When you really don't want to fail...

OK, so you failed. You failed the test. You failed the interview. You failed to impress. You failed to gain the promotion. You failed to change your prospective clients mind. You failed to deliver on time. You failed. Right now at this moment, you failed at “X” and so you are, in short, a failure.

Feel good? No? Well, funnily enough, you’re not the first and you’re certainly not going to be the last to fail and you’re not the first or last to feel pretty rubbish about it. However, you do have options. That’s right, even a big fat failure has options;

1.    You can stew about it and drive yourself mad with what-ifs and what-might-have-beens (a personal favourite)

2.    You can blame everyone that came near you

3.    You can pretend it didn’t happen

4.    You can perhaps take solace in the fact that it wasn’t meant-to-be and bigger and better things are right around the corner

5.    You can re-skill, re-tool and then have a go at a re-do of “X”.

6.    You can review what went wrong, learn from your errors and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again

Obviously some failures are bigger/worse than others and so options 1-6 will mean slightly different things in real terms if you failed to notice the step you fell over or if you failed to close a huge contract.

You’re now expecting me to say, well failure is part of life so dust yourself down and get ready to take on the world again because the universe will reward you and all that you deserve will be yours. Well although I'm not adverse to the idea of a universe with free goodie bags for all that isn't the take-home message.

In my role I talk to a lot of people who have previously failed or had someone fail them. To clarify, I'm not a councillor. I work for UK based Software Testing Company, ROQ. Often people tell me they failed to meet a deadline on project “X” due to shoddy QA and don’t want to have a similar problem with programme “Y” or that a previous testing partner failed them by doing X, Y & Z and all they got from the relationship was a large bill.

Well, I'm pleased to say that many of these people went with option 7, it isn't listed above as I failed to add it in, working with a QA and Testing partner that is focussed on building trust by adding value to programmes and helping to ensure that the risks of failure are mitigated. This partner is ROQ.

We have built the reputation we have amongst our clients and the wider testing community by providing impartiality, challenge and expertise but most importantly we earn each of our clients trust through an open and honest relationship focussed on quality and the ability to provide a flexible bespoke service based on the idea that failure, on our part, is not an option.

Hold on a moment, I hear you say, first failure is part of life and the universe and some other codswallop now it isn't even an option, there were 7 options before! Well in my defence I did mention that part wasn't the take-home message. So is the take-home message that I'm so arrogant I think I won't fail? No, not at all.

The take-home message is that for ROQ failure really isn't an option. Our clients depend on us to be rigorous enough to drive through quality in whatever the project might be, but also to enable the process to finish on time and on budget. We do this through our Consultation, Managed Testing Service & the use of our North West UK Test Lab. You have heard the old adage, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Well ROQ really believes in this and we ensure that from the start we have a plan that will lead us to the desired end point. (unrelated but we now have a really interesting new performance service called end-point - learn more here)

After all, quality is never an accident, it has to be designed into a solution from the start. Which reminds me, we also have an RFP / Contract review service that has the potential to save millions by ensuring partners are accountable for software quality, not just software delivery (you’d be amazed how often quality is not a stated contractual requirement).

So, in short, failure might be something to learn from and to make you stronger on a personal level (free universe goodie bags for all) but if you want to see if ROQ can avoid failure for that next big project “X” then please feel free to get in touch.

Oh, BTW, I’m aware project X is a film title but IMHO it also sounds like a super villain’s plot to take over the world (we wouldn't do QA for that kind of thing)

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If reading this article has prompted to you take a look at ROQ then please do so at www.roq.co.uk

or email me at david.moore@roq.co.uk

or call me on +44 (0) 1257 208 724