Although this does not relate directly to coding in general, but to any company that services customers in any field, one must always be concerned with quality and how you relate that to the customer. For those who have worked with me, several things are apparent when dealing with a customer-related project:

1. I am picky as hell when it comes to quality and getting the functionality right.
2. I am PICKY AS HELL when it comes to quality and getting the functionality right.

Today, as many know, was Canada Day which is usually a holiday for most Canadians. But, for some of us select few who service clients outside of the Great White North, it is also a day when some people have to work. Today, several issues raised their head and I am proud to say that my coworkers were able to overcome each and every issue thrown at us today, with naught but a skeleton crew. There were big issues, small issues, and some ultra-critical issues. However, the purpose of what I am saying here is to ensure that quality is paramount, or at least that the client understands when quality is being put to the wayside for a delivery.

When I was a development manager, I reviewed (in excruciating detail) most of the items that launched through my team. And when I say excruciating, I think I drove some of them nuts with my detail. "That accented French character is missing..." "This validation is not enabled but has to be as it is a required field..." "The image is 2 pixels too big..." (Yes, I have done the 2 pixel thing. Many times. I have 2 former client contacts i credit for that - I became ultra-picky to please them and I don't regret it one little bit.) When most of my products were general public-facing items, I had to be; we are working on the "face" of our clients on the web and have a duty and responsibility to ensure that they have no egg on their face. We have to ensure that the information provided by them and their other partners are presented in the manner they expect.

So, with public facing items, we have 2 problems: Proper functionality and proper information. Proper functionality, in a developer shop, is somewhat simple: Play with it and make sure it doesn't break. How do you do that? Do everything in your power to break it using the interface provided (which, in these cases, are web browsers). We had all the proper functionality, without doubt. Everyone did a great job. However, we caught a few errors on our demo server before launch today. Why were some things caught here? Partly because I am PICKY AS HELL (see above) when it comes to ensuring the message is correct. Usually I don't QA the whole task anymore, but this was a significant launch... well, this was SEVERAL significant launches, so that explains why a few things were missed, especially with the skeleton crew (again, you guys did an AWESOME job today). But this is why we have a demo server - to catch those items BEFORE they go live. I am glad to say that although a few were tasks on our part, some were not and were provided by the client. (To explain without breaking any client confidentialities, some information displayed was completely wrong. As the client was out today, we launched with the info provided, but made them aware that updated information to be correct should be provided immediately after they return tomorrow.

Now, back to an initial point: the customer service. Because we launched early, this product did not have the level of QA we would normally give it (many members of a team reviewing it), but the one saving grace for that today was that it WAS a holiday. This allowed the team members there to focus on the applications and dive in to ensure a proper review was done. Less bodies, but more focus. And quite a few items were found and corrected, before launch. The client was made aware that the level of QA was not to our satisfaction because we were launching early, but we still gave it our all. I think the amount of QA done today was less, but the quality of the testing was higher than normal because people could focus more without distraction. (And, because I was not interrupted a lot, I gave my 2 cents in the testing as well.. OK, my thousand dollars, and I apologize to those I continually sent updates to, because I am... see above point 2). But we set the customer's expectations, gave them what they wanted, and still managed to ensure quality was not jeopardized. And, because of this, the client was happy.

What more can you say when the client asks for something on a holiday and you meet and most likely exceed their expectations? No more needs to be said.

Team, you all did a great job today.