From the Sage MAS Team

[#1]

Learning From Mistakes:

As I was researching and responding to a recent product issue posted to our Community site and some negative comments on the Sage focus to deliver quality products, I was reminded of an article I read a while back. http://learnthis.ca/2009/01/leadership-accepting-mistakes/ I especially like these comments “Learning from mistakes clearly needs some analysis of the mistake itself to gain value from it.”  As we are always striving to improve our product and customer experience, this is certainly true. I’ve found that following these few steps mentioned in the article can be used to analyze a mistake quickly and efficiently:

1. Accept that what happened can’t be changed.
2. Know there is always something to learn from it.
3. Look to understand it and the factors that caused it.
4. How could you have recognized the mistake earlier?
5. How can you avoid the mistake next time?
6. Are there similar things to avoid that might cause a related mistake?
7. What has changed now to ensure that mistake doesn’t reoccur?
8. Who else should know about this and learn from it?

As I pondered over the recently reported issue, I asked myself what could have failed in our extensive Development and Quality process? The eight steps outlined above helped focus my research. How do we close that gap to ensure that we do not have the same mistake happen again? We are very serious about, and dedicated to, the quality of our software and understand the impact that mistakes can have on our customers and partners. So doing this research and examining our process in order to put even more preventative measures in place is of the utmost importance.

We use code review processes and quality testing practices in addition to automated regression testing. What we may not have focused as extensively on is the risk and potential impact associated with changing common routines. As we continue our research, we will also continue to add to and improve our Development Quality process and learn from our mistakes.

Our focus remains on delivering quality products to our customers in a timely fashion.

[#2]

I always enjoy reading Doris' blogs - they are timely and chalked full of valuable information.  Thank you Doris.