In today’s newsletter we will be giving tips on how to help your organization avoid being a victim of one of the most common mistakes in software development, and recognize the difference between the roles of Quality Assurance vs. Testing.

My family discovered Gunstock this year! It is conveniently located within two hours of our house with a cozy, affordable hotel right next to it. There’s also gorgeous scenery and a newly-installed $3 million high-speed quad.

On February 15, a very cold but sunny day, we were enjoying Gunstock Mountain like almost every weekend this season; we bought half-day lift tickets. 5 minutes to 12 we were at the bottom of the hill debating if we want to call it quits for the day or squeeze in one last run.

Needless to say, at 11:55 a.m. we got on the lift…this was by far the longest lift I had ever experienced in my over 30 years of skiing! We did not get the last run for the day in. The multi-million dollar beauty got stuck in the middle of the busiest day of the season! Julia and I were evacuated off of it at 2:47 p.m. Over 200 people were stuck for nearly 3 hours, sitting still in freezing temperatures (follow this link for the complete story).

At this point, I would like to take a moment and thank the rescue team - excellent job! I was always wondering how they take people down in a situation like that. However, I never thought I would have to experience it myself!

But as you probably guessed, this letter is not about the heroic efforts of the ski patrol, but rather an illustration of the difference between these two concepts: QA vs. Testing. The manufacturer of the high-speed quad, I am sure, did some heavy testing, but left Quality Assurance to the skiers.

If you know of some software companies that do the same to their clients, please follow this link and let us know!

For detailed definitions of Quality Assurance please click here.

We all know that when the economy goes sour, the first job cut is QA. Quality always gets sacrificed to money and time-to-market. In reality, quality should be the one and only constant in any process, whether it is manufacturing or software development. After having been stuck in the freezing cold for 3 hours 20+ feet in the air, believe me, I know what I am talking about!

In summary, the most important role of a QA department is to answer one question: Will the system work tomorrow as well as it did yesterday? The only way to know this is through a 24X7 automation exercise of the system under test! It does not matter if your company makes software or helicopters - the work of the Quality Assurance department remains the same.

As always please follow this link to send your thoughts.