HL Arledge

Put your Bugs where your Mouth is

Last month, Decade Software released EnvisionConnect 4.0—and what a proud day it was.

The new version is the previous version on steroids, and were constantly making strides to improve performance and make the product easier before version 4.1—always focusing on making the application faster for users to get in and out and still feel good about having got the job done.

My Development Team prides itself in maintaining a zero defect average. Every 30 days—during Sprint planning—we commit to closing every open defect in addition to delivering any new features we committed to providing.

Speaking to software shops across the nation, I have not found one who has been able to come anywhere near our zero defect average. (If you know of any, please let me know. I would love to glorify them in this blog!)

I recapped all of the above so that you understand my dismay at hearing someone say this week…

“One of our clients says he doesn’t like the Page Layout Editor”—Yes, we do allow users to redesign forms and pages—”because the user says the tool is buggy.”

Immediately, I searched the defect tracking system and consulted my Quality Assurance team. I wanted to find out how many bugs constituted “buggy” and why we had not eradicated those bugs.

I found no bugs related to the feature in question, aside from a couple we had fixed but not yet released.

Then I knew our problems lay somewhere else.

Is the problem related to the definition: What is a defect?

Not likely. At Decade Software, We have the most lax description in the industry: If the client is “bugged” by something, that’s logged as a defect. Ultimately, we may fix it as a defect in code, or by adding a new feature, or by changing a design, or by providing training for the user—but no defect is ever ignored with the words…

“…that’s just the way it is.”

So, if the code is not the problem, and the definition is not the problem, then there’s only one thing it can be. Someone found a defect and did not report it.

Even the best software teams cannot fix bugs no one has found. It is the responsibility of user—internally and externally—to report any problem found.

Software shops can’t make you happy, unless they know what is making you sad.

Did you miss me?

With all of this tweeting and twittering going on, you would think blogging would be losing popularity, but seldom does a week go by that someone doesn’t ask about my blog.

That said, I’m committing to blogging at least three days a week from now on.

…but I owe you an explanation, as to why I haven’t been doing so.

Because of the wild success of EnvisionConnect—due largely to the success of my own team—we’re really, really busy these days.

Presently, I am assisting with the launch of an all-new Decade Software user community, planning our 2009 training conference, and governing the launch of EnvisionConnect 4.0—our most anticipated release ever.

We’ll look at the details as the weeks progress, but in the meantime, I’m begging for your patience. I’m a really busy guy.

The customer is not always right

I’ve spoken much lately about the importance of working with the customer and creating a transparent environment, where everyone knows the best ways to do everything with our software, and I’ve spoken of the importance of getting customer input on priorities and direction.

I am one of our customers’ biggest advocates, and most of them will tell you so, but let me make this perfectly clear… The customer is not always right.

As I pointed out last Friday, often what one customer wants is detrimental to another. This is why it is so important that customers are allowed—no, encouraged—to share ideas, problems, and solutions with each other.

In other words, the customer as an individual is not always right, but the customers as a group nearly always are.

That said, check out this article from Alexander Kjerulf.

Customers get bug-free software

Yesterday, in my entry entitled Angry Customers Tell 3,000 Friends, I explained how I became involved in customer relations at Decade Software. Kevin and I had devised a plan to allow customers to more freely communicate with us and with each other through a new web site.

By increasing transparency, we would bolster a trusting environment where everyone freely helped everyone else become successful using our products.

Our past successes had told us that teamwork using cross-functional teams was the secret to meeting goals, so the first thing I did was form a new team. The Customer Communications Task Force was formed to get clients talking.

We scheduled meetings with customers and began demonstrating our ideas for the web site and our ideas for opening communication between customers—and they loved what we were doing!

The CCTF had picked up speed, and we were soaring to the finish line, and then we turned a corner—and we hit a brick wall.

We discovered quickly that launching a new web site is an action that steps on multiple toes, and in short order, I was accused of invading the territories of Marketing, Client Services, Graphic Design, and Administration.

Finally, something to rant about…

I love blogging.

I love talking about my teams and their accomplishments. I love talking about the improvements this company has seen in these last few years. To me, that is what blogs do best—allow us to share successes and failures, so that we may learn from one another.

Unlike many in the blogosphere, I never use my blog for ranting.

Never—until now!

Our blog host (I almost said “of choice”) is Typepad. They were great until late October of last year, when they upgraded their product—and destroyed my way of life!

Their update broke my ability to post using Windows Live Writer, essentially forcing me to use their web interface to update my blog.

Despite my reputation, I do have more to do at the office than just blog. I seldom have time to toy with a kludge web application.

Sound petty? Of course, it does. Maybe I was really just standing on principal. Being a stubborn Southerner, I do that sometimes.

I started this post talking about how businesses can use blogging to learn from each other. I learned much from this experience.

Even the most minor of software changes can wreak havoc on your customers lives—and make them bitter towards you, your product, and your company.

The customer is still always right.

Sometimes we forget.

Do not command and control your clients

All of the go-to books on leadership tell you that command and control techniques do not work. Team-building—allowing people to balance their strengths and weaknesses to evolve into one cohesive, self-managing entity—is the fastest was to increase production, quality, and performance—simultaneously. My team has proven that in leaps and bounds.

...but did not know that this technique can apply to customers as well—particularly in the software industry.

I mentioned yesterday how our design team has worked with EnvisionConnect users to form a team that was able to work together and redesign our flagship product. After posting that, I was considering how and why that had worked so well.

We've all heard time and time again that,

"Design by committee doesn't work."

This reminded me of something someone told me long before I was a manager at Decade...

"Decade Software is a privately-owned company. It is not—nor will it ever be—a democracy, Mr. Mayor."

The person making the statement didn't understand the benefits of teamwork. He was stuck in the mind-set that command-and-control was the only way to manage.

Why so much ado about San Bernardino County?

By now, you've heard that San Bernardino County has migrated from Envision to EnvisionConnect. You've likely heard that they have completed billing and have over 40 inspectors in the field carrying Toughbooks running EnvisionConnect Remote, but maybe now you're asking yourself:

• Hasn't Nevada County used EnvisionConnect for nearly a year?
• Haven't many other Environmental Health regulators across the country adopted EnvisionConnect since then?
• Hasn't Anchorage, Alaska successfully migrated from Envision to EnvisionConnect?
• Hasn't Sacramento and Orange County been beta testers for a couple of years now?

Of course, the answer to those questions is a resounding "yes".

That brings us to your next question: What's so special about San Bernardino County?

San Bernardino is LIVE with EnvisionConnect!

Recently, I stated that San Bernardino County (here in California) was slated to go-live with EnvisionConnect today—making them the first Envision customer to fully migrate from Envision to EnvisionConnect.

This morning I received the following memo from John Jensen, our Client Services Manager:

 

From: John Jensen
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007
To: Decade Software Company
Subject: San Bernardino Environmental Health went LIVE TODAY WITH ENVISIONCONNECT!!!

San Bernardino is live on EnvisionConnect today!!!

It was a long weekend for San Bernardino and Decade staff. We still have some issues to resolve, but for the most part they are using EnvisionConnect...

...I want to thank the Developers that worked with Client Services this weekend to help us meet this goal. I really appreciate everyone's commitment to meeting San Bernardino’s goal of being live on EC Monday, July 2, 2007. You showed team work and commitment to the Decade teams. I am proud of our teams.

Great job!!!

Migration Response Team prepared for any emergency

Scrum dictates that nothing shall impede the project goals. The job of the Scrum Master is to insure that such impediments do not interfere with promised deliveries. Between now and July 31st, the Development Team's Job One is making sure that 90% of our customer base has the base functionality required to migrate from Decade Envision to Decade EnvisionConnect.

San Bernardino County is the largest county in the contiguous United States by area. Like most environmental health agencies in large counties, San Bernardino County Environmental Health Services uses Envision to manage everything. San Bernardino County has their own goals. They wish to be be the first Envision customer to use EnvisionConnect to conduct CalCode inspections in the field—and they can't wait until July 31st.

Luckily for us, Scrum is a process designed to expect and react to change.

Today, professionals from all Decade Software departments meet to form a splinter group—a San Bernardino Migration Emergency Response Team—that will be ready for action when SBCDEH completes their migration on July 2nd. Until someone shoots that guy Murphy and repeals his law, we know something will go wrong. Our goal is to be ready to react and rectify the problem immediately with minimal impact to the customer.

Watch this weblog to see what happens. I have said before that this is a very exciting time to be at this company. It becomes moreso everyday.