QUALITY IS FREE. OR NOT.

This is the first in a series of blogs about what I've experienced during my job hunt and it deals with a peculiarity that is somewhat unique to the QA/QC field.

Whether you've worked as a PM, a line manager, or an executive in the IT arena, you know that all thing corporate flow from a budget.

It stands to reason that if you're applying for any type of management position, you're going to want to get a feel for the size of the IT area, the number/nature of the software projects they produce, and what kind of budget you'll have to work with.

I am no longeer amazed when the answer is there isn't a budget for QA/QC. Oh sure, I might start whimpering uncontrollably, but I'm no longer surprised. Development managers and PMs have budgets. Accounting departments have budgets. Operations organizations have budgets. But for some unknown reason, testing groups, regardless of size, apparently work for free.

Or not.

If, in answer to your questions, there appears to be no budget, it behooves you to ask more questions. Contrary to those vicious rumors spread in the 70s, quality is not free. Even monkey testeers want to be paid in bananas. And while bananas DO grow on trees, unlike money, it's highly unusual for such a phenomenon to manifest in Philadelphia, PA.

There are, of course, answers to your questions, and each of those answers contains vital information and a variety of pitfalls. It doesn't mean you shouldn't accept a position, if other elements of the job appeal to you, but it does add to your knowledge base and expectations, possibly ratcheting them down to reasonable levels.

First, it's entirely possible the company doesn't know how much they need to budget and have decided to just hire someone who knows what they're doing and worry about it later. They'll tell you they want their new hire to assess the situation and tell THEM what's needed.

(Cue romantic violin music. Pop champagne corks.) Oh baby. I'm in love.

This is really, really seductive. Who wouldn't want to assess what needs to happen and have it handed to them on a silver platter?

But slow down there. Squint through that rose-colored haze and really take a look at your interviewer. Are they wearing a red suit? Drop your pen on the floor and surreptitiously check out their feet. Are they cloven hooves? Is it hot in the office? Have you noticed a jar of Vaseline on the desk?

If so, these are Very Bad Signs and you need to ask more questions before you sign away your soul.

Find out how much they've put aside to kick things off. If the answer is "nothing", then you have no people and you're it. You might be it for a Very Long Time. Like eternity. A good opportunty will have (some) thought behind it, and some sort of funds put aside to begin the work. Thereafter, you'll have to go through all the customary hoo-haw of making recommendations, obtaining funding, and justifying your requests. You may or may not get what you need to do the job. So make sure you're on the same page before you're committed to what might be a lesson in futility. If there are 300 people in the IT area, it's unlikely a staff of 3 will be able to handle the workload. But if 3 is what executive management has in mind, it's going to be a hard, hard road to get something more reasonable approved. Try to ask questions that give you an idea of what they have in mind. I can assure you they've talked about it. You may have to dig a little, but there's some expectations in there somewhere; use all of your hard-won testing analysis skills aned ferret it out.

In some companies, there will be a budget all right. But you won't control it. This makes you a lead, not a manager. In the corporate world, management staff control budgets, and the bigger your budget, the more power you have. You might not like hearing that, but it's true. If you don't manage a budget, you don't manage squat from a corporate perspective. Whomever is holding the pursestrings can (and wil) steal important pieces and parts of your funds for whatever they see fit. Often it will be for a mismanaged project or a new development resource. You'll find your abiity to provide promotions, raises, or bonuses will either be constrained or dictated to you to ensure there's enough dough for some other group that has more clout than you have. Having a budget, by the way, doesn't keep these things from happening, but it makes it harder and they have to ask you first.

Overall, a budget controlled by someone else is an insoluable issue. It often requires an Act of God to change corporate culture. This is a good reason to make sure you like a given corporate culture before you get on board.

The best opportunities will have some sort of budget, be able to tell you what it is, and will expect you to be responsible for managing it. You will be responsible for setting it for future years.

So if you're a hiring firm with no budget for QA/QC, please have the decency to stock Kleenex for your hapless interviewees. I hate weeping openly all over my navy blue power suit....