QA Hates You

You know, it must be easy to work quality assurance on government projects:

Because of a continuing software glitch, the first high-tech “virtual fence” at the nation’s borders remains unused, three months after its scheduled debut.

Nine 98-foot towers laden with radar, sensors and sophisticated cameras have been built across 28 miles close to the Arizona-Mexico border near Sasabe, southwest of Tucson, in an area heavily trafficked by illegal immigrant and drug smugglers.

The towers, each a few miles apart, are intended to deter or detect border-crossers and potential terrorists and to enhance the ability of Border Patrol agents to catch them.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said more testing is expected by early October.

“We are now looking to begin acceptance testing in about a month - meaning that’s the point at which they (contracting officials) will say to us we think you can test this. And we will then kick the tires again,” Chertoff told the House Committee on Homeland Security early this month in Washington.

But Chertoff also said he’s withholding further payment to the prime contractor, Boeing Co., unless and until the pilot project in Arizona works.

Yeah, it must be easy to be a tester on a government project.   Unless you care.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 7:45 pm by The Director and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.