[nabil114]

"I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing."
Col. Hans Landa, Inglourious Basterds

It is verified.

[LordCrankypants]

So much negativity here based on articles in the news; because of course all these news outlets have all the details and not just the bare minimum about what's going on.

Amazing how many armchar CEOs are contributing to this thread. The truth of the matter is that we don't know specifically why these individuals were laid off, apart from this statement:

"This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company."

Does it automatically spell doom for the company? I'm thinking no. We've seen thousands get laid off before and people were all doom and gloom then, and BlackBerry is still around. I'm going to have a bit more faith in the company that I chose to support when BB10 came out, instead of jumping on "the sky is falling" campaign that so many here seem to have.

JB

[9Jer99]

Writings on the wall.

[Wilsonia Goldens]

If these are the people who tested the early releases of BB10 software prior to 10.1 they should have been released a long time ago!

[ifarlow]

Does it automatically spell doom for the company? I'm thinking no. We've seen thousands get laid off before and people were all doom and gloom then, and BlackBerry is still around.

You are making assumptions just like everyone else based on limited information gleaned from news outlets, right?

I'm going to have a bit more faith in the company that I chose to support when BB10 came out, instead of jumping on "the sky is falling" campaign that so many here seem to have.

So many of us have lost faith in BlackBerry because we aren't new to this game, unlike you and others who only came aboard with the relatively recent release of BB10. Some of us have been around for years and have witnessed time and time again BlackBerry's struggles, failures, missed deadlines, etc. Some of us still want to see BlackBerry succeed and have no desire to see BlackBerry disappear, but we are tired of the same old song and dance from a company that seems determined to prove that it doesn't have the first clue.

It's funny to me that you would reference BB10 as your starting point for supporting BlackBerry when even that announcement and subsequent rollout was rife with difficulties. I suppose if that's all the history you know of the company, then perhaps it's not so bad. But when you've seen the same troubles years ago, it becomes yet another example of BlackBerry's incompetence.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: the old RIM is the new BlackBerry... and that's disappointing.

[davidmcromano]

Stinks for them. At least they'll get the rest of the summer off unless they go job hunting.
Once Blackberry starts booming again they'll want those testers back.

[my.usernamegoeshere]

BB10 has been a FLOP.

The old flagship 9900/30 device sells for MORE than the Z10 where available.

Axing jobs is part of the ongoing effort by the CEO of getting BBRY to turn a profit.
It's not happening on the revenue front therefore it has to come from cost cutting..

[LordCrankypants]

You are making assumptions just like everyone else based on limited information gleaned from news outlets, right?

I suppose you're right on that one.

So many of us have lost faith in BlackBerry because we aren't new to this game, unlike you and others who only came aboard with the relatively recent release of BB10.

I love how you're assuming based on my one post in this thread that I only jumped on board with BlackBerry with BB10.

Some of us have been around for years and have witnessed time and time again BlackBerry's struggles, failures, missed deadlines, etc. Some of us still want to see BlackBerry succeed and have no desire to see BlackBerry disappear, but we are tired of the same old song and dance from a company that seems determined to prove that it doesn't have the first clue.

I've been around for years too. Just because I don't advertise the devices I've used in my signature doesn't mean this is my first BB device.

It's funny to me that you would reference BB10 as your starting point for supporting BlackBerry when even that announcement and subsequent rollout was rife with difficulties. I suppose if that's all the history you know of the company, then perhaps it's not so bad. But when you've seen the same troubles years ago, then it becomes yet another example of BlackBerry's incompetence.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: the old RIM is the new BlackBerry... and that's disappointing.

Where did I say my STARTING POINT was with BB10? I simply referenced BB10 because that's what things are about now. You were talking about making assumptions. Perhaps I should have said "chose to continue to support" but that's neither here nor there. You made an assumption about my history of supporting this company based on what I said. I've got a kettle to introduce you to.

JB

[ifarlow]

I love how you're assuming based on my one post in this thread that I only jumped on board with BlackBerry with BB10.

Where did I say my STARTING POINT was with BB10? I simply referenced BB10 because that's what things are about now.

Perhaps I did so because you wrote this:

I'm going to have a bit more faith in the company that I chose to support when BB10 came out...

Sounds to me like you only came on board with BB10. If I'm wrong, then so be it. Doesn't particularly matter to me as my point still stands. Many of us have lost faith because the BB10 rollout was yet another example of BlackBerry's troubles. You want to view years worth of issues as not a reason to have eroded faith, then more power to you.

I've got a kettle to introduce you to.

I don't want one and I don't need one. Thanks, though. You're free to keep it.

[pasha133]

Hard to know what to make of this. What were they testing? Perhaps understandable if testers for BB OS 10 on Playbook. What if testers for BB OS 10? How many testers left behind?

"New Product Testing Facility" implies this is a hardware or radio or hardware compliance testing, or something like this. Makes total sense as hardware manufacturing is now outsourced, and fewer models are produced.

Software testing teams are typically located close to development teams, not in separate "facilities".

[pasha133]

They are just trimming the fat and getting rid of certain positions. On their site, there are plenty of new R&D positions available.

BlackBerry - Career Opportunities - Canada

They are not hiring, they are shrinking. Half of those positions are 4-8 months student co-ops which cost them almost nothing. The rest is less then 100 positions which is not even enough to replace the departures - any company with thousands of employees will have some number of departures all the time. At the peak of growth, there were hundreds R&D positions posted all the time.

[ankush77]

Sitting ducks for bb,no offence ,survival of the fittest.
If not good or do not create value addition for company.
See you then>>>>>>>>

[ankush77]

Testers ,oh please

[pasha133]

In a company like BlackBerry, you have a shared cross-functional testing group who gets allocated to different projects depending on the different product release cycles. This gives them the ability to shift resources around and put a concentrated effort when a project is nearing launch or falling behind.

Is this internal information or just guess? In every big and bureaucratic software company, software testers would be allocated to small silos together with developers and management would fight to death before allocating their resources to other managers' projects. If this were as easy as you write, BB10 would have been released in 2011.

[NinjaB]

With the problems that were in 10.0 when it came out, they need to hire 250 more testers, not lay them off. This is sad news.

maybe this is due to those problems, cuz the testers did such a ****ty job! lol..

no but when you think about it for real, it's possible.. a way of building some accountability?

I never like to see people losing their jobs, but in the grand scheme of things, is 250 positions really a huge blow FROM THE COMPANY'S perspective?? a company with tens of thousands of employees...

[alimin]

BlackBerry should be laying off Frank Boulben instead. What has he done to promote BlackBerry? Not a single properly-thought-off marketing plan seen so far. Sales numbers can confirm that.

[alimin]

I second that Ian! Whenever we try to be vocal with good intention to see this company getting better, there are always some folks that accuse us on spreading negativity. Come on, I'd rather say what's right to say than be like 'boiling a frog in a water', creating false sense of security and comfort zone. BlackBerry needs to fire the engine on all fronts, they don't need useless marketing guy and actress/singer who don't even understand how to use the products.

[qbnkelt]

Don't be so quick to come down on the testers, folks. If the testing criteria was not clear or incomplete then the tests would have been flawed.

Experienced this yesterday. Had a release preparedness review yesterday for a new cycle of Agile Scrum development. The CIO approved us but dinged the Business Owner's User acceptance testing plan. I now have one week to lend them one of my UAT testers to help them design a better plan.

Sometimes the testers don't get clear parameters or plans to test.


Sent from my beautiful, always-working, never-failing white iPhone 5 via Tapatalk 2...

[anon(5818411)]

Well some one is completely wrong and hasn't done his research. BB10 hasn't been selling yet which is right but the revenue talk is 100% wrong haha

Posted via CB10

[belfastdispatcher]

Has anybody considered the effect all this has on the remaining employees? Not exactly confidence inspiring while the company "sits" on 3 billions

[os30]

With all the bugs in 10.1 MR surely they need more testers. No?

National Rail Times App for BB10 (Native Q10 and Z10) - http://appworld.blackberry.com/webst...ntent/20352963