Assumptions and their verification

A real case.

I was leading a small software development project for a database GUI. Main target was to make it modern and functionality oriented. To achieve these targets, we wanted to use advanced programming environment and tools.

Code was progressing pretty fast despite some difficulties in the specification phase.

Testing had started since some time. Programmers decision was to work with Firefox and Chrome for the validation. The assumptions behind where 2:

1. testing on these 2 browsers would have ensured compatibility with other programs of that kind
2. People would have had the chance of working with these 2 browsers as per their preference.

Then we discovered in a quite dramatic session that:

A. The company had a very old default browser (Internet Explorer 6) and did not allow officially the use of any of the other 2
B. Performances with IE where horribly poor

It was immediately clear to me that the failure was not to make the two assumptions explicitly visible so to start actions to verify them.

This endangered the project success and the fact I found a technical workaround enabling good performances, does not make the feeling of risking to fail better.

Lesson learnt: always make  assumptions, technical or project related, visible. Checking them is the only way to mitigate the risk to fail at a late state...