Ricky & Stick - IV & V Is a Good Thing
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Given the realities of human nature and project schedules, it's a very common situation: we turn down an offer of outside assistance because (we tell ourselves) we want to keep on schedule, and some meddling outsider will only slow things down. But that's only part of the reason. What's really lurking in the back of our minds is that, if we let someone else look too closely (like letting Bob check out Ricky's wiring scheme), he might find something seriously wrong, which would screw everything up.
And that's precisely why the independent observer is there. Because everyone has blind spots; it's just a fact of life. The impartial and independent observer can often help you see through those blind spots; that's why the "I" in IV&V is so important. So while the temptation is to keep the IV&V guy from prying too much (lest he find something that you'd really prefer not to know about), a more productive approach, hard as it is, is to welcome him in and give him free rein to find what faults he can.
The moral is that the IV&V guy isn't the enemy. On the contrary, he's often the only one who can keep your house from burning down, just because a bit of wire has frayed and he's the only one who has noticed.
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