As a test manager, James Christie experienced two divergent views of a single project. The official version claimed that planning and documentation were excellent, with problems discovered during test execution being managed effectively. In fact, the project had no useful plans, so testers improvised test execution. Creating standardized documentation took priority over preparing for the specific problems testers would actually face during testing. The required documentation standards didn't assist testing; they actually hindered by distracting from relevant, detailed preparation. It was a triumph of process over purpose. James shows that this is a problem that testing shares with other complex disciplines. Devotion to processes and standards inhibits creativity and innovation. They provide a comfort blanket and a smokescreen of “professionalism” where following the ritual becomes more important than accomplishing the goals. Unless we address this issue, organizations will question whether testers really add value. Testers must respond by challenging unhelpful processes and the culture that encourages them. Purpose must come before process!

1. T13
Test Management
10/16/2014 1:30:00 PM
The Unfortunate Triumph of
Process over Purpose
Presented by:
James Christie
Claro Testing
Brought to you by:
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2. James Christie
Claro Testing
James Christie is a testing consultant with thirty-one years of IT experience.
Before moving into testing, James spent six years as an IT auditor, so he has
experience on both sides of the fence. With experience in information security
management, project management, business analysis, and development, he is
particularly interested in links between testing, auditing, governance, and
compliance. James spent fourteen years working for a large UK insurance
company, then nine years with IBM working with large clients in the UK and
Finland. A member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association,
James has been self-employed for the past eight years.

3. The Unfortunate Triumph of
Process over Purpose
James Christie
1a#
James Christie
jack of all trades, master of some
Test Manager & Consultant
Developer & Business Analyst
Information Security Manager
Project Manager
Computer Auditor
investment accountant
trainee chartered accountant
1b#

4. The problem
New application to be customized
Prototype
Pilot development for a single
department
Speed of development
Strong emphasis on accessibility
2a#
The bottom line
2b#

5. The official response
Retain as much as
possible of the normal
processes.
Retain formal project
governance.
Just do it faster and hope
for the best.
2c#
What that meant – project #1
Endless effort expended
on beautiful documents.
Detailed documentation
of shifting sands.
Happy clients & supplier.
2d#

6. What that meant – project #1
Endless effort expended
on beautiful documents
Detailed documentation
of shifting sands
Happy clients & supplier
Image#courtesy#Ambro#/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#
2e#
What that meant – project #2
Endless effort expended
on beautiful documents
Detailed documentation
of shifting sands
Happy clients & supplier
Miserable, overworked &
poorly prepared project
team
2f#

7. What that meant – project #2
Documentation produced
Useful documentation
2g#
Images#courtesy#mapichai#&#watcharakun/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#
Lessons learned?
Official lessons learned by
supplier and client?
2h#

8. Lessons learned?
Big lessons that I learned
• I’m not prepared to work
like this.
• No conscious rejection of
Agile.
• For many people “that’s
just the way it is”.
• Everyone (except senior
testers) thought what we
were doing made sense.
3a#
Lessons learned?
“The corporate governance
of HBOS at board level
serves as a model for the
future, but not in the way
in which Lord Stevenson
and other former Board
members appear to see it.
It represents a model of
self-delusion, of the
triumph of process over
purpose.”
3b#

9. Goal displacement
“If a pianist shifts his attention from the piece
he is playing to the observation of what he is
doing with his fingers while he is playing it,
he gets confused and may have to stop.”
4a#
“Our attention can hold only one focus at a
time… it would be hence contradictory to be
both subsidiarily and focally aware of the
same particulars at the same time.”
Michael
Polanyi
“Personal Knowledge”
Focal awareness and subsidiary awareness
Image#courtesy#Stuart#Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#
Social defences
Isabel Menzies Lyth
4b#
“The functions of social systems as a defence
against anxiety”
What shapes an organisation’s structure
and processes?
* Task
* Technology
* Social & psychological needs of the people
The result?

10. 4c#
Transitional objects
Transitional objects help children to
cope with the transition from
relying on their mother to dealing
with a scary world.
So teddy bears are beneficial for
children’s development.
Donald Winicott
Image#courtesy#Stuart#Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#
4d#
Transitional objects
David Wastell
Structured Methods acted as
transitional objects for managers
and developers.
People cling to processes as social
defences. This helps them deal with
the stress of confusing, messy
situations and difficult jobs.
This is definitely not beneficial for
their development!
Image#courtesy#Artur84/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#

11. 5a#
Rules versus principles
FD Roosevelt
“Rules are not necessarily sacred,
principles are.”
Rules have to spell out explicitly
what must be done, or must not
be done.
Principles state “fundamental
propositions that serve as the
foundation for a system of belief
or behaviour or for a chain of
reasoning.”
5b#
Complicated & complex
Brenda Zimmerman
Complicated activities are
predictable and repeatable.
They require blueprints, detailed
organisational mechanisms and
checklists.
Complex activities: “a fluid,
unpredictable environment. To run
a system that is complex... takes a
set of simple principles that guide
and shape the system.”

12. 6a#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“Obvious” is ordered – “cause
and effect relationships exist,
are predictable and repeatable.”
“Sense, categorise, respond”
Therefore “best practice” is
legitimate.
6b#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“Complicated” is ordered –
“cause and effect relationships
exist but are not self-evident
and therefor require expertise.”
“Sense, analyse, respond”
Therefore “good practice” is
appropriate.

13. 6c#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“Complex” lacks causality –
“cause and effect are only
obvious in hindsight, with
unpredictable, emergent
outcomes.”
“Probe, sense, respond”
Therefore new practices emerge.
6d#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“Chaotic” -“no cause and effect
relationships can be
determined.”
“Act, sense, respond”
Any practice will be “completely
novel”.

14. 6e#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“Depending on which space
you’re in you should think
differently rather than the one
size fits all that has been the
tradition of management
theory.”
6f#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
The central space = disorder.
We don’t know what domain we
are in. This is where we usually
are.
The danger is that we choose the
domain based on our
preferences, not the nature of
the problem.

15. 6g#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
The boundary between Obvious
and Chaotic is different from the
others.
The others allow for transition.
The boundary between Obvious
and Chaotic is a cliff.
“The complacent zone”.
In a crisis you will fall over the
cliff into chaos.
6h#
Cynefin
Dave Snowden
“It therefore follows that you
should manage in the
Complicated and Complex
spaces, and only move a very
small amount of material down
into the Obvious because that is
highly vulnerable to rapid or
accelerated change.”

16. 7a#
Project 1– Obvious; where
the supplier and client
thought we were.
Project 2 – Chaotic; where
the testing team knew we
were.
Lessons?
7b#
Gerald Weinberg
“The Second Law of Consulting:
No matter how it looks at first, it's
always a people problem.”
Lessons?

17. Remember the bottom line?
7c#
Any approach to testing that ignores
“people problems” and tries to tame
human nature with rules, standards
and rigid processes is doomed.
Wrapping up
8a#
Email: james@clarotesting.com
Twitter: @james_christie
www.clarotesting.wordpress.com
www.clarotesting.com
Images#courtesy#Xedos4#&#Stuart#Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net#
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