The Problem

There are many, many discussions in my group about what precisely is the problem. I work on integrating the operating system and the hardware, so my group has to buffer the issues that arise before we can ship our stuff to the customer.

The operating system developers are sure that the errors are all because of the deficiencies of the hardware design. The hardware engineers write off every problem as either an operating system bug or a test software deficiency and thus ship the product to the customer. It doesn't help that the software and hardware teams are two different companies who had bid on the contract together to win the work, and now have to execute to a joint standard.

Chris is the guy on our team who has to write an explanation for every time a failure occurred, and why it is still OK to send the product to the customer, or alternately decide if we need to rework the unit before shipping it. He harasses us to no end in his attempt to figure out what happened during testing.

A few days ago Chris came to talk to Kurt about one such problem. One out of every 4 sentences started with, "The problem is....." and ended with, "the hardware folks can't make hardware," "there isn't enough time to integrate," "the software folks aren't developing on real hardware" and a million other problems that had reared their ugly heads.

Finally, Kurt had had enough. He raised his voiced a few decibels and stated through clenched teeth "THE PROBLEM IS..." and we waited.

And waited.

I looked up from my computer to see the exchange that was about to happen. Would Kurt say it was the hardware? The software? The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Finally, Kurt lowered his voice, shrugged his shoulders, and stated flatly, "yours. Go deal with it."

It was classic! The mantra of the day then became, "The problem is yours."