A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer
and a Departmental Manager were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. 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, Change Management,
Re-Engineering and Service Integration, 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."
