See if it happens again

A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Departmental Manager were on
their way to a meeting. 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?


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."


Hardware Engineer: "No, 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."


Software Engineer: "Before we do anything, I think we should push the car back
up the road and see if it happens again."