TPS report

File:Tps report.png

A mock-up of a TPS report cover sheet, created for the movie Office Space

A TPS report ("test procedure specification") is a document used by a quality assurance group or individual, particularly in software engineering, that describes the testing procedures and the testing process.

Definition

The official definition and creation is provided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as follows: Template:Quote

In popular culture

Office Space

Its use in popular culture increased after the comedic 1999 film Office Space. In the movie, multiple managers and coworkers inquire about an error that protagonist Peter Gibbons (played by Ron Livingston) makes in omitting a cover sheet to send with his "TPS reports". It is used by Gibbons as an example that he has eight different bosses to whom he directly reports. According to the film's writer and director Mike Judge, the abbreviation stood for "Test Program Set" in the movie.

After Office Space, "TPS report" has come to connote pointless, mindless paperwork, and an example of "literacy practices" in the work environment that are "meaningless exercises imposed upon employees by an inept and uncaring management" and "relentlessly mundane and enervating".

Other references and allusions

• In Ralph Breaks the Internet, a TPS report is visibly hanging in one of the accounting department cubicles during Ralph's viral video montage. While Test Procedure Specification reports are not functionally relevant within accounting, this usage shows how the term has grown to symbolize all kinds of meaningless memoranda.
• In Borderlands 2, a legendary weapon is named the "Actualizer" with a flavor text description of "We need to talk about your DPS reports", parodying the corporate term by replacing it with the common gaming abbreviation for "Damage Per Second".
• In The Mandalorian, TPS reports are mentioned in the episode "Chapter 15: The Believer" as work to do by the character Migs Mayfeld when attempting to avoid an imperial officer, in a reference to Office Space.
• The TV series The Family Man features a scene in series 2, episode 1 in which the manager of the protagonist asks him to "start thinking about your TPS reports!", in amongst other apparent references to Office Space.
• In the NCIS episode "Starting Over", Gary Cole's Agent Parker mentions his least favorite paperwork being TPS reports. When McGee corrects him telling him they're "TBS reports", he says, "Ah, old habits, weird", then takes a sip of coffee, paying homage to his Office Space character, Bill Lumbergh.
• In the King of The Hill episode "The Redneck on Rainey Street", Kahn tells his boss over the phone that he "filed his TPS report yesterday."

External links

• Printable PDF TPS Report