| A Software Engineer, a Hardware
Engineer and a Departmental Manager were on their way to
a meeting. They were driving down a steep mountain road
when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened
almost out of control down the road, bouncing off the crash
barriers, until it miraculously ground to a halt scraping
along the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but
unhurt, now had a problem: they were stuck halfway down
a mountain in a car with no brakes. What were they to do?
"I know," said the Departmental Manager, "Let's
have a meeting, propose a Vision, formulate a Mission Statement,
define some Goals, and by a process of Continuous Improvement
find a solution to the Critical Problems, and we can be
on our way."
"No, no," said the Hardware Engineer, "That
will take far too long, and besides, that method has never
worked before. I've got my Swiss Army knife with me, and
in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking system,
isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."
"Well," said the Software Engineer, "Before
we do anything, I think we should push the car back up the
road and see if it happens again."
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