Testing the Waters

Are you frustrated with all of the acronyms and lingo on your projects?  Are you going to scream if you hear somebody talk about "QA-ing the DEV and SIT" or asking for an "FYI on the EAC to CYA"?  Then it's time to fight fire with fire.  Recently in a project meeting, we were hashing out the details of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) in our project.  It was decided that we needed to have an additional 2-3 week "preliminary" UAT phase to focus on specific elements of functionality in the system.  Somebody asked the project manager what we're going to call this new phase of UAT so we won't confuse it with the plain-old-generic-run-of-the-mill UAT.  The project manager turned to me for assistance.  There are times the "mischief gene" in my brain works overtime, and unfortunately this was one of those times.

"Why don't we call it 'Subject Quality User Acceptance Testing'?" I asked innocently, and before he could think it through, the project manager wrote the new acronym SQUAT on the board.  And it has stuck.  Now we have people asking questions like "Who's working on SQUAT around here?" and "When are we going to do SQUAT on this project?"

Hey!  If you're not having fun on your project, you're not doing it right.

Technorati Tags: Acronyms, Lingo, Project Management, User Acceptance Testing, Testing, Communication, Fun

Comments

[Michael Wagner]

Timothy, I've always felt that your clients get way more than they bargained for when they bring you onto the team. And this story reinforces my belief!

Thanks for encouraging us all to keep in human and have some fun on the project life deals us.

Keep creating,
Mike

[Lucia Mancuso]

I will admit - I really produce squat when I'm inventing acronyms - it is so not my forte. But you gave me something to think about here - mabe if I look at it as fun - I'll enjoy it as well

[Rich Stone]

Only in corporate America where servers are named after characters from "The Simpsons" and (our prod host is Itchy, and the warm standby is Scratchy), adverbs from the "Who's on first" skit (e.g. who, what, when, idontknow). Where every system no matter how small requires a Three-Letter-Acronym (TLA).

A project I was on a couple years ago decided to rename an simple data access service object my partner called a decoder (think captain marvel secret decoder ring) a "gonkulator" - and 5 years later, I still hear new contractors conjugating the verb "to gonkulate" as they work to enhance the project. The team has taken gonkulation to a completely new level.

It is truly a gift that keeps on giving!!!!