And I presented the different statistics and everyone asked for forgiveness and changed their way immediately.

Not. (Did you expect otherwise?)

There’s a general feeling that things are not going well (discussing the results with the PMs prior to the meeting helped alleviate “unpleasant” surprises, and everyone knew what’s going to be displayed). The mood of this year’s meeting was different than the former ones – less bringing up memories (read: excuses). The meeting finally finished (after 5 great fun hours) before we had some conclusive actions.

And that would be the next step. There was some additional information people requested, which we’ll collect and then decide what we’ll do differently. Here’s where the challenge lies – again this would be between me and the R&D Manager (round 23).

I’ve already suggested the “extreme” idea that we’ll limit the amount of open bugs per person. If going over the limit, he’ll have to close them prior to moving on to new features. People liked it (although the general feeling is that developers wouldn’t like it – I say: tough), and it was even backed up by one of the PMs experience in a former company.

Another PM liked the idea of automated testing as a safety net, which just proves that if you repeat your message a lot it finally sinks in.

I’m still optimistic about making change. But, darn it, it takes a long time!