This is a guest blog from Platform Lab Director Steve Gruetter
Ever since elementary school when we learned what 'Test' meant, we have always approached that word with trepidation. About the same time, we learned that unwillingness to invest in proper preparation would lead to another four-letter word with a much nastier emotional response: 'Fail'.
In our professional IT world, 'Test' still inspires apprehension, often to the point of avoidance. When budgets get cut, one of the first processes abandoned is testing. When business is booming, testing is something to get to later. Everybody knows they need to do it; very few want to do it. Unfortunately, one cannot improve the quality of their work without knowing what is wrong - validation is the key to quality. In today's IT environment, where a reputation can be ruined in milliseconds, a firm without quality solutions is quickly exposed as a fraud.
Robust testing leads to better processes, better people, higher quality applications, fewer mistakes and less waste from under-utilized assets. Organizations with a true commitment to quality invest the time, effort and resources into validation that their solutions and processes will work as expected. Firms that test gain the competitive advantage of knowing what will work and what will not work.
The story in the link below is one of an organization that had been facing media scrutiny and knew they absolutely could not fail at their key moment in the spotlight. This organization focused their efforts on improving their quality, and then proved it prior to their crucial event. As you read it, consider if your firm has a commitment to improving quality - and if you could take similar steps to gain an advantage.
Steve Gruetter
Platform Lab
614-675-3711 x1
IT testing proves instrumental in reporting election results
1-13-09 addendum:
Platform Lab gets great mention in David Strom's latest article for CIOUpdate.com
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