I got a whiff of a really bad piece of work from Optus on Twitter this morning, in regards to the registration page for their Optus Rewards website (click image for larger view):
Really?
“Please select a title and the title should match with the gender.”
So a woman can’t be a doctor, according to Optus? Try and register on it for yourself and see.
Seriously, that’s worse than bad. That’s a dreadful look Optus.
Fail.
(UPDATE – 12:53pm): Optus have advised that they are looking into the problem, and have raised the issue with support:
“Thanks to everyone who let us know about the fault with our Optus Rewards form – we’ve logged this with Support & will keep you posted!”
Well and good.
However, I am still concerned that a form such as this was released into production in this condition. What happened to their User Acceptance Testing (UAT)? Why does ANYONE think you need to check the title against gender to go to the bother of programming such a check into the code?
Yes, fix it Optus – but improve your internal quality processes too.
(UPDATE – 8:15pm): Apparently it is fixed now.
While this is mostly likely a coding problem, rather than intentional or even unintentional sexism, as a programmer from way back, it seems strange to me that:
- Someone would consider it particularly necessary to have a gender vs title check in the code;
- That this was missed during acceptance testing of the code before it was released into production – or more likely – wasn’t thoroughly tested at all.
I’m quite sure it wasn’t intentional, but it just worries me – particularly with all the privacy leaks from telcos of late – that these organisations don’t have proper software engineering and testing practices in place.
Makes you wonder where the privacy leaks initiate.
Hacks, lazy programmers, or poor testing?
Either way, we deserve better.