For long, I have believed that I get the best ideas in the washroom ;-). Man, it indeed is a very relaxing place.

Anyway, the motivation for this blog comes from the lunch table this afternoon. The topic was how to improve the quality of software.

My dear friend, Hitesh, asked me an interesting Q -- "what do you need to do that results in each Tom, Dick, and Harry in your department calling for your head?". For a few moments, I was stumped. After regaining my composure (read: convulsion), I replied -- "Screw up the most critical/basic part of the code of my software." He nodded in agreement.

Next, he popped up the Q -- "what if you now apply 'NOT' gate to it?" :-)

The idea is simple -- work to improve the most critical part of the software, and you will reap the benefits. The idea is pretty rural, and you do not need to be any brilliant to fathom it. The point, however, is the way the idea has been briefed.

We carried the discussion to determine other ways of improving the software quality, and the focus soon shifted to beta testing. Hitesh averred that these days the few beta partner customers do not test the software with real testcases, and this is why beta testing seems to be falling apart. The Q is -- why should the customer test "our" software? The only incentive that they are getting the first-hand experience of a new software ain't lucrative enough?

How about having an incentive plan for our beta customers, say, if a customer finds 5 bugs, 1 license is free. In layman language, the customer should be able to map each bug to a few bucks. The bucks will obviously be translated to free license of the software.

Imagine MSFT telling you that if you find 5 bugs in the latest version of MS-Word, your license fee will be waived off. Ain't that a great incentive for you? Further, how about MSFT telling you that they will publish your name on their website :-). Just a few ways of giving you what you want the most - money, fame, etc.