Effort and time Quote by Gerald M. Weinberg
““Often when managers say, "Testing takes too long," what they should be saying is, "Fixing the bugs in the product takes too long"—a different cost category. Make sure you're accounting for effort and time under the correct cost category.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Psychology of Computer Programming, 1971
Managers often blame testing time, but the real delay is fixing bugs, which is a separate cost category that must be tracked correctly.
In simple terms: Bug fixing takes longer than testing and needs its own accounting.
Key Takeaway
Track bug‑fix effort separately.
Themes
software development
cost management
quality assurance
Mood
analytical
pragmatic
Type
advisory
technical
When to use this quote
- project planning
- budget reviews
- team retrospectives
Key Concepts
cost categorization
process improvement
risk management
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you currently categorize testing vs. fixing?
- What metrics would reveal hidden bug‑fix effort?
A Different Perspective
Neglecting bug‑fix costs can mask true project health.
![“As test documentation goes, test plans have the briefest actual lifespan of any test artifact. Early in a project, there is a push to write a test plan [...]. Indeed, there is often an insistence among project managers that a test plan must exist and that writing it is a milestone of some…” quote by James A. Whittaker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/201/james-a-whittaker-62991_actual-life_as-test-documentation-goes-test-plans-ha_2835978.jpg)
