The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Testing Patience

by Bruce Johnson in Feature Articles on 2013-04-24

The process used to test new applications before delivering them to the user base at Eric's company had never been particularly formal. This is not to say that there was no process at all. Of course there was. After all, what kind of a company would develop software and then release it to the user base without running it through some testing. But 'rigorous testing' and 'robust validation' were not phrases used within his organization. Neither was 'successful rollout' or 'satisfied users', but that's a story for another day.

One reason for the lack of formality was that the company didn't feel that having dedicated testing resources delivered sufficient benefit for the cost. Shouldn't developers just write code that didn't have any bugs? Was that so hard?

Computers Need Weekends Too

by Bruce Johnson in CodeSOD on 2013-04-03

We are all familiar with the cycle. We arrive at work on Monday ready to face the week in front of us. Over the course of the next five days the drudgery of the grind and the pettiness of the problems that attack us on all fronts wear us down until by Friday we can barely put one finger in front of the other. We celebrate our freedom on the weekend with all manner of revelry. Then, rejuvenated, we enter Monday with a spring in our step only to find ourselves beaten down again.

Yes, we all know and live this pattern. But we don’t expect our computers to emulate it.