Today is the third day of the new test cycle and we’re already behind schedule. The developers spent so much time fixing problems with the last load that they didn’t start production on the July load on time. Consequently, I have nothing to test this morning. Even though the test servers were down for several hours yesterday morning I already tested what has been delivered. I’ll need to walk down to the developers to see if they have anything ready for delivery.
Last week I was talking to a peer who works on a diffeent project. She told me the company spent $50 million on a new sales tool that was to be rolled out in June. The project had been postponed and was finally scrapped last week. It was shocking to hear. The company has continued to layoff people since it acquired a portion of a bankrupt Canadian telecom company and yet it wasted $50 million on this project. As shocking as this is it’s not unusual in the corporate world. Then my peer told me that either her project or my project is being killed. She said the company has spent many millions of dollars on her project but they are not seeing the expected results and the users are unhappy with the new tool. They company will either enhance the tool I test and kill her project or try to fix her project and kill my system. Either way there probably will not be a change in headcount. The resources will move from one project to the other. I have noticed that a number of consultants on her project have disappeared over the last few weeks. That could be a good sign for me.
CUTTHROAT! I can’t imagine…