Breaking Isn’t Always Bad: Reflecting on the Break-a-Thon
The following article of mine based on activities completed as a CTO Ambassador at VMware originally appeared on the VMware Office of the CTO blog in April 2021, and its contents have been preserved in this post.
Imagine you were told to do everything you possibly could to break something. This might initially seem like the ultimate stress relief. Who wouldn’t feel better breaking something after reaching the point of frustration? In the context of this story, we’re talking about breaking software. A group of my VMware peers and I were recently asked to participate in an event lovingly called the Break-a-Thon.
After thousands of hours of testing VMware products during development and as part of the CI/CD pipeline process, VMware IT is customer zero. If they identify any critical bugs, software is not released for customer and partner consumption. So, after all this testing, why exactly would VMware want a group of its own employees to try to break the software (even if it is in a lab environment)? There is one primary goal in this exercise - to make VMware products and the surrounding ecosystem better for our customers and partners through iterative improvements.
A software release (whether major, minor, or just a “patch”) can contain bug fixes, backporting a fix to a previous software version, a security patch, enhancements to existing functionality, interoperability / integration enhancements, or new capabilities. As the capability set within just one product increases the number of test scenarios also increases. Automated testing can certainly help, but the feedback provided from using the software in an exercise like the Break-a-Thon allows for a different perspective on whether the software release achieved its goal. Here are my thoughts on the benefits of this exercise to VMware, our customers and partners, the employees who took part, and the internal product teams.
- We use VMware software for internal business operations. If something does not work as expected, it impacts VMware employees and their productivity. We have skin in the game through internal use to make better products. Using our own workforce to help find the issues increases the chances we’ll find what really needs fixing quicker.
- Hands on use of our software makes VMware technical field personnel better equipped to speak to its functionality in customer and partner conversations. Tinkering with a product my customer uses could give me an idea for the customer to gain additional value from that product or achieve a previously stated outcome. If my customer gained value from the use case / feature, my peers could then share with their customers.
- Using software you previously knew very little about is a chance to grow skillset and challenge yourself. Coming into it with a fresh perspective and beginner mindset can be a catalyst for feature requests that can then be passed along to our product teams to implement.
- Knowledge of customer and partner use cases allows technical field personnel to advocate to internal business units on behalf of the customer / partner. It may be the software was developed in a certain way that isn’t as intuitive as it should be, or perhaps there is a feature missing that customers and partners are requesting. Collaborating with our product development teams in this way drives creation of better products that meet customer needs.
- As software versions are added, documentation needs to be kept up to date. If an explanation is unclear or something is incorrect, we have an opportunity to improve the documentation, making it more valuable to the next person who reads it. Submitting feedback on the documentation allows collaboration with our technical writing staff so that we understand the intent of the documentation methodology and can ensure customers and partners use it effectively and efficiently.
- Every bug, feature request, and piece of feedback that VMware employees submit provides VMware an opportunity to make a positive impact on the company’s products. In the process we are looking at it through the lens of our customers and partners. It provides a sense of purpose in our work that heightens employee job satisfaction.
- The innovation engine is driven by meaningful feedback. Feedback that something needs improvement is part of it, but we can also submit feedback that recognizes the contributions of our colleagues in creating something outstanding. Our culture celebrates the work of our talented employees.
- Feedback sets us up to make things better. Every bug or piece of feedback can be tracked to determine that someone is acting upon it. In this way I know my feedback has had an impact.
The value of feedback from a Break-a-Thon event such as this cannot be underestimated. Go break something today, and when you do, be sure to send feedback on how it can be made better.