Yes, we have an acronym for it.  CLM — any action within your scope of control that you could do, maybe even should do, but which you are likely to pay consequences for, repeatedly, for about the next five years.

Sometimes I wonder if testers get pinged on Sev-1 bug reports?  I doubt it.  MS has a very healthy testing culture. 

On the other hand, if your job isn’t ‘Tester’ but your role includes “review” of someone else’s deliverables, let’s face it… either you are a tester or you are a noisemaker.  A tester is someone who points at the emperer and says “No Clothes” without fear of reprisal.  A noisemaker says “Odd choice in clothing, sire.  We think your traditional garb is better.”

In other words, a tester is allowed to simply point to the problem, without having to consider if it will delay a project or cost additional resources to address.  When a tester points out a defect, it is never a CLM.  When a noisemaker does, it might be.

Today… I envy testers.  I’m still standing. 

By Nick Malik

Former CIO and present Strategic Architect, Nick Malik is a Seattle based business and technology advisor with over 30 years of professional experience in management, systems, and technology. He is the co-author of the influential paper "Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture" with Dr. Brian Cameron that effectively defined modern Enterprise Architecture practices, and he is frequent speaker at public gatherings on Enterprise Architecture and related topics. He coauthored a book on Visual Storytelling with Martin Sykes and Mark West titled "Stories That Move Mountains".

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