Quality Assurance in politics

With the election results out, discussions are at its high peak on all news channels on what India needs most at this moment. Stability, direction, good governance, are some the keywords making the rounds. Somebody commented on how the transactional costs in our government are too high simply because of way too little trust. You have one person to do the actual job, another to watch over him, a third person to what over that person, and a fourth to watch over the third and so on ..

Perhaps politics needs to borrow something from industry. Every piece of code that we write goes through a rigorous process of Quality Assurance ( QA ). Till now QA has meant a rigorous process of human resources manually trying to break the code in all ways. In eBay, there is roughly one QA person for every two developers. Which means that for every two persons who write code, they need one person to ensure that he's doing a good job. What a waste of resource in verifying the same things over and over again!

Of late, there is a move towards Quality Engineering ( QE ) as against QA. As a developer, we know better what are the functionalities the code provides or does not provide. If we write an automated suite that ensures that the functionality the developer intends is never broken / sends out an alert the moment it is, we ensure that future developers need not worry about unwittingly breaking a piece of code I wrote, by making a change elsewhere. This is especially important in big enterprises. Of course, you automate repetitive tasks, and keep humans to do the more intelligent quality assurance required. That way your QA : dev ratio can reduce to as low as 1:6 or even more.

In politics and government, e-governance should be able to reduce the number of government hierarchies required, and leave them free to do more constructive work. As of today, the press works as the most effective Quality Assurance group, but if the problems could be detected by the government 'before' it 'releases' schemes & fails to follow up on them, we would save a lot of taxpayers money.

We need a thirdparty standards organization that can help the government to proactively minimize "production bugs" as we'd call it.

Can things get simpler ?

Buddhism be classified more as a philosophy than a religion.A very straightforward, simple way of looking at and living life. An attitude and way of life that would solve half of the modern day problems. I particularly liked The Four Solaces put forward by Buddha.

"'Suppose there is a hereafter and there is a fruit, result, of deeds done well or ill. Then it is possible that at the dissolution of the body after death, I shall arise in the heavenly world, which is possessed of the state of bliss.' This is the first solace found by him.

"'Suppose there is no hereafter and there is no fruit, no result, of deeds done well or ill. Yet in this world, here and now, free from hatred, free from malice, safe and sound, and happy, I keep myself.' This is the second solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) befall an evil-doer. I, however, think of doing evil to no one. Then, how can ill (results) affect me who do no evil deed?' This is the third solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) do not befall an evil-doer. Then I see myself purified in any case.' This is the fourth solace found by him.

A person only needs goodness within him, to agree with this philosophy, no matter what his religious orientation is.

" Right view, Right aspiration [ the path to wisdom ]
Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood [ the path to morality ]
Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right concentration [the path to meditation ] "

In today's world even agreeing with the above philosophies sounds to be a hypocrisy :)

Strangers

How often have you just laughed up over something totally funny with a stranger? Or played with their kid and told them they're ultra cute? Do you ever smile up to a person you've never met before? Do you even do that with people you keep seeing everyday, or have they become wall-posters of your life?

Our lives seem so constrained and bottled up, we hardly see what is happening with people outside our circle. Whenever I go for a morning walk I feel so refreshed and energized because in that short stretch of half an hour, I see people from all walks of life. Old pot-bellied men who are trying to pull themselves back into shape, youngsters coming out after training at the gym, the cycle vendor selling tender coconut, open air yoga/exercise sessions going on outside the nearby hospital and attended by people of all age groups and people gathering around the local farmer to get the fresh morning's supply of vegetables. Suddenly you can see the whole cycle of the cosmos in action, and truly 'feel' that you're a part and parcel of it.

It seems strange to say it, but somehow college life had taken away the smile I always readily kept for everyone - if not outwardly, at least inwardly. Sometimes life tends to make you a cynic and a skeptic. But these days I make it a point to smile and be happy smiling at people around me. But why restrict my smile only to people I know. Isn't a smile more precious when given away?


Let me try to disprove people who warn 'Don't talk to strangers' :) Unlike Paulo Coelho's Santiago, I may never meet my Melchizedek, but good or bad, it will at least be worth the while :)

Back to school!

Today I registered for an M.S (Computer Science) course at Manipal University's learning center here in Chennai.

That's our logo!

It is a flexible programme designed with corporates in mind. The course consists of 1 year of weekend contact classes + 1 year of project work. You may take long breaks in between for any reason and extend the programme upto 4 years. You can also continue the course from other centers in major Indian cities. Cool na :) ?

Well, so its back to school! I know part-time classes are hardly going to be 'college' but its still exciting when I think I'm going back to college :) Orkut's fortune cookie today was aptly given as
" Education is the best provision for the journey to the old age "
Whew .. I already feel so wise ;)

Hope the classes are interesting !