Engineering Quality Cycle

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...