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The challenge of qualityJames Kelly

The views in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of their employer.

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How is “quality” currently used in industry?

Foundations of using quality How the pillars work Quality in projects and Business As

Usual Practical use of models & methods The most important thing you need to

know

What will we cover

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Quality was a craze in late 80’s & 90’s (TQM, Business Excellence, Quality Circles, BPR)

Just don’t call it quality - seen as a management fad by most companies

Followed by CMM, CMMI, TL9000, TickIT, CoBIT, Six Sigma, Lean, ITIL/ISO20000

How is “quality” used in industry?

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How is “quality” used in industry?

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Need common terminology - QC, QA mean different things from company to company, from industry to industry

Needs to be well defined within your company

Benchmarking to other companies in software is rarely useful if your processes differ significantly

Terminology

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Product Quality – how useful and effective are our products, installations, software, systems, services – this is controlled and assessed by project staff using quality control activities such as testing, inspections, peer reviews.

Process Quality – how useful and effective are our processes and whether we follow them – this is undertaken by QA staff

My definitions

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Quality Control – activities to control the quality of products, services and processes

Quality Assurance - activities that assure that these processes are effective, efficient and are being applied correctly

Quality Management – activities that use data from QC and QA to improve the company.

My definitions

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Quality Management System a.k.a Quality System, Business System, Business Management System, Business Process Management System, Quality Framework

The policy, organisational structure, activities, procedures and resources needed to implement quality control, assurance and management

My definitions

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Which is better quality?

Product Quality – What it means…

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Yet defects are used are the common view of quality

Quality Function Deployment ISO9126 – OK, what how to specify?

Product Quality – What it means…

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Foundations of quality

Quality of our products & services

Proc

ess

Met

rics

Rev

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s &

Aud

its

Peer

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Test

ing,

Insp

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Con

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Strategy, People, Plans, Training

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Despite 30+ years of work as an industry, processes still often informal or not relevant/used

Difficulties with process analysis & Enterprise Architecture (and usability of BPMN, UML)

Automation often destroys the effectiveness of processes

How the pillars work - Process

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Based on company objectives Measurable with real figures Not generic motherhood statements

Functional sizing (FP – Story Points) SLOCs still used Defects Use of control charts and SPA/SPC

How the pillars work - Metrics

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Peer Reviews, Walkthroughs, Inspections often “informal” emailed around data is rarely collected

Testing, Product Inspections V&V and the differences What is being tested and how?

How the pillars work – Deliverable Reviews

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Different styles (targeted vrs process) External and internal

Conformance Effectiveness Efficiency

How the pillars work - Audits

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In-project reviews Lessons learnt Use of data PDCA – know but rarely used directly Six sigma

How the pillars work – Continual Improvement

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ISO9001 – predominant model

CMMI – used by defence, aerospace, telecoms

ITIL, ISO20000 – IT service oriented 6 Sigma, Lean – repeatable,

manufacturing CoBIT – finance & banking

Practical use of models & methods

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Waterfall Manufacturing environment Incremental & iterative development

(Agile) Services Sales

Practical use of models & methods

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Quality must be focused solely on outcomes for the business

ISO9001 is not an outcome Conformance is not an outcome QC & QA activities must be practical Audits must have a purpose Always focus on what is being done for

the business

The most important thing…

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Senior sponsorship

The most important thing…

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Recommended Reading: Out of the crisis – Deming Juran’s Quality Handbook – JM Juran, et al Quality is free, Quality without tears –

Crosby CMMI Guidelines – Chrissis, et al Agile Software Development – Cockburn CMMI V1.3 – Acquisition, Development,

Services

Backup Slides

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Recommended Reading: Understanding Variation: The Key to

Managing Chaos - Donald J Wheeler

IEEE Software Crosstalk Journal of Defense SE

@zenkara zenkara.wordpress.com

Backup Slides