A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Departmental Manager
were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. They were driving
down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car
failed. The car careened almost out of control down the road, bouncing
off the crash barriers, until it miraculously ground to a halt,
scraping along the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but
unhurt, now had a problem: they were stuck halfway down a mountain in a
car with no brakes. What were they to do?
"I know", said the Departmental Manager, "Let's have a meeting, propose
a Vision, formulate a Mission Statement, define some Goals, and by a
process of Continuous Improvement find a solution to the Critical
Problems, and we can be on our way."
"No, no", said the Hardware Engineer, "That will take far too long, and
besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Swiss
Army knife with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's
braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."
"Well", said the Software Engineer, "Before we do anything, I think we
should push the car back up the road and see if it happens again."