Out of Pod Experience

OK, just so you know - I'm not an actual Software Developer, though I *have* done some software development. Having the experience is good, but I'll leave the official title to folks as crunch more code than I, and get paid for it as a primary responsibility.

I get paid to be an expert system administrator, hardware guru, submission manager, regulated report publisher, and champion hand-holder in the submissions department of a major company in a highly-regulated field. I also do some software development when required. I come from a military and consulting background, and have deep experience with SUBSAFE and Controlled Work Packages, as well as a solid grounding in Software Validation Methodology.

Which is all by way of say I haz some rather mad skillz in being seriously OCD and nit-picky when it comes to scientific or engineering validation.

If you think of the information that flows through this company as a fire hose, I'm part of the nozzle that shapes the flow to meet the statutory and scientific needs of various regulatory agencies around the world.

Which facts are causing me to want to poke out my remaining eye in sheer, insane frustration. See, there's a major, business-critical, software package under development. It covers our entire workflow from data collection to report writing to submission management to regulatory oversight to lifecycle maintenance. In short, either it works right, or we go out of business.

Some of you guess what's coming next:
Despite having a well-developed software development methodology, including excellent validation processes, none of it is being followed. Promises have been made by people whom know nothing of the development process, and they are By God! going to stick to those promises, even though they are patently impossible.

Sitting where I do, doing what I do, I'm a key validation tester. I *know* the business processes, and I *know* validation testing, and I *know* the regulators requirements and needs. And I *know* they're feeding me utter crap. Scripts that are missing steps. Scripts that make assumptions about user knowledge and thus gloss over important actions. Steps that are irrelevant from three or more change cycles past. Steps that are missing key input data. Steps that are out of sequence. Test environments that have not been set up correctly, or haven't been set up AT ALL. Missing system data. DELTED system data. Whole modules of code missing...

The litany goes on, ad nauseum.

I just spent three hours writing up a lengthy series of feedback forms documenting the various system-breaking errors. They'll join the previous stack of such forms. And I expect to hear back about them... Whenever. Meanwhile, a key date on user acceptance testing has passed without a single successful end-to-end test, and they're continuing the migration. Yes, that's right. They're rolling this turd-cone even as it stutters towards the grave.

I wish to batter my head against the nearest solid surface. Unfortunately, the bosses’ thick skulls are out-of-reach.

Thank you for your kind attention; you may return to your nefarious lives.

Two things:
a) if that's true, then you need to find a new job, and
b) I think you underestimate how much success is needed to stay in business. (However, make sure you're not a casualty of the probable restructuring, refocusing, reorganization, and/or downsizing.)