#QUALITYtweet Book01 - 140 Bite-Sized Ideas To Deliver Quality in Every Project (2009)

#QUALITYtweet
140 Bite-Sized Ideas to Deliver Quality in Every Project

By Tanmay Vora
Foreword by Dr. Pankaj Jalote
Copyright 2009 by Tanmay Vora
All rights reserved. No patent liability is assumed with
respect to the use of the information contained herein.
Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation
of this book, the publisher and author(s) assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any
liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the
information contained herein.
First Printing: November 2009
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60773-064-4 (1-60773-064-2)
Place of Publication: Silicon Valley, California USA
Paperback Library of Congress Number: 2009937866
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60773-065-1 (1-60773-065-0)
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be
trademarks or service marks have been appropriately
capitalized. Happy About and its imprint, THINKaha,
cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a
term in this book should not be regarded as afecting the
validity of any trademark or service mark.
Warning and Disclaimer
Every efort has been made to make this book as complete
and as accurate as possible, but no warranty of tness is
implied. The information provided is on an as is basis. The
authors and the publisher shall have neither liability nor
responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss
or damages arising from the information contained in this
book.
#QUALITYtweet is provocative. It serves delicious,
bite-sized morsels about human aspects of quality that will
feed every managers success.
Lisa Haneberg @LisaHaneberg
Business Author, Blogger, and Consultant
#QUALITYtweet focuses on quality in bite-sized nuggets
of goodness a tweet at a time. These insights will leave you
wanting more.
Skip Angel @skipangel
Agile Coach and Consultant
Quality matters a LOT . . . for business, customers, and
employees. Read #QUALITYtweet to jump-start your own
quality movement!
Phil Gerbyshak @philgerb
Social Media Maximizer and Editor for Slacker Manager
Not just wisdom regarding quality, but 140 opportunities
for discussion, debate, and growth. May it be used in many
staf meetings!
Michael Wade @execupundit
Consultant, Trainer, Author, and Blogger at Execupundit.com
Advance Praise
Dedication
To my parents, my wife
Pooja, and my daughter
Hiya for supporting,
enabling, and inspiring me.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Twitter for the 140-character constraint which
elevated my ability to think at the core.
Thanks to my friend and guide Rajesh Setty @UpbeatNow for
writing #Th!nktweet and inspiring me to write.
Special thanks to the Gateway TechnoLabs team Indrajit Mitra
and Niraj Gemawat for giving me space and freedom to write
this book.
Thanks to Lisa Haneberg, Skip Angel, Phil Gerbyshak, and
Michael Wade for their kind words of praise.
Thanks to my friend Utpal Vaishnav @utpalvaishnav for
reviewing this book with a lot of love and care.
Special thanks to my publisher, Mitchell Levy @HappyAbout,
for taking on my rst book.
Why Did I Write this Book?
Quality is the #1 strategic diferentiator.
Quality is still a heavy subject with a lot of focus on models
and theories.
People want quick access to practical insights on how
quality can be managed.
I wrote #QUALITYtweet to fulll that need.
Quality is not just conformance to customer requirements.
Quality is happiness.
Read, share, and be happy!
All the best!
Tanmay Vora @tnvora
7
#QUALITYtweet
Contents
Foreword by Dr. Pankaj Jalote 9
Chapter I
People & Quality 11
Chapter II
Process & Quality 39
Chapter III
Management, Leadership, & Quality 65
About the Author 109
#QUALITYtweet
9
Foreword by
Dr. Pankaj Jalote
#QUALITYtweet is a brilliant
compilation of practical ideas
that ignites thought processes
to improve and excel.
Dr. Pankaj Jalote
Director, Indraprastha Institute of
Information Technology, Delhi, India
Professor, Indian Institute of Technology,
Delhi, India
Author of several books on
software quality and management
Past editorial board member, IEEE
Transactions on Software Eng.
Visit him at:
http://www.cse.iitd.ernet.in/~jalote/
#QUALITYtweet
11
Organizations are comprised of
people. The human factor can
become your biggest obstacle
on the journey to quality if not
managed carefully. The attitudes
of your people and their alignment
to your vision are the two most
important factors for organizational
success. This chapter ofers
practical twinsights on the people
aspect and how such perceptions
can impact the improvement,
initiative, and overall quality of
experience your organization
delivers to its customers.
Chapter I
People & Quality
Great quality is a
by-product of good
people passionately
working towards an
organizations goals.
1
#QUALITYtweet
13
The recipe for great
quality = the right people following
the right processes, employing the
right tools at the right time.
2
If your internal customers
(people) are not happy, how
can you delight your external
customers (clients)?
3
Mediocre people will rarely
produce great quality, even with
world-class processes.
4
Dont reward heroic eforts for xing
problems that should have been
avoided in the rst place.
5
#QUALITYtweet
15
The weakest link
in your team will
still have a strong
inuence on the
quality of
your deliverable.
6
No certication will save
the project if you staf it
with poor resources.
7
In a quality aware team,
people know that quality is
everybodys responsibility.
8
#QUALITYtweet
17
If quality improvement
isnt anybodys job, it
is not surprising that it
doesnt get done.
9
Process challenge
#1: to ensure that
processes are not used
as excuses for not
getting a job done.
10
#QUALITYtweet
19
Implementing a change is far
easier when people are involved
in dening the change.
12
Top two reasons for poor quality:
people dont know how to do it, or
they lack the resolve to get it done.
11
You increase the
probability of quality
output by assigning
the right job to the
right person. Leverage
the strengths
of your people.
13
#QUALITYtweet
21
The attitudes and behaviors of
your executives play a huge role in
determining the quality
of your service.
14
It is easier for you to generate
quality outputs consistently if
you really love what you do.
15
Half of your quality problems
can be resolved by lling the gap
between what people know and
what they execute.
16
The quality of your work as a
professional is also an assessment
of your condence, integrity,
thinking, and self-worth.
17
#QUALITYtweet
23
Make every review
meeting a learning
experience by reviewing
the product and the
process, not the people.
18
Your customers will
evaluate quality based
on the experience of
the overall purchase,
not just the quality
of the product.
19
#QUALITYtweet
25
Your team is more likely to produce
quality when the purpose of your
product excites them.
20
People who are uncomfortable
with the status quo are the best
candidates for your
process-improvement team.
21
If you only have senior members on
your process-improvement team,
you are missing out on the fresh
insights juniors can bring.
22
If you dont periodically review the
progress of your quality initiative
with your team, you are giving them a
reason to slow down.
23
#QUALITYtweet
27
24
25
With a carrot and stick approach
people will comply dispassionately.
For passionate involvement, they
need to be self-motivated.
Implementing change means
providing the freedom to make
mistakes. Change can never happen
when there is fear within.
TEAM INTERACTION
#QUALITYtweet
29
26
Q: Want to feel
the pulse of any
organization?
A: Just observe how
well its teams interact
with each other.
A good process
delights the people
who use it, enhances
their ability to do
more, and
creates value for
the organization.
27
#QUALITYtweet
31
People who let their quality speak
make a profound statement.
28
Critical question: how does this
improved process improve my
teams ability to perform?
29
Critical question: are
the results of your
improvement initiative
visible enough to keep
everybody engaged
and encouraged?
30
#QUALITYtweet
33
Everything we do is a process that
can always be improved.
31
The key to process improvement:
realize that people need time and
encouragement to change.
32
To deliver quality is to SERVE (in a
way your customer expects).
33
Improving the quality of
communication with your teams
and customers directly improves the
quality of the customers experience.
34
#QUALITYtweet
35
If you base rewards on
meeting a schedule,
people will only try to
meet the schedule and
compromise on quality.
35
36
37
Two great wastes in any
organization: not speaking and
not listening.
The quality you produce is
a reection of your body of
knowledge, depth of experience,
and ability to execute.
#QUALITYtweet
37
39
38
You can cope with a lack of
ABILITY, but not with
a lack of INTENT.
How NOT to deliver total quality:
focus on quality of product without
focusing on quality of relationship
and communication.
A sure way to kill
creativity: be
over-critical
when people
make mistakes.
40
#QUALITYtweet
39
Process is the foundation upon which
people work to build quality. Process
is not just a collection of work
instructions, but an enabler that
gradually builds the culture of your
organization. A good process can
be a great tool for people to deliver
quality and for an organization to
measure improvement. This chapter
presents ideas on how processes can
be efectively managed to build a
customer-oriented quality culture.
Process & Quality
Chapter II
41
Quality product is an
assessment your customers will
make. Not you.
The secret of generating excellent
quality is to get it right the rst
time at every stage of the process.
42
#QUALITYtweet
41
If you dont treat
your process as a
tool to generate
quality, process has a
tendency to drive you.
43
Having a process and not
following it is no better than
having no process at all.
44
The ultimate fantasy: expecting
quality from a team without
communicating your
expectations on quality.
45
#QUALITYtweet
43
Measure your process because
you cannot control what you
cannot measure.
46
Dont just deploy processes; ingrain
them in your culture.
47
Critical question: does your quality
system REALLY help you build
quality in your products?
48
Common-sense quality metric: how
many hours does your team spend
correcting errors?
49
#QUALITYtweet
45
Quality 101: the rate of your process
innovation should always be greater
than the rate of change in a clients
quality expectations.
50
Process improvement cycle:
dene > rene > train > implement >
monitor > improve.
51
#QUALITYtweet
47
The rst step of your
process improvement
journey is to
know what really
needs improvement.
52
Critical question: when did you
last assess how your customers,
suppliers, and people perceive you?
53
Efective processes are not only
about plan and control. It is also
culture and behavior that helps
build quality.
54
#QUALITYtweet
49
The most dif cult aspects of creating
a process culture are: engagement,
communication, collaboration, trust,
teamwork, and motivation.
55
Never let your processes come in
the way of solving your customers
immediate problems.
56
Cure precedes
prevention. You can
think of prevention
after you have learned
how to cure the
immediate problems
of your customers.
57
#QUALITYtweet
51
Early wins in
initial phase = great momentum for
rest of your improvement journey.
58
The tools you use for automating
your processes are like grease.
They help a great deal in a
smooth implementation.
59
60
It is easier to spend time improving
quality than justifying poor quality.
Process improvement =
simplication + clarity.
61
#QUALITYtweet
53
All improvement
is incremental,
never a single shot
to perfection.
62
Improvement is more
about lessons applied than
lessons learned.
63
Organizations have a poor
memory. Lessons learned are
soon forgotten if they are not
formulated into a process.
64
#QUALITYtweet
55
Garnish the recipe of your processes
with ingredients like trust,
collaboration, controls, measures,
and incentives.
65
Formal inspections can be
a huge waste of resources
if you have not invested in
getting it right the rst time.
66
EASY: to invent a
work-around
to the problem.
DIFFICULT: to address
the root cause
of the problem.
67
#QUALITYtweet
57
Want to add complexity? Get
obsessed with a solution without
focusing on the real problem.
68
A complex solution to a
simple problem adds more
complex problems as a
by-product of that solution.
69
Correction helps you
SURVIVE in the short
term. Prevention helps
you SUSTAIN in the
long term.
70
#QUALITYtweet
59
Critical question: if you
want your people to go
by the books, are your
books updated
with credible
work instructions?
71
You reduce waste not by
improving things, but by
improving the right things.
72
In a seemingly messy
conict lies an opportunity
to improve something.
73
#QUALITYtweet
61
A well-dened
problem is already
half solved.
74
No process will deliver results
if your expectations of the
process are unreasonable.
75
The only problems you can SOLVE
are the ones you can SPOT.
76
#QUALITYtweet
63
The three Es of a good process:
ef cient, efective, and enjoyable.
77
78
The best practices are contextual
they worked well for someone in a
given context. Are you applying them
in the right context?
80
EASY: improving
what exists.
DIFFICULT: identifying
what is missing.
Critical improvement goal:
reduce the time spent on re-work
and inspections.
79
#QUALITYtweet
65
Chapter III
Management, Leadership,
& Quality
No organizational or cultural
improvement is possible without
management commitment.
Leaders play a pivotal role in
aligning the organizational
values, processes, and people to
a common vision. Commitment
to quality begins at the top and
trickles down in an organization.
This chapter addresses the soft
aspect (but often a hard one) of
what is required of management
and leadership to drive excellence.
The core of a quality
system is having
condent managers
who realize that
caring management
does not mean
weak management.
81
#QUALITYtweet
67
Quality101: deliver better
quality than you would expect
as a customer.
82
Quality improvement is like a
high-jump; after each success,
the bar is raised further.
83
Mutual trust and commitment to
improve form the soil in which the
seeds of quality are sown.
85
When you use quality metrics
against people, you are giving
them a reason for NOT
following your processes.
84
#QUALITYtweet
69
Quality is not
something extra
that you do. It is a
MUST for long-term
diferentiation.
86
The pursuit of quality
is not about meeting
their needs but
about exceeding
their expectations
consistently.
87
#QUALITYtweet
71
Culture breeds quality. The key is to
create a culture of collaboration and
trust to foster innovation.
88
Most principles of quality
management are nothing but the
application of common sense.
89
Compliance to process
becomes a huge burden when
you acquire certication only to
increase your sales.
90
Quality is not desirable and
stated any more. It is essential
and intended.
91
#QUALITYtweet
73
You can improve a
lot in areas that have
no tangible business
impact. Thats a waste.
Pick the right areas
for improvement.
92
Planning and building quality in
your product is even more crucial
when your budgets or schedules
are constrained.
94
Quality is never a short-term goal. It
is a long-term diferentiator.
93
#QUALITYtweet
75
Critical question:
does your process
make it easy for your
customers to do
business with you?
95
Tracking productivity
without tracking the
quality of output is like
tracking the speed of a
train without validating
its direction.
96
#QUALITYtweet
77
The quality of relationships, trust,
and communication determines the
quality of results!
97
Depending on luck for quality is
ignorance. Quality needs planning.
A lot of planning, actually.
98
Improve your managerial
culture and you are already
half way to improving your
organizational culture.
100
Total quality equates to operational
improvements which ultimately
result in cultural improvements.
99
#QUALITYtweet
79
Middle management
is the glue that
joins long-term
organizational goals
with short-term
improvement actions.
101
102
Critical question:
knowing that people
will change only if they
want to, how do you
make sure that they
want to change?
#QUALITYtweet
81
A simple formula for knowing
what needs improvement:
observe, ask, and listen.
103
Motivating people for change
requires leaders to know when to
lead and when to manage.
104
Permission to change (from top
management) precedes your desire
and ability to change.
105
You have built a right culture
when people show up and say,
Here is what I can do, rather
than asking, What can I do?
106
#QUALITYtweet
83
Quality culture
improvement is
an elephant which
needs to be eaten
one bite at a time.
107
Building quality up front is a
much smarter strategy than
verifying quality later.
108
If successful improvement initiatives
are not building a customer-oriented
organization, your bus is moving too
fast in the wrong lane!
109
#QUALITYtweet
85
Your quality
improvement initiative
must improve (1)
management behavior,
(2) employee
attitudes, and (3)
innovation capacity.
110
The ultimate goal of any quality
initiative is to relentlessly build a
continuously improving culture
in pursuit of customer satisfaction.
111
Remember, if you perceive that
you dont need to improve, you
wont improve.
112
#QUALITYtweet
87
If you take a 35,000-ft. view of your
organization, you will ALWAYS nd
something that needs improvement.
113
The day you start rating yourself
excellent in all departments is the
day you stop improving
as an organization.
114
CAUTION: STEEP ROAD AHEAD...
#QUALITYtweet
89
Caution: there is a
steep road ahead for
your business if you
are delivering average
quality at a high price.
115
Beauty is in eye of the
beholder, and, yes, Quality is
in the mind of the customer.
116
Your ability to change within
an ever-changing marketplace
is a critical driver of your
quality improvement initiative.
117
#QUALITYtweet
91
Look for and keep excellent
customers, for they will drive
your process excellence.
118
You can settle for good enough OR
you can strive for excellence. The
choice is yours.
119
120
Critical question:
you have taken your
customers feedback;
have you REALLY
acted upon it?
#QUALITYtweet
93
The trust you build is directly
proportional to the consistency of
quality you deliver.
121
Did you know? Your customer can
be your strongest partner in quality
improvement initiative.
122
TRUST IS A CURRENCY
#QUALITYtweet
95
Deal with
your customers
with a currency
called TRUST.
123
If you want the best quality, you
need to give the best attention.
124
A great sales pitch wont be able to
save a mediocre product.
125
#QUALITYtweet
97
Trying to improve
culture without
changing habits is
like walking on a
treadmill it doesnt
take you anywhere.
126
Small changes lead to
the bigger changes.
Your long-term goals
must create a context
for all of your short-
term improvements.
127
#QUALITYtweet
99
Challenge #1: Focus on your
leadership actions to set the right
examples. Leaders model behaviors.
128
Quality enemy #1:
micromanagement.
129
There are no short cuts in quality,
just like there are none in life!
131
Your workers watch you more
than they listen to you. Action
sets precedence.
130
#QUALITYtweet
101
The only way to
drive excellence is
to attach rewards to
customer-satisfaction
data and not to
process metrics.
132
Question: How do I get
the best out of my people?
Answer: Be a coach and a mentor
rather than a boss and a superior.
133
QUALITY = HARD + SOFT.
Hard = data, statistics, and
information. Soft = human attitudes,
beliefs, and motivations.
134
#QUALITYtweet
103
You can think
of quality as an
initiative or as a way
of doing business.
135
REMARKABLE!
#QUALITYtweet
105
To become BIG,
you rst have to be
REMARKABLE.
136
People work for a
leader who works for
their people.
137
#QUALITYtweet
107
Humility to accept that
something is wrong is the rst
step to improvement.
138
A lack of empowerment, education,
and empathy can be your biggest
roadblock to improvement.
139
For a quality
improvement initiative,
good news and bad
news are ALWAYS
better than no news.
140
109
#QUALITYtweet
Tanmay Vora heads Quality Assurance & Testing at Gateway
TechnoLabs, an ofshore software service company based in India.
Tanmay has 12 years of diverse experience in software development
methodologies, quality management, and process-improvement
initiatives. He specializes in building independent testing teams
from scratch.
Tanmay has been actively associated with professional
organizations like the Project Management Institute and Computer
Society of India. He has served Computer Society of India as a
member of the managing committee.
He speaks and consults on Software Quality Assurance and blogs
at http://www.qaspire.com/blog. You can follow him on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/tnvora.
He loves writing real-life short stories, reading, music, and is a
passionate explorer of management and leadership subjects. He
currently lives at Ahmedabad (India).
About the Author
#QUALITYtweet
140 Bite-Sized Ideas to Deliver Quality in
Every Project
Superior quality is one of the many ways to diferentiate in a
competitive marketplace. The essence of #QUALITYtweet is
to ofer practical and relevant insights on a seemingly complex
subject of quality. #QUALITYtweet ofers fresh perspectives on
core of a quality systems, i.e., people, processes, and management
culture.
The purpose of any quality improvement initiatives is twofold: (1)
to generate a quality culture within the organization, and (2) to
ofer substantial value to customers by virtue of quality products
and services. #QUALITYtweet addresses these core areas of any
improvement initiative.
Organizations can either treat quality as an initiative or as a way
of doing business; their choice makes all the diference between
success and failure in the long run.

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