Those familiar with the animated comedy The Simpsons may recall that Homer has a once long-lost brother named Herb. While making a valiant effort to pull himself from the gutter, Herb invents a device that will translate a baby’s cries into intelligible language that will tell parents exactly what the baby wants or needs. After a demonstration of the new device for the family, and before it has been unveiled to the world, Herb asks for Homer’s opinion. Homer responds, “I don’t know, Herb. People are afraid of new things. You should have taken an existing product and put a clock in it or something.”
Though fictional, this dialogue is an apt analogy for the current struggle in the product development cycle and for the quality engineer—time.