Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Mitt Romney Campaign

Amercia

Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee for President of The United States of America. His campaign recently released a new iPhone app, which misspelled a rather significant word. copyrightjoestrazzere

• One of the skins on the app says "A Better Amercia"
• “We thought this would be a fun, easy way to showcase support,” said Romney's digital director Zac Moffatt
• The Romney campaign has since submitted a corrected version of the app to Apple
• Receiving lots of laughs on twitter
• https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23amercia
• The New York Times wrote: "The typo is unlikely to become a major issue in Mr. Romney's efforts to unseat President Obama. But it is an unfortunate reminder that even the tiniest mistakes are magnified in an era when political opposition is crowdsourced globally. It's also a reminder to double-check your work."

Perhaps someone (anyone) in the Romney campaign should have tested more? It's the Amercian way!

See also:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57443522-37/mitt-romneys-iphone-app-spells-america-incorrectly/

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/amercia_mitt_romney_iphone_app_with_mitt_misspelled_america.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/romney-app-misspells-amercia/2012/05/29/gJQAgN8K0U_blog.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/romney-camp-misspells-america-in-new-app/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/united-states-amercia-mitt-romney-campaign-misspells-nation-lead-iphone-app-article-1.1086499

http://gizmodo.com/5914154/mitt-romneys-new-app-misspells-america-twitter-goes-wild
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amercia-mitt-romney-20120530,0,651937.story

An update..
From the iPhone app store, this app now sports a new version:

    What's New in Version 1.0.1

        bug fixes

Indeed.

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

I See A Casual Summer In My Future

That used to be me, on the bottom-left, except on Fridays, and with less hair.

Then one week on the top-middle.

Now top-middle for the whole summer!

If I pay even more can I be the top-left?

Yet another Dress Code innovation at my company was announced this week. copyrightjoestrazzere

• First we had Casual Fridays.
• Then we had Dress Down for Charity Weeks.
• Now we have "Casual Summer". 

If I fork over 30 bucks for local charities, H.R. tells me that I'll be permitted to wear sneakers and jeans for the summer. (Unless someone "important" makes an appearance in the office, in which case I'll need to revert to Smart temporarily.)

Can I just give them $500 to go away and never bother me with this foolish dress code thing again?

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

If You Don't Really Want A Career In Software Testing - Stay Out!

Stay out!

Over the years, I've heard from a lot of folks that would "like to get into software testing". Usually, I encourage people, tell them what a great profession this is, and help them any way I can.

But sometimes, I sense either directly or indirectly that this is just an interim thing - that it's a stepping stone "because it's easier than being a developer" or "because there are a lot of easy-to-land jobs" or such. For some reason, I've been seeing a lot of that lately. And when it comes to my chosen profession, I'm tired of hearing that! copyrightjoestrazzere

• If you don't want to work hard - stay out.
• If you don't want to learn continuously for your entire career - stay out.
• If you are looking for something simple and easy - stay out.

We don't need you!

• We need people who want to be professional testers. 
• We need people who want to work hard at something they care about.
• We need people who are willing (and hopefully excited) to be a learner for their entire career.
• We need people who aren't looking for the easy way out.

There was a time back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when software testing was indeed an easy entry job. The world was in the midst of the poorly named "Year 2000 Bug crisis" and lots of software needed fixing and testing. Lots of entry-level testing jobs were available, and people with little or no experience were being hired rapidly.

Those days are over.

For the most part these days, there are fewer and fewer entry-level jobs for software testers. I know that I haven't actually hired an entry-level tester for many years. And those beginner jobs which are available are harder to get, and for the most part are being offered to people who want to be professional software testers.

Here's an excerpt of a commencement address by Dom Capers (the defensive coordinator of the NFL Green Bay Packers):

What I'd like to share with you today is ... what I think are critical to success in any profession. Number one, and maybe the most important: Find something you love. Passion creates fuel. It creates the burning desire to do what we love 'til we go to bed at night. A passionate person with a little bit of talent will almost always outperform a passive person with great talent. The second thing is the law of compensation. The more you give, the more you get in return. It's a simple principle, but it's amazing how many people never figure it out ...

If you really want to be a Software Testing Professional - welcome!  How can I help?

If you are just looking for something quick and easy - Stay Out!

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Nasdaq

How do you "Like" me now?

Perhaps you heard about the little company called Facebook that went public last week? I hear that they made a lot of money (at least for early investors and option holders) in the process.

But things didn't go smoothly at Nasdaq during the IPO: copyrightjoestrazzere

• Nasdaq is under scrutiny after shares of Facebook Inc were plagued by delays and mishandled orders on its first day of trading
• The CEO of NASDAQ, Robert Greifeld, said that the stock exchange is “humbly embarrassed”
• The IPO software “didn’t work” even after thousands of hours of testing for “a hundred scenarios” aimed at anticipating problems, Greifeld said.
• The Nasdaq computer system that delayed trade notices of the Facebook IPO on Friday was plagued by race conditions
• A number of trading firms lost money due to mismatched Facebook share prices
• About 30 million shares' worth of trading were affected
• For about 20 minutes, the exchange stopped confirming trades placed by brokers
• Nasdaq may need to pay back affected investors up to $13 million from an "accomodation pool"
• Nasdaq’s software for IPOs allows investors to cancel or update details of orders until the auction runs. Trade requests received during the 5 milliseconds it took to operate the auction disturbed the process, leading to an imbalance of buys and sells and sending the program into a loop.

I wonder if Facebook investors "Like" Nasdaq now?

Perhaps they should have tested more.

See also:

http://www.itworld.com/software/278003/nasdaqs-facebook-glitch-came-race-conditions

http://www.firstpost.com/tech/nasdaqs-fb-glitch-was-due-to-poor-software-design-316002.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-20/nasdaq-ceo-says-poor-design-in-ipo-software-delayed-facebook.html

http://www.information-age.com/channels/development-and-integration/news/2104408/nasdaq-blames-software-for-facebook-ipo-glitch.thtml

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303610504577416530447015656.html

http://blogs.computerworld.com/20197/nasdaq_fail_as_facebook_ipo_stock_price_falters_fb

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

We Are Maniacs!

Our new vacation home in Cape Neddick, Maine

I haven't written much recently. Pretty much all of my free time has been taken up completing the selection and purchase of a vacation home in Cape Neddick, Maine.

My wife and I have been vacationing in York, Maine on and off for around 20 years. We had always imagined what it would be like to own a place near the beach, but with our busy lives, the time was never right. This year, it was finally right. We have been very busy the past few months searching, finding, funding, purchasing, and moving. copyrightjoestrazzere

We're thrilled to have found a place in the Cape Neddick section of York that has just a short stroll to the beach we love, in a wonderful neighborhood. We'll be spending most weekends there, and most of our vacation time as well. As we approach retirement, we'll decide if this is where we want to live full-time.

The process has been frustrating at times, but always interesting. Obtaining a mortgage these days is far more complex and involved than the previous times I had done so, with far more steps required.

The entire process felt like many software projects I've run before. I'll write more about that experience soon.

And the home inspection process felt exactly like a test project. I'll write about that too.

Meanwhile my wife and I are now Maniacs! (I know, the proper term is Mainers, but lately "Maniac" seems closer to the truth).

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.