Some code reviews, some testing and a lot of packing to move this week

It's been a different type of week here at Tableau.  Between getting Monday off for Christmas and now Friday we will be out while we move buildings, there have only been three days to get work done.

So here is a just a short list of things I have done as a tester this week:

1. Posted LOTS of small code changes for review.  As part of an efficiency effort, I am removing bits and pieces of dead code that are left around in the codebase.  It is not an especially difficult task, but will help with maintainability over time.  The most challenging aspect of this is not the code changes - it is finding the right set of folks to review the change I am trying to make.  In some cases, this code has been around for many years, and digging through the history of the repository in those cases can be time consuming.  I want to find the original people who checked in the code to validate my removal and easily more than half my time is spent on this one task.

2. I have managed to do some testing as well.  The most frustrating part of this blog is that I seldom can mention what features I am testing since they are in development.  I don't want to mention new features until they are shiping - I certainly don't want to imply we have a feature that appears to be ready to go only to find out there is some core problem with it.  That creates confusion (at best) all around.  But I managed to automate a test that checks for rounding errors and got that running as well as completing some manual testing tasks.  

3. We are moving buildings this weekend, so I have spent some time packing my stuff.  We also have some common areas, like a library, that I helped with as well.  The movers will be in later today and we will be out while they are moving our gear around.  The frustrating part is that our machines will be powered down.  I won't be able to log in remotely to my machine to keep any of the processes flowing, but hey, I'll take the time off and enjoy myself!

So that's it for the short week here at Tableau.  Happy New Year everyone!

Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,
John