DaveRabinek

Nov. 2003 will be my first AYE conference. I'm looking forward to getting to know the group and learning from you all.

I am Director of QA at Fannie Mae in Washington, DC. I work on our internal, proprietary, financial risk management software that we use to manage our $800 billion investment portfolio.

I've been involved in software and finance for over 20 years.

I've had the pleasure of attending sessions with Esther and Johanna in the past and found them very valuable. Most of my challenges surround management issues and by some would be labeled as context analysis and context fitting.

My primary job is Dad. I've got a 9 year old daughter and a 5 year old son. I never would have guessed how much I love girls soccer and boys T-ball. I can't wait for Saturdays.

Hi, Dave. Can you tell us more about what you mean by ContextAnalysis and ContextFitting? They're great phrases, but I can imagine dozens of things they might mean. - JerryWeinberg 2003.10.13

A couple of years ago I attended STAREAST in Orlando and listened to Cem Kaner's keynote about context-based practices. I think he really hit the nail on the head when he said: "The value of any practice depends on it's context. There are good practices in context, but there are no best practices". I suddenly realized that some of the biggest problems (in doing QA/test work)I faced were because I was applying practices without carefully considering how well they fit my context. There are many dimensions to context, I look forward to discussing these at length over a carefully selected cold beverage.

The temperature of the beverage should be based on the context, but it's a good idea, other than that.

You will find that context fitting is very close to what we call "congruence," which broadens the context to include self and other. - Jerry

Updated: Tuesday, October 14, 2003