Reply to: Wee bit miffed

[swamp]

My tactic for dealing with these situations is to come across a bit thick:

"Oh reaaaally? ... UAT is different from Live? ... OK, can you show me the documentation describing the variation between the environments?"

[Fred Bloggs]

Very true, the worst places for apportioning fault that I've worked at are those that proclaim themselves to have a "no blame culture". It's always a feeble cover up for their deeply rooted behaviour.

Correct. They wouldn't have to say anything if there truly WAS a no blame culture.

[TykeMerc]

IME, "no blame culture" = "witch hunt culture".

Very true, the worst places for apportioning fault that I've worked at are those that proclaim themselves to have a "no blame culture". It's always a feeble cover up for their deeply rooted behaviour.

[Fred Bloggs]

Indeed. But it was still my fault according to him. I loved his first email stating how it was not a blame culture and then proceeding to blame me . To be honest this bloke is about 4 feet tall and talks to everyone like they are thick. I think he is universally known as being a bit of a knob. He has a superiority complex of biblical proportions.

Isn't the life of a contractor wonderful? there was a time when I had to tolerate and work with knobs like that. Now I just hold them in contempt until I finish my job and leave. If they're the one signing the time sheet, a modification of my attitude prevails on Fridays!

IME, "no blame culture" = "witch hunt culture".

[suityou01]

Well thread title parodies have been done to death, they lost all entertainment value long ago.

On topic how the hell can an organisation call a test environment a UAT test if it varies from live in any significant way? Pure idiocy and begging for just the sort of grief that you encountered. I'm not a tester but even I know the basic ground rules.

Indeed. But it was still my fault according to him. I loved his first email stating how it was not a blame culture and then proceeding to blame me . To be honest this bloke is about 4 feet tall and talks to everyone like they are thick. I think he is universally known as being a bit of a knob. He has a superiority complex of biblical proportions.

[TykeMerc]

Actually totally stunned that no one has started a "samey-pun-titled-thread" entitled "A Wee bit muffed"

Do I have to do everything round here?

Well thread title parodies have been done to death, they lost all entertainment value long ago.

On topic how the hell can an organisation call a test environment a UAT test if it varies from live in any significant way? Pure idiocy and begging for just the sort of grief that you encountered. I'm not a tester but even I know the basic ground rules.

[suityou01]

Words fail me!!!

I would have replied with: -

"Yes, you are indeed right about assumptions. I had also assumed I was working with people who knew what the f*&^ they were doing."

Actually totally stunned that no one has started a "samey-pun-titled-thread" entitled "A Wee bit muffed"

Do I have to do everything round here?

[SallyAnne]

I thought for the sheer heck of it I would post an excerpt from the actual email
This is from the chap that just told me there is no blame culture.

"Simple approach that works for me is to assuming that nothing is as you need it to be unless you have made it so. The problem here seems to be that you assumed upon finding the entries in UAT that they would therefore be in Production. The only thing that tells you that the entries are in Production is seeing the entries in Production."

Words fail me!!!

I would have replied with: -

"Yes, you are indeed right about assumptions. I had also assumed I was working with people who knew what the f*&^ they were doing."

[milanbenes]

Pondlife,

Finding the problem in PRD and being told to fix it asap as you're stopping manufacturing/logistics = OverTime

which is good.


Milan.

[NotAllThere]

I thought for the sheer heck of it I would post an excerpt from the actual email
This is from the chap that just told me there is no blame culture.

"Simple approach that works for me is to assuming that nothing is as you need it to be unless you have made it so. The problem here seems to be that you assumed upon finding the entries in UAT that they would therefore be in Production. The only thing that tells you that the entries are in Production is seeing the entries in Production."

Oh, that's bad. May I refer you to option one of my sig? It's the only language gits like that understand.

[moorfield]

It turns out that the UAT environment has certain environment settings that are not in live (stored in a custom system variables table in SQL Server)

Is this not a tad harsh? I did try to protest my innocence and said that the UAT environment should (as closely as possible) replicate live.

Suggest you grit teeth, chalk up a mark on your experience blackboard, and carry on.

Unless you are working in a Prod Copy / Pre Live / UAT environment that is an exact copy of data, code, config, database from Prod then this is a classic gotcha. If you own the testing + release then like it or not this becomes your bag to carry too (in my experience).

[Moscow Mule]

I thought for the sheer heck of it I would post an excerpt from the actual email
This is from the chap that just told me there is no blame culture.

"Simple approach that works for me is to assuming that nothing is as you need it to be unless you have made it so. The problem here seems to be that you assumed upon finding the entries in UAT that they would therefore be in Production. The only thing that tells you that the entries are in Production is seeing the entries in Production."

"Notice the minute hand, as it passes the number twelve. This means you have just earned another hour's money. You can earn an hour's money being annoyed by a ****, or by being relaxed. It's still the same amount of money."

[suityou01]

Well what did they expect?

If your UAT isn't EXACTLY the same as Production, then you are effectively going in blind.

Muppets.

I thought for the sheer heck of it I would post an excerpt from the actual email
This is from the chap that just told me there is no blame culture.

"Simple approach that works for me is to assuming that nothing is as you need it to be unless you have made it so. The problem here seems to be that you assumed upon finding the entries in UAT that they would therefore be in Production. The only thing that tells you that the entries are in Production is seeing the entries in Production."

[SallyAnne]

Well what did they expect?

If your UAT isn't EXACTLY the same as Production, then you are effectively going in blind.

Muppets.

[Pondlife]

of course in the ideal world the UAT environment should be a replica architectually of the Prod environment

however if you are blessed with being in a landscape where the UAT environment is different from Prod and therefore creates new problems which are not picked up in UAT then you should be happy,

this creates more work

and is therefore...

good for contractors


Milan.

Picking up a problem in UAT env and insisting on another 6 weeks of testing = good

Finding the problem in PRD and being told to fix it asap as you're stopping manufacturing/logistics = bad


HTH