A testing assignment
Somehow, through a malicious twist of fate, I've spent a great deal of time last month testing database software at work. While it's an interesting experience in a way, and some of the (numerous) bugs are entertainingly bizarre, what's really fascinating about it is this strange and possibly inevitable cultural conflict that manifests between a public-funded quintessentially humanities-centric client and a private engineering service provider. The ultimate result of this friction is that everyone is spending outrageous amounts of time nitpicking contracts and requirement analysis documents and trying to find loopholes and ambiguities in them, instead of working together to try and make a piece of software that's actually good for something. The amount of wasted effort on both sides is simply staggering.
Ah well. I have to say I've never been more glad I didn't end up in IT. But I guess it's a change of pace from spending all day sorting fish scales, though!
Ah well. I have to say I've never been more glad I didn't end up in IT. But I guess it's a change of pace from spending all day sorting fish scales, though!