shrini :)

Pedro Montenegro Corrêa said...

Hi Shrini, these 'incidents' also make me happy... don't feel bad... it's a tester think.

I'm also skeptical when I read James Whittaker's comment (Google's Testing/Quality Director), in support to his 'minimalist, exploratory' approach to testing: "It's not a process of get-it-as-reliable-as-possible-before-we-ship. It's health care, cradle to grave health care ... prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure."
(http://googletesting.blogspot.com/search/label/Whittaker)

Maybe, cutting corners and trying to make a complementary test case derivation technique (exploratory testing)the ONLY technique, has its real risks - and costs - after all. And, as {risk = prob * impact}, I'd say they failed to implement the basics. Where was the list of risks to guide the testing 'charter' for their exploratory testing? Once the probability of undesired integration deffects ('cross-function' between Google services) AND the brand/cost impact are both high, this should've been high priority in the risk-based testing list!

Well, it makes me feel I'm not so unreasonable when resisting to readily accept these alternative 'testing approaches' which eliminate the basics for 'speed' reasons. That's what happens!

I feel good!

Seeya.
...and sorry for the brazilians who stole cookies in the past! We're not all bad! ;o)

[ ]s
Pedro

Shrini Kulkarni said...

Hi,Pedro

My main complaint is this "factory" thing. I don't believe that factory metaphor is applicable to software

Shrini

Afreen said...

Very interesting post Shrini. I am new to ur blog and became an instant reader now.

I got some questions regarding automation of reports in application. Is that ok if i can ask you for some suggestions here?