DYKWIA

That's complete rubbish

There are plenty of IT projects run by UK/US companies and staff that are just as bad. Just look at some of the government IT systems that have been scrapped (or come in millions over budget).

The main issue seems to be lack of testing. Changes seem to be put live and then tested by customers.

You just need to look at the Official Glitches Thread over the last few days :-

FT - "It's broken"
BA - "Sorry, we're looking into it"
BA - "It's now fixed"
FT - "No, it's still broken"
BA - "Sorry, we're looking into it"
BA - "It's now fixed, we've tried testing a few routes, and they're all working"
FT - "Something else is now broken"
BA - "Sorry, we're looking into it"

I know these are hugely complex systems, and some are very old, but it looks like there is very little regression testing done before changes go live.

kanderson1965

I give up, called up, got no straight answer so, as fully flex, cancelled instead. I shall be taking the train in future.

GaxxyFlyer

I agree, it can also be the product of a siloed structure. The tester may have been ordered to test and only test a specific item and to ignore any other results. I've witnessed this and in my youth, been ordered to sign off dodgy code because strictly speaking it did what it was supposed to. I refused to as it knocked out 3 other things and I wasn't willing to put my name to it.

Things were thrown...

A lack of change control, no release plan or a lack of roll back planning can be factors. 'Specialist' teams with a wide remit to do what they want and answer to no one (laughingly called agile by those that don't understand) can throw multiple spanners into machines they only understand their part of. The list can be endless but it results from, in my experience, outsourcing on the cheap or a harassed, bullied IT department where people are too busy watching their backs to care about the impact their work has on customers.

BA Executive Club

Dear all,
I would firstly like to apologise for advising that the issue had been resolved when evidently this was not the case. We have now identified the cause for Bronze and Silver Members not being able to allocate an exit row seat. I would also like to re-iterate that this was not intentional nor was it a proposition change.

Thank you for your patience while we implement a fix.

Warm Regards
Louise

clubman

Thank you Louise.

Vinotraveller

Many thanks for the update. Your input on this thread is appreciated.

travelwithross

I respect your opinion. But don't call my opinion rubbish or you will lose my respect.

In my (short) experience of working on project and change management it's exactly the cheap outsourcing that has screwed us, delayed us, and cost us more. Working with UK partners/consultants rarely does and despite us constantly telling management that this is preferable, the cheaper route is always taken.

EsherFlyer

I think run by and performed by are different things, so you can both be correct. IME many of the government projects trickle down to outsourced or on-shored teams.

I remain surprised at just how badly software tends to get built with optimism and naivety frequently leading to disappointment and blame .

flashware

You've obviously not worked with some of the UK partners/consultants that I have, in that kind of space. Anyway, that's pretty OT really.

I think what we're seeing here is similar to what AA did recently. Published something, then came out and said it was in error - then low and behold a few months later that supposed error was implemented.

Let's review this post in 1 year and see what the case is

kanderson1965

I feel that there may be more than a bit of truth in this. It won't be the first time that the senior management of an organisation is prepared to sacrifice the integrity of an official spokesperson in order to deflect the criticism from themselves.

flashware

They'll be happy knowing that their POC worked, a little too well

Phorbas

It's an unfortunate vicious cycle of not being able to release changes to the live environment regularly. In turn means each release includes a greater number of changes, which then has a higher likelihood of breaking something. When it does break, the answer is to add additional testing processes, which then means releases take longer to prepare - rinse and repeat.

Over time these processes get formalised, new structures established to perform each role, and then nobody has the whole picture nor the incentives to care when things aren't working.

Dicksbits

Clearly this would have been an enhancement too far for BA..

You could hear the potential stampede of Silver and Gold members to LCCs where necessary in the last few days…

kanderson1965

I suspect that you golden brethren are spared, I remain to be convinced long term for us lesser souls.

NewForester

When is it planned to resolve this issue for Gold Members? I can still not select exit row seats on short haul flights even when seats in front of the exit row are available to select.