One of the perks of working at Lilly in France is that you can get access to their private cabin. It's about 10 kilometers from the plant, and it has it's own little lake, etc.So since we had everyone in town for formal testing, we decided to rent the place out Thursday night (I think it was 35 euros). Basically we did a pitch-in and grilled outside - great fun. There was some initial confusion on what exactly was a pitch-in (the french like to have their meals planned more) - but they eventually got the idea.
Here's the text of the email I sent in order to hopefully clear up the confusion (it didn't have the intended effect, since many still asked me what to bring after I sent it) - oh well.
Some answers (...that matter) on the L'étang Pitch-In . . . .
1. WHAT SHOULD I BRING?
A dish to share (e.g. dessert, salad, cheese, freshly picked cherries, half a cow) and something to drink (e.g. water, wine, beer, or all of the above)
2. YES, BUT WHAT IF EVERYONE BRINGS A CHOCOLATE DESSERT?
The chances that everyone brings a chocolate dessert is about 1,328,234 to 1.
But . . .if everyone brings a chocolate dessert several things will happen:
a. Like a french omelette, french cheese, or french wine, those 125 chocolate desserts will all be significanly different from one another (one will most likely resemble a Japanese fan.)
b. I will be able to get in a heated discussion with Philippe Faubert on what is the best chocolate dessert - soon to be joined by Anne-Catherine and Albert. By the end of the evening, we would have logged five high/high defects on the issue and put FIT at risk of completing on time.
c. There will be 125 chocolate desserts -
3. YES, BUT WHAT IF WE DON'T GET A GOOD DISTRIBUTION OF DISHES (Too many desserts or too much cheese) ?
We were originally going to have APO do the planning for this pitch-in, but we ran into issues. The heuristic was too complicated, and Marc Kientz came up with too many additional requirements. But the idea was finally killed, when Cory refused to create a new global material for tarte a l'oignon..
So we are going with the CHAOS THEORY. That means creative individuals will not agree on the best dish for a pitch-in, so they will all bring something different. Believe me, my countrymen have been throwing pitch-ins for at least 200 years (that's a really long time for us); and we have NEVER had a problem with bad food distribution.
Besides, how is it possible to have 'too many desserts' or 'too much cheese' ?
4. YES, BUT CAN YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT TO BRING ?
Ha, ha, ha.... you're kidding, right?
5. SHOULD I BRING SOMETHING FOR THE BARBEQUE GRILL ?
Yes, you can - but that would be like a low/low test script defect - you can still "Go Live" without it. This is not Wade, the vegetarian, saying this . . .
Joe and Andrea are taking care of bring hamburgers, buns, condiments (ketchup, mustard) . . . and charcoal. So if you want to bring something to cook on the grill, you are more than welcomed to. Again, hearing what some people are thinking to bring, we will have enough food.
6. DO YOU HAVE DIRECTIONS?
Yep, out on the server: \\yf2svr05\Projects\GBIP r13\Exhibit\Map to Etang.doc
7. WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?
a. Parking is limited, so don't be like a typical American and drive by yourself - try to carpool.
b. The phrase "I think we brought too much wine" makes absolutely no sense
c. Jill Hagan is stealing my testers to complete her own PP test scripts, so her metrics will look better than mine (she's so competitive).
Hope that helps,
W-
