It is not a matter of "if" -- it is a matter of "when" HP's Quality Center software will die. And you, my dear readers will help make that happen.
"How?" you may ask? Simple. There are two things you should do: (1) think, and (2) don't put up with crap that gets in the way of delivering value to the customer and interacting intelligently with other human beings.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind the story a bit...
Several months ago I was hired by my client to help train one of the test teams on agile and exploratory testing methods. The department has followed a mostly Waterfall development model until now and wants to move in the Agile direction. (A smart choice for them, if you ask me.) Why am I still there after all this time? That's a good question.
After attending the Problem Solving Leadership course last year, and after attending a few AYE conferences, I changed my instructional style to be more the kind of consultant that empowers the client with whatever they need to help themselves learn and grow. It's a bit of a slower pace, but the results are more positive and long-lasting.
I am a part of a "pilot" agile/scrum team and am working closely with one of the testers (I will call him "Patient Zero") to coach him on good testing practices to complement the agile development processes. I have done this several times now at different clients, so this is nothing new to me. One of the unexpected surprises that cropped up this time was that this development team is not an end-to-end delivery team, so when they are "done" their work, the code moves into a Waterfall Release process and it all kind of falls apart. There are still some kinks to be solved here and I am happy to see some really bright, caring people trying to solve these problems. So that's okay.
