Rainbow Testing

The risk retrospective: a hero's eye view

In a CMM 1 environment where the rewards are doled out according to the pain, risk mitigation plans are eschewed in favor of the risk retrospective as delivered at the release party. As a general rule of thumb the length of the risk list is in direct proportion to the ugliness of the implementation and the lateness of the delivery. A project delivered on time and under budget is dismissed as "easy" while the risks involved in a true disaster are ruminated and repeated down to the minutiae to justify the agony of "success."

This is the list that no one could conjure up during the requirements phase. There were only mumbles and waves available during test planning. But the rumblings about risk grow louder as the weary participants approach and slip past the first drop dead dates.

Think of the risk retrospective as the lipstick for your pig. Keep it in the handbag of your secret project plan.

Why do people do this to themselves? Do we love to suffer? Perhaps. We love a hero, a good story, a tale of challenge and woe. It's not for nothing that the Monty Python troupe got great laughs off of the endless boredom of Chartered Public Accountancy. If they had only been exposed to the daring exploits of Certified Software Test Engineers, or Project Management Professionals; we'd never hear the end of it.

Take note team leaders; it's critical to recognize the accomplishments of your team, lest they create dramas in which they can cast themselves as heroes (or villains)!

But what of the rest of us, those lifetime cube dwellers who may secretly dream of saving it all, against all the odds?

A life, dear ones. We must get ourselves hobbies, take some cube-earned cash and go sky diving, pick ourselves up from in front of the 'net and volunteer somewhere.

Let this be your challenge: change. Make that risk list up front, forgo the drama of the inglorious implementation, just get the thing done.