By
Randall Rice
I try to
keep my rants to a minimum, but I reserve the right to rant at least
once every six months. I claim my right to rant this month.
I read
an article a couple of weeks ago that the Social Security
Administration fell victim to a “glitch” that
resulted in about 230,000 Medicare recipients getting checks that
erroneously reimbursed them for monthly premiums they have paid for
prescription drug coverage this year. The amount of the error was estimated to be
about $50 million.
To me, a
$50 million dollar mistake is not a minor one. Sure, in the grand
scheme of government spending this is just a drop in the bucket.
However, if I owed $50 million dollars to the government I’m
sure it would be a big deal. Just ask Willie Nelson.
The
article went on to explain that the money would be recovered, but
I’m skeptical. The postage alone will be substantial, not to
mention the human effort needed to follow-up with people. Once the
money is spent, then it’s going to be very difficult to get
it back from people living just off of Social Security payment. Then,
there will be some people who die and the money will be in estates.
These things make me think that some money may
be recouped, but probably not all of it.
I'm not
picking on the Social Security Administration. Let me cite another
example. On Dec 25, 2004, Comair’s flight
crews could not find the right planes because of a major system failure.
In the news media, this was described as a
“glitch”. We’re talking 1,100 flights and
30,000 passengers in 118 cities affected. That sounds like catastrophic
system failure to me. That’s a 10 on a “0 to
10” risk scale. When I heard the story broadcast on the
national news that evening, I nearly dropped my warmed-up turkey leg in
shock at the casual term (“glitch”) they used.
That’s what being a trainer does to you.
My point
in all this is that the words we use really do have meaning. A glitch
or bug seems to convey a minor thing that can be easily fixed. A defect
or problem is more serious.
Some
organizations go to great lengths to avoid using the word
“defect.” I suppose to them
“defects” seem too negative and serious. People
could get in trouble for them. That’s why I wrote an article
called “Defects
are Good” to show that you can learn to view
defects in a positive way and profit from them. However, you must first
face the reality that everyone (including you and me) makes mistakes
from time to time.
In the
two examples mentioned above, it is the news media that has used the
term "glitch." If you do a Google search on the cited examples, you
will see a remarkable parroting of how the problems were
positioned.
It is my
observation that when people want to minimize the perceived impact and
the resulting scrutiny and blame, they call a problem something less,
like a glitch, snafu or bug. So what’s the big deal?
I’m
glad you asked. When people fail to appreciate the seriousness of
software quality, they minimize the work it takes to achieve it.
Instead of working on better processes and ways to find problems early,
people find it easier to explain them away. You will hear things like,
“Yes, we had a little glitch in things and we’ll be
a few days late delivering the software changes you requested. But
don’t worry, it’s all under control.”
What is lost in this statement is why the problem happened and how it
can be prevented next time. In a healthy culture of improvement, these
things are openly discussed and people value the truth because they
know the result is the prevention of similar problems in the future.
Here’s
my challenge to you. In your organization this week, listen to see how
many times people use the words glitch, bug, snafu, etc. to describe a
situation. Then ask yourself “Is this term is really
accurate?”. If not, then you may have an opportunity to work
on changing your culture to understand the difference between a glitch
and a defect and to move toward a culture of improvement instead of
blame.
Now,
I’m going to proofread this article to make sure there are no
typos...I mean, defects!
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