The Mighty Goliath’s defeat to a small iceberg:
The biggest ship during it’s time, known for its grandeur and gigantic size started its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912.
Touted as the Unsinkable, the so-called safest ship made its way to the seabed on April 15, 1912, exactly five days after its start!
Historians have observed that one of the main reasons for Titanic’s failure is the speed at which it was traveling when it brushed the small iceberg.
Clearly indicating that the Titanic was not properly tested in terms of performance, keeping in mind the rough scenarios.
Performance testing:
A very common thing which can be observed in most of the product development companies is the lack of proper performance testing. Just going with the same old trick from the book is never going to be sufficient and will always result in Disasters!
Imbalanced ratio of Passengers and Lifeboats:
The over confidence of Thomas Andrews can be known by the fact that only 20 lifeboats were kept for 2200 passengers and crew of the Titanic.
The reason being simple, Thomas Andrews had the blind faith that lifeboats wouldn’t be necessary in the first place. The inclusion of more lifeboats would’ve saved more people, resulting in less casualties.
Load Testing:
The most logical thing to be done right after product’s completion it’s to get a load test done.
Load testing, gives us the big picture of the product’s response by which we can know how much demand the product can bare. Necessary tweaks can be done as per the product needs before it is made available to the end user in order to avoid calamities.
Moral:
Instead of having the best hands to make it as the “Unsinkable!”, Thomas Andrews should have paid more heed in getting the best brains, who would’ve proved why it’ll sink. Made for being a legend, at-last Titanic made it to the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
It’s not a big deal to make something which is larger than life with just blind faith. Its better to understand that with “Every big development need, there is equal testing responsibility” before it’s too late.
Going back to the chalkboard is not possible always!
