Zoom-in for Intrinsic Quality
Zoom video conferencing has been in the news for the last few weeks, first for its phenomenal growth fuelled by the covid19 lockdowns —
- Zoom now has 200 million daily users
- It is the top app on Google Play and Apple iStore
- It went from a mostly B2B tool to a ubiquitous B2C tool
- ‘Zoom’ has almost become a verb like ‘Google’
- It has replaced ‘Skype’ as the favorite video conferencing tool
And then in the last few days, it all started going downhill —
- Zoom was caught sending user data to Facebook
- Zoom’s attendee tracking feature which let the host know if a user clicked away from the window left many fuming
- Zoom was caught inadvertently leaking email ids and pics to unknown users
- Zoom claimed they offer end to end encryption, but it does not
- Many Zoom recorded videos are found publicly online
- Zoom bug could steal password and install malware
- Zoombombing is on the rise
- High Profile Customers like Space-X, NASA and New York University stop using zoom
There are many other issues, but the point of this post is not to create an exhaustive list. But to brainstorm — Why could these serious issues escape internal quality checks?
Some of these are regular test cases for a test engineer —
- Testing whether you can access email ids of unknown users, or
- Creating an alias and checking if I can see other user’s data.
- Installation on various OS’ and whether the app follows standard protocols
Others are about security requiring security testing —
- Sharing data to Facebook (this could very well be a monetization feature, but was it disclosed adequately and if not was it highlighted by anyone in the team)
- End to End Encryption (Why did anyone not compare the standard definition of end to end encryption with zoom’s internal definition?)
- Zoombombing (This should have been caught in security testing)
So, while it may not be possible to identify and fix every bug in the software, how can we ensure that there aren’t these huge blunders? I feel that the answer is already known, but the vision and principles are being flouted.
Here are some ideas that teams and organizations could use to avoid such expensive mistakes:
- Give testers their real jobs back
A software tester is a good investigator. They need to sharpen their skills just like any other job function. And this sharpening cannot happen without focus and repetition. I do not intend to sensationalize here, but there’s far too much of cutting the corners in the incorrect guise of DevOps, Agile, BDD or Lean. None of these approaches bar teams from improving the core testing skills. Testing is not just about automation but is more about identifying the cases which will break the system. If only organizations can encourage testers to break the software more than ensure that it conforms to the happy path, they would do well in the long term. And this does not mean that automation is not important. Rather, automating the confirmations can free up time for the deeper investigations.
2. Clear Technical Debt regularly
Its like junk food. Everyone knows it’s bad but still eats it. The problem is when you do it regularly enough and do not do anything to clean up the junk in your body. It may not be possible to completely avoid it, but it certainly is possible to clear it regularly. This is where Agile and lean can help. Get a good coach to help you create robust principles, guidelines, and systems so that your people are guided in the right direction and decisions.
3. Disclose, Disclose, Disclose at every level
I know that a business has to make money. Sometimes, decisions are made at a business level that is not adequately understood by the technical team implementing them. For example, zoom may have a business contract with Facebook and maybe sharing some behavioral information using an API that could even be harmless for the end-user. The technical team usually just gets a requirement or user story to pass on some analytical data to a certain API. The onus is on the business in this case to disclose the real behavior of the app to the technical team and the end-users. In these times, it is not enough to have a couple of lines in the smallest of fonts possible in the privacy agreement knowing that nobody reads it. Anything to do with user data should need the explicit approval of the user. This needs to become a standard testing practice too. Why? Because trust is not a single transaction but is an accumulated balance of transactions that happen internally within your team and externally with your users. End users value trust more than features.
4. Create a solid operating vision for the organization
Usually, products and organizations have a business vision. And they usually promote it well within the organization. But employees are not able to relate with it for their day to day working. So employees usually follow their bosses and managers. But by creating an operation vision — a set of principles that apply to everyone in the organization — about the way of working or way of being while doing the work — an organization can empower employees to be leaders in their role. Such empowered and motivated employees will take more responsibility for their work, and their organization’s image.
All of these practices will help create an intrinsic character and quality in the organization. And that will show in the services and products that the organization creates. Like Conway’s law states that “Organizations design systems that mirror their communication structure”, there is a law of intrinsic quality —
“The quality of a product is directly proportional to the intrinsic quality of the organization’s systems and culture”
I have no evidence to say that zoom does not have good intrinsic quality systems and culture. There are very many products, created by excellent organizations that run into difficult problems from time to time. The intrinsic quality of an organization is also created by the way these organizations respond to such a crisis.
In the last 2–3 days, the zoom has done well to accept these problems and started fixing some of these rapidly. They have come out clear about their decisions on end to end encryption and sharing of data. This is a great re-start. For the fantastic lag-free cutting edge video streaming technology that Zoom has innovated with a simple user-friendly interface, and for all the goodwill that it has created by helping people keep in touch with their loved ones in the times of the COVID crisis, I only hope that Zoom — zooms ahead by fixing most of the flaws and rediscovers the trust among its users.
