A fellow today told me that, as part of his company’s quality program, the people in his department have to fill out a survey at the end of every project. The survey is on the order of 50 questions long. The answers are in multiple choice format, so there one could garner some data from it, but relatively little information.
I asked him if they had considered modifying the survey. He said that Yes, they had, but the business improvement department wouldn’t let them.
You can find an extensive list of presentations and courses that I've taught, including the slides and speaker notes for many of them, here.
Highlights from my schedule appear below. If you notice that I'm in your part of the world, drop me a line if you'd like to get together. If you'd like to engage my services and worry that I'm not available, please note that my clients' schedules are subject to change, so mine is too. Please drop me a line in any case.
May 21-23, 2012
Utrecht, The Netherlands
A public session of the Rapid Software Testing class in the Netherlands, presented through Immune-IT. Register here.
May 24-25, 2012
Utrecht, The Netherlands
A public class of Rapid Software Testing for Managers, also presented through Immune-IT. Register here.
June 12-14, 2012
Cary, NC
Private training and consulting in Rapid Software Testing for a corporate client.
June 25-29, 2012
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Private training and consulting in Rapid Software Testing for a corporate client.
July 10-12, 2012
Cary, NC
Private training and consulting in Rapid Software Testing for a corporate client.
July 16-18, 2012
San José, California, USA
Presenting "Critical Thinking for Testers" at the CAST 2012 conference.
August 21-30, 2012
Beijing, China
Training and consulting in exploratory testing for a corporate client.
September 10-12, 2012
London, UK
A public class of Rapid Software Testing, organized by ElectroMind.
September 24-28, 2012
Copenhagen, Denmark
A public class of Rapid Software Testing, organized by PrettyGoodTesting.
September 24-28, 2012
Copenhagen, Denmark
A public class of Rapid Software Testing, organized by PrettyGoodTesting.
October 1-4, 2012
Anaheim, California
The STAR West Testing conference.
October 9-11, 2012
Toronto, Ontario
A public offering of Rapid Software Testing, organized by the Toronto Association of System and Software Quality.
November 5-8, 2012
Amsterdam, Netherlands
A tutorial and track session at EuroSTAR 2012.
December 3-7, 2012
Oslo, Norway
A public offering of Rapid Software Testing.
In a similar vein, some years ago there was a self-congradulatory piece in Crosstalk by a defense software shop that had done a CMM / process thing for a couple years. It looks like they did some real good with that exercise, actually. That’s not the point.
The article was based on a survey, where among other things they trumpeted their 20% or so response rate. This is outstanding for anonymous surveys. For your own organization, people you’ve been working with intensely for a couple years, it’s pretty lame. For replies from the folks doing the work, to the folks driving work practice improvement, tools & etc. it’s bad.
Then, I noticed that the organization was about 35 people. Maybe 50 if you cound the process-y and audit folks.
The most interesting stuff from this survey – information, I think:
- Fifty people. What’s with a survey? How about you go talk to them?
- Couple years working together on process improvement, and they don’t seem real interested, do they?
- Why the survey? Don’t you know? Isn’t it your job to know?
Every observation will include real information that points directly and immediately to what is going on, if you pay attention. This particular survey pointed out that something wasn’t working, that the folks involved were missing the point, and that any conclusions from the survey itself were highly suspect.
ha , its like asking the new joinee to take up a survey as to why he liked that company … after the long survey … he changes his mind !