Many folks have heard me talk about the DFQ/QA/QC/CE model. The intent of this entry is to give it a name, and explain the basic steps.
This model became evident to me when I was working on Microsoft's Basics program. The purpose of this program was to bundle all the topics/features that weren't functionally oriented but just as important to the customer. They were accounted for by each development team and driven from a number of centers of excellence in varying ways. This included areas such as; Reliability, Performance, Application Compatibility, Feedback, Manageability, Serviceability, etc. My role was to consolidate and drive a 'common' way this was implemented and tracked across all of the Windows engineering teams.
We'll call this model the Engineering Quality Cycle and it will include four dimensions; DFQ - Design for Quality, QA - Quality Assurance, QC - Quality Control, and CE - Customer Experience.
DFQ: Design for Quality is focused on declaring up front what is expected in designing a product / service for a specific area.
QA: Quality Assurance is responsible for designing & executing tests, tools, procedures, sign-offs, etc. that reinforce what is declared in the DFQ guidelines.
QC: Quality Control is focused on putting in control points that can effectively stop the release of the product / service until an expectation is satisfied.
CE: Customer Experience represents the metrics that are measured to validate that the DFQ guidelines are driving the right outcomes.
Examples using a software company paradigm - - -
DFQ: Using the Manageability area as an illustration; a DFQ guideline might include instructions on how to develop applications so that they can easily be configured from a common console or upgraded using a common upgrade platform.
QA: Continuing the example, QA might include test cases to assure ability to console manipulate all of the configurable features of an application.
QC: This might be a sign-off at a gate review by the product managers accepting the QA results in assuring a manageable product.
CE: This could include feedback metrics that gather the usage of the manageability console assuring the customers find the manageability feature useful.
Follow on posts will include additional examples...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Kaizen at PMI - Puget Sound | End Notes
The talk on Friday went well - everyone seemed engaged. There were a number of questions:
1) How do you make these type of efforts sustainable?
Ans: We all have suffered from the 'flavor of the month' program and are quite aware of the pitfalls that lie ahead of us in championing these types efforts. Some of the ways that were talked about include:
a) Organizational adherence to a strategy process, which then drives common goals across the enterprise. This reinforces the balanced scorecards and the techniques that we use to measure, evaluate, identify improvements, and implement change. This requires a mature leadership team that takes the time to develop and communicate an overall business strategy, built into the fabric of goal deployment that each employee then understands their contribution. I've seen this work well in some companies (big [AT&T] and small [Xantrex]), however, the discipline to stick to it is often lacking.
b)Assigning resources such as Green Belts and Black Belts as champions go along way to institutionalizing a continuous improvement culture. When you want something done, having the ability to point to someone whose job it is to do it is always beneficial. In some organizations, six sigma efforts have gone a long way [e.g. Expedia, Amazon, WaMu], by having people annointed with the title or moniker Green or Black Belt. In other companies, even when there were people assigned to a Six Sigma group, the culture fought it as cumbersome and too restricting.
c) Develop internal material or seek out suppliers that teach people TQM / Six Sigma / Lean / whatever label you want / techniques to help them do their jobs better and solve real and important problems. In this way, folks can 'own' their development and be exposed to tools and skills that they can take away to any job they go to. It doesn't require a lot of company investment, therefore, its fairly easy to sell and everyone has an equal opportunity to take advantage of it. At the same time the company is growing a continuous improvement focused culture. And if the program is positioned right, it doesn't have the 'flavor of the month' feel. The downside - it takes a long time to see on an enterprise scale real change in the culture.
These three mechanisms are not mutually exclusive or all inclusive and everyone is encouraged to find the best way that works for them and their company.
2) Where can I find resources for some of the tools that were mentioned in the talk?
Ans: I had referenced a number of materials during my talk - you can find a listing of the texts on my site.
I don't remember many of the questions - next time I need to have a better way of keeping track. However, if there are folks from the class that read this blog, perhaps they can post their questions along with their thoughts.
1) How do you make these type of efforts sustainable?
Ans: We all have suffered from the 'flavor of the month' program and are quite aware of the pitfalls that lie ahead of us in championing these types efforts. Some of the ways that were talked about include:
a) Organizational adherence to a strategy process, which then drives common goals across the enterprise. This reinforces the balanced scorecards and the techniques that we use to measure, evaluate, identify improvements, and implement change. This requires a mature leadership team that takes the time to develop and communicate an overall business strategy, built into the fabric of goal deployment that each employee then understands their contribution. I've seen this work well in some companies (big [AT&T] and small [Xantrex]), however, the discipline to stick to it is often lacking.
b)Assigning resources such as Green Belts and Black Belts as champions go along way to institutionalizing a continuous improvement culture. When you want something done, having the ability to point to someone whose job it is to do it is always beneficial. In some organizations, six sigma efforts have gone a long way [e.g. Expedia, Amazon, WaMu], by having people annointed with the title or moniker Green or Black Belt. In other companies, even when there were people assigned to a Six Sigma group, the culture fought it as cumbersome and too restricting.
c) Develop internal material or seek out suppliers that teach people TQM / Six Sigma / Lean / whatever label you want / techniques to help them do their jobs better and solve real and important problems. In this way, folks can 'own' their development and be exposed to tools and skills that they can take away to any job they go to. It doesn't require a lot of company investment, therefore, its fairly easy to sell and everyone has an equal opportunity to take advantage of it. At the same time the company is growing a continuous improvement focused culture. And if the program is positioned right, it doesn't have the 'flavor of the month' feel. The downside - it takes a long time to see on an enterprise scale real change in the culture.
These three mechanisms are not mutually exclusive or all inclusive and everyone is encouraged to find the best way that works for them and their company.
2) Where can I find resources for some of the tools that were mentioned in the talk?
Ans: I had referenced a number of materials during my talk - you can find a listing of the texts on my site.
I don't remember many of the questions - next time I need to have a better way of keeping track. However, if there are folks from the class that read this blog, perhaps they can post their questions along with their thoughts.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Kaizen at PMI - Puget Sound Chapter
On Friday, I will be delivering a talk on Kaizen Blitz for a Software Company in Bellevue, WA for the local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. You can find a copy of the presentation material here.
The presentation is a case study of how a typical manufacturing quality tool (Kaizen) has been applied to work in a software development company (Infospace).
Abstract:
Infospace is a leading mobile media and web technology company. They develop online and mobile software solutions that are deployed to large data centers where they operate the applications for Fortune 100 companies such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cablevision, and Alltel. Infospace’s customers demand highly reliable services which in turn puts a significant demand on their processes. We will explore how the Kaizen method has helped Infospace improve their release processes to reduce release roll backs and priority one incidents that occur when deployments don’t release with quality.
The presentation is a case study of how a typical manufacturing quality tool (Kaizen) has been applied to work in a software development company (Infospace).
Abstract:
Infospace is a leading mobile media and web technology company. They develop online and mobile software solutions that are deployed to large data centers where they operate the applications for Fortune 100 companies such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cablevision, and Alltel. Infospace’s customers demand highly reliable services which in turn puts a significant demand on their processes. We will explore how the Kaizen method has helped Infospace improve their release processes to reduce release roll backs and priority one incidents that occur when deployments don’t release with quality.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Performance Management "Buy-In"
Q: How do you get an organization to "buy-in" to Performance Management and make it part of their day-to-day operations?
Advice: There is not one 'way' to do this, however, here's a number actions that you can take to drive managing by metrics into an organization:
1) Sell at least one person – you need at least one executive that thinks measurement is important
2) Show success thru example – once you have one person interested, put together a scorecard for them and then help them drive management by metrics
3) Evangelize, evangelize, evangelize – talk about the work, show the results, brag about organizational alignment
4) Expand – when at least one organization has shown success, other executives follow
5) Build it in – incorporate into other processes, e.g. strategy planning, people performance appraisal, value adding processes (i.e. those processes that add direct value to what the end customer receives)
It doesn’t have to be in this order - but seems to flow nicely this way.
Advice: There is not one 'way' to do this, however, here's a number actions that you can take to drive managing by metrics into an organization:
1) Sell at least one person – you need at least one executive that thinks measurement is important
2) Show success thru example – once you have one person interested, put together a scorecard for them and then help them drive management by metrics
3) Evangelize, evangelize, evangelize – talk about the work, show the results, brag about organizational alignment
4) Expand – when at least one organization has shown success, other executives follow
5) Build it in – incorporate into other processes, e.g. strategy planning, people performance appraisal, value adding processes (i.e. those processes that add direct value to what the end customer receives)
It doesn’t have to be in this order - but seems to flow nicely this way.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference, Seattle WA
I had the opportunity to attend the MS BI conference in Seattle, May 9 - 11, 2007. The conference focused on the IT professional, not so much on the Business user.
I got excited about how Performance Management fits into the overall BI strategy. In order to give it shape, I've defined Performance Management as:
Performance Management is the translation, instrumentation, monitoring and management of the business strategy.
- Translation: Strategies to Goals to Measures
- Instrumentation: Implementing Measures from enterprise data
- Monitoring: Establishing abilities to report and view the Measures
- Management: Acting on the Measures to realign the business in achieving the strategy
If you come from a IT / Software company, this make perfect sense, considering this is exactly the same practice we follow in instrumenting and managing software as a service.
I got excited about how Performance Management fits into the overall BI strategy. In order to give it shape, I've defined Performance Management as:
Performance Management is the translation, instrumentation, monitoring and management of the business strategy.
- Translation: Strategies to Goals to Measures
- Instrumentation: Implementing Measures from enterprise data
- Monitoring: Establishing abilities to report and view the Measures
- Management: Acting on the Measures to realign the business in achieving the strategy
If you come from a IT / Software company, this make perfect sense, considering this is exactly the same practice we follow in instrumenting and managing software as a service.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
