Like it's just not there!
Pilot fish and his team are testing a major change to the client/server application they're responsible for. The changes to the client part of the application seem to work -- but the results don't show it.
"The problem is traced to the back end," says fish. "But the back-end programmer is worried that, if he fixes it, it will not be tested adequately and repercussions will occur after moving to production."
Fish takes the problem back to the business analysts. They agree that the back-end changes need testing -- and they also agree to spend the time to do some heavy-duty testing themselves.
At first, testing goes well. A few minor problems turn up, and they're fixed.
Then suddenly the changes stop working.
"The business analysts call me, the front-end guy," fish says. "I retest some of their cases and try a few other cases. I'm thinking, it's as if the changes to the back end are no longer there.
"The business analyst is frustrated and gives up. She says there are too many problems -- it works, then it doesn't.
"I go to the back-end guy and say, 'It's as if your changes just aren't there anymore.'
"'Oh,' he says, 'they aren't. I needed to test something that we want to move tonight, so I took out those changes to test this other one.'
"But of course he didn't tell anyone. Two people spent the whole afternoon trying to trace down something that wasn't even there anymore.
"But the guy was right -- it wasn't going to be tested adequately. Especially when he takes it out of the test environment!"
