The Eleventh List

TIME TO STRATEGY EXECUTION: 104 DAYS

I had dismissed the first list WICO’s test manager showed me when study of the rest convinced me that it was essentially a table of contents, albeit a confusing one. After my immersion in the rules, the structure of that list now makes perfect sense, and I am using it as a guide to the ten lists of rules and the rest of the strategy. Having read at least two-thirds of the entire strategy without any problem understanding it, I have only one criticism: the agreements package should have been prefaced with a description laying out its structure and its ultimate purpose.

My new understanding has even helped explain what was happening with the blank requirements that limited the test team. “TBD” really meant “To Be Determined by a reader while applying the appropriate rules.” I could easily imagine the artificial intelligence Sanda as its simulated-human alter-ego Sally, secretly frustrated that people refused to do the work and iteratively find answers in the real world that could vastly increase the chances of success. A real person might have just inserted a note to that effect, with justified feeling: “For best results, follow the instructions and figure it out yourself!”

Taking a short break from the strategy, I re-read the fourteen forgetfulness episodes reported in the bug tracker under Miscellaneous: Variability. In a typical example, a tester treated Sanda like a personal data assistant, asking for a sports statistic from three years ago. Two hours later, he asked for the same statistic and got an answer that was numerically different by a significant amount. I had just finished reading a set of population projections out to 2040, and noticed what appeared like (for lack of a better word)jitterin the numbers that somehow felt similar. Historical population has generally increased over time, but these projections were now fluctuating up and down from one year to the next. After some thought, I wondered whether the statistics themselves might be simulations rather than observations, and began to suspect that Sanda might have detected that but didn’t consider the distinction meaningful. 

Reality Check

Some of my professional writing experience comes to bear in this post, focused on potential sources of confusion if common assumptions are not held between a writer/reporter and the audience.