Roll out Postponed

The Canada trip has been delayed, a bug found at the last minute; a crucial piece of information is not passed to a partner, therefore bank payments are not made. Money talks so any disruption in the supply is not tolerated. How could one miss this bug? After testing for many months, the alibi is that testing was done against the specification. It turns out the specs were wrong. So back to the developers at their European headquarters, pushing for results, pointing to the delay caused by the designer herself, a smart young lady working hard, who misunderstood one small piece of the puzzle. The overlord manager shows flashes of anger but quickly relaxing and cracking jokes when told about the problem; the team trying to push forward but stopped with an irrevocable ‘No’, so back to the drawing board, scrambling to get the fix as soon as possible. The momentum has stopped, as the monthly roll-out moving along for three straight months since November, the team also slowed down by a management decision on the team, one member not allowed to go, jinxing the whole effort with the bug found in the last minute, thereby canceling the trip altogether.

The spirit of the team is down, despite the victory of the New York Giants in the Super bowl on Sunday, the favorite team of the business leader; feels like one is not in control, issues raining down from all sides, caught unawares that one begins to doubt one’s confidence, proposing changes one had felt was good but rejected by the architect after a spirited discussion. There is too much talk, noise in the air, but actually one is glad that the trip is postponed, a respite from the maddening rush to deploy, like a suicide dash against a brick wall, but the attempt still needed to be made, to flush out any chinks in the armor which was what exactly happened. Now one is back to the tedious testing, looking at details in xml formats and using esoteric tools, peering into arcane code, trying to spot the flaw in the myriad symbols flashing across the computer screen. I feel guilty about the delay, missing the signals and not being thorough in checking, but I am not the expert of the system that provides the information; my responsibility only the ending piece of the supply chain before sending back another message to complete the loop.

Amidst this debacle, a dispute in payment in the local club erupts; requiring me to write appealing emails and making phone calls, fearful of losing a key officer in the club; a kindly grandmother who makes the agenda and keeps the club moving. Happily the dispute is resolved, so one attends a leadership seminar in the weekend and the weekly meeting this noon, all in the midst of a terrible cold, taking antibiotic medicine for a sinus infection, missing regular gym workouts, though slowly coming back, swimming in the weekend after the seminar, watching movies and getting things done at home. Slowly the spirits begin to lift, despite the winter weather where the cold dampens one’s disposition, continuing to test the system, making reports and writing emails, basically focusing on work so one could rise above the funk. Work is the only solution for bad moods and depression, a fix for fear and doubt, to just work and take out all the churning thoughts; focusing on a task is the antidote for mental confusion. One does feel better, working hard, writing blogs entries, attending meetings and having discussion. Later I will go to the library and then to the gym.