Failing brakes

Failing brakes

A Microsoft software engineer, a hardware engineer and a department manager were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes failed. The car careened out of control, bouncing off guard rails until it miraculously ground to a scraping halt along the mountainside. The occupants of the car were unhurt, but they had a problem. They were stuck halfway down the mountain in a car with no brakes, and the weather was getting bad.

"I know" said the hardware engineer. "I've got my Swiss army knife with me. I can strip down the car's braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we'll be on our way."

"No," said the manager. "Let's schedule some meetings, propose a Vision Statement, formulate a Mission Statement, define Achievable Goals, and through a process of Continuous Improvement, find a solution to the Critical Problems and we'll be on our way."

"Wait," said the software engineer. "Before we do anything, shouldn't we push the car back to the top of the mountain and see if it happens again?"