But Can They "Play Dead"?

To the folks at Overheard In The Office, I say, "Try this one on for size!"

Sometimes having fun with my client's overdependence on acronyms and technical jargon has unintended consequences (hilariously funny nonetheless).

I'll try not to be too technical here, but bear with me on this paragraph... it's worth it.  We were in a meeting last week to lay out the timeline for testing the software that our project is implementing.  If you recall my previous post about Subject Quality User Acceptance Testing (SQUAT), there is another phase of testing called System Integration Testing (SIT).  Two other events in our timeline are a data load, where we put all the data into the system so we have something to test, and then there is a system "freeze" at the end of the year, where nothing is allowed to be implemented so it does not mess up year-end processing (common practice).

OK, so we were in the testing timeline meeting when the following statement was made... with a straight face...

"If we can load before we SIT, then there will still be time to SQUAT.  However, if it takes us 2 to 3 times longer to SIT, then we won't be able to SQUAT before the freeze."

Dead Silence as the statement sunk in... and you can guess what happened next.

So maybe you had to be there.  Corporate types still make me laugh.  Have a great weekend.

Comments

[Starbucker]

Love this Timothy - I'm not a big acronym person, so I'm hoping that keeps me out of the "corporate type" category! :-) All the best.

[Lucia Mancuso]

I can't keep an acronyn straight if you paid me - so I don't use them - no matter how simple at times - I find that one's just somehow appear - we call our jobs by words that we all just somehow make up for it - one time I noticed we had 4 projects that we somehow nicknamed with initials - it got confusing, they were WA, MW, DW, WL. But somehow we got through it.

[Timothy Johnson]

Thanks for sharing your insights, Starbucker and Lucia... if 90% of project management is communication, then acronyms create 90% of the confusion. At least I know I will have left this client, having made a TRUE impact. ;)