It turns out that the CAG had, a few years ago, pointed out the unhygienic conditions prevailing, and state of the materials used, in the mid-day meal system. Arnab Goswami, on his show asked one of the participants as to why quality control measures were not in place. The participant said it was not practical to do so.
QA being "not practical" is something that I have heard a lot of when it comes to software work. (A few weeks back, I was part of a 3-way discussion on quality, when again I heard more about "not practical".)
Do developers and their managers treat QA reports any more seriously than the politicians treat the CAG's report? How seriously are QA audits taken in most software companies? (Incidentally, final testing and defect reporting do not constitute the totality of QA.) As the tag line for this blog says, "Quality & 6-pack abs, both require hard work". And sacrifice. And the integrity not to fudge - if you did 20 crunches, do not imagine you did 21.
Could the contractor have said, "Sorry, I cannot provide the meal"?
Can you as a software professional say, "Sorry, I cannot meet the time frame with the required quality"?
Must you also serve software crawling with "bugs" like the food served to those hapless children?
If you are being forced by management, what of the school principal, the contractor, ...?
