Reply to: Bob

[Doggy Styles]

Sounds like he was actually a good tester. The thing to remember is, if it is possible to do something (whether you should or not) in a system, someone will.

I thought that. The network admin system at my clientco went down for over a day last week because of an obscure edge case.

They weren't best pleased here.

[DaveB]

I remember a conversation with one such tester - very thorough though - all I could say was "that's like testing to see if a ford escort could drive on lava - utterly pointless!" Responce was "but it is possibly that someone would try this and the error is unclear...". So I had to account for stuff that people would not do just so I could the testing signed off.

Sounds like he was actually a good tester. The thing to remember is, if it is possible to do something (whether you should or not) in a system, someone will.

[Project Monkey]

Our offshore Bob helpdesk are consistently sneaky feckers. Take yesterday:

Neighbours phone goes, he's out on dinner

Bob: Hello, is that Dave?
Me: No, he's at lunch, can I take a message
Bob: <launches into description of an open ticket>, so can this ticket now be closed?
Me: No, he'll be back in 10 mins, phone back then and leave the ticket open until you have spoken to him
Bob: Ok, I will close the ticket and he can advise if resolved
Me: NO, DO NOT close the ticket, phone in 10 minutes and check with Dave
Bob: Ok

I knew exactly what was going to happen the minute I put the phone down

30 mins later...

Dave: Why has my ticket been closed???? We still have an outage
Bob: Ah, I have spoke to your colleague earlier and he has said incident has been resolved and ticket should be closed...would you like me to raise a new ticket?


What a surprise, every time.

I thought this was standard procedure for all helpdesks, not just Bob's.

[sal626]

I’ve worked with Bobs on and off for 10 years….in the early days, there were fewer bobs, so you usually got the cream of the crop. Now with the increase in Bobs you get the cream and the bottom of the barrel stuff. Last clientco, we had to sent a bob back (he had graduated exactly two months ago…).

But relatively speaking, I find testing bobs are better than development bobs. Testing bob will follow a script and execute it, might even identify some odd scenarios. Development bob will read the spec (I guess), not ask any questions, and then develop what he thinks the system should be….

[andyc2000]

I remember a conversation with one such tester - very thorough though - all I could say was "that's like testing to see if a ford escort could drive on lava - utterly pointless!" Responce was "but it is possibly that someone would try this and the error is unclear...". So I had to account for stuff that people would not do just so I could the testing signed off.

[mudskipper]

Yes, our Bob keeps rejecting test findings and pointing to ' not in requirements' which is usually bollux. I have made it very clear to everybody including Mr Shawadiwadi; 'I am the Test Manager for this project; I am the only person here who decides whether a finding can be set to 'rejected'. Nobody else may set a finding to 'rejected' without my express written permission'.

How clear do I have to make this, considering the fact that we are on the 20th floor and the window CAN be opened?

Problem is that offshore Bob changes from one week to the next, so you just about get one lot working the way you want and a new lot come on board and start rejecting tickets all over again.

[Mich the Tester]

Where did you find someone qualified to supervise them?

...and is he called Windsor Davies?

[d000hg]

I don't know. My bob is doing an OK (not brilliant, mind) job on my plan D.
He needs close supervision I find.

Where did you find someone qualified to supervise them?

[Mich the Tester]

Our offshore Bob helpdesk are consistently sneaky feckers. Take yesterday:

Neighbours phone goes, he's out on dinner

Bob: Hello, is that Dave?
Me: No, he's at lunch, can I take a message
Bob: <launches into description of an open ticket>, so can this ticket now be closed?
Me: No, he'll be back in 10 mins, phone back then and leave the ticket open until you have spoken to him
Bob: Ok, I will close the ticket and he can advise if resolved
Me: NO, DO NOT close the ticket, phone in 10 minutes and check with Dave
Bob: Ok

I knew exactly what was going to happen the minute I put the phone down

30 mins later...

Dave: Why has my ticket been closed???? We still have an outage
Bob: Ah, I have spoke to your colleague earlier and he has said incident has been resolved and ticket should be closed...would you like me to raise a new ticket?


What a surprise, every time.

Yes, our Bob keeps rejecting test findings and pointing to ' not in requirements' which is usually bollux. I have made it very clear to everybody including Mr Shawadiwadi; 'I am the Test Manager for this project; I am the only person here who decides whether a finding can be set to 'rejected'. Nobody else may set a finding to 'rejected' without my express written permission'.

How clear do I have to make this, considering the fact that we are on the 20th floor and the window CAN be opened?

[Durbs]

Our offshore Bob helpdesk are consistently sneaky feckers. Take yesterday:

Neighbours phone goes, he's out on dinner

Bob: Hello, is that Dave?
Me: No, he's at lunch, can I take a message
Bob: <launches into description of an open ticket>, so can this ticket now be closed?
Me: No, he'll be back in 10 mins, phone back then and leave the ticket open until you have spoken to him
Bob: Ok, I will close the ticket and he can advise if resolved
Me: NO, DO NOT close the ticket, phone in 10 minutes and check with Dave
Bob: Ok

I knew exactly what was going to happen the minute I put the phone down

30 mins later...

Dave: Why has my ticket been closed???? We still have an outage
Bob: Ah, I have spoke to your colleague earlier and he has said incident has been resolved and ticket should be closed...would you like me to raise a new ticket?


What a surprise, every time.

[Doggy Styles]

Tell you what, Bob is truly fecking up at The Oval. 29-4

Ironically the damage is being done by Anderson.

[sasguru]

Hmm, we'll see, but there are quite a few very big Dutch firms giving up on them and bringing the work back home.

If it's not Bob it will be somebody else.
That's true of most people who post here, there is no long term future in an industry with such low barriers to entry whether intellectual, educational, cultural or geographical.

HTH

[eek]

I'm guessing they must be doing something right otherwise why would they be over here?

Many bodies, much cheapness. If they are self contained its also look busyness until the absolute final, final deadline is reached then on to next project.

[Mich the Tester]

Bob's wage inflation is so high that by the time the Bobs understand what goes on in western businesses and learn to communicate properly their price advantage will have evaporated.

[Mich the Tester]

That won't last long term since you are not 40 times as good as Bob.

That statement ecompasses the whole problem with Western entitlement.

Hmm, we'll see, but there are quite a few very big Dutch firms giving up on them and bringing the work back home.