Vishu Hegde

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Intrinsic-QualityTM Quality in Knowledge Era

Vishu Hegde Bangalore SPIN Talk 27 Jan, 2005
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Brief History of Civilization

• Agriculture era
• Labor intensive
• Local
• Mass production distribution challenges
• Industrial era
• Mechanization, Mass production
• Globalization, Manufacturing driven economy
• Product Design, innovation challenges
• Knowledge era
• Extreme Globalization, Anytime-Anywhere (e.g.
  Internet)
• Knowledge driven Industries, Economies
• Thinking, Collective-wisdom challenges
• Everything in this world is done twice once in
  the Mind and then in the outside world Stephen
  Covey
• Challenge in knowledge era is the first part
  accuracy speed of thinking

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Legacy of Industrial Era
20
80
Industrial Era Product/Business
Knowledge Era Product/Business
20
80
Design/Creation Intensive
Mass-production Distribution Intensive

• Current Quality Management philosophies in
  Software industry (e.g. CMM) are influenced by
  the Industrial Era experiences
• Wrong application of mass production principles
  to design principles
• Knowledge Era products need a totally different
  approach on Quality Management Human centric
  Knowledge centric

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The Paradigm Shift in Knowledge era

• What is the raw material for software?
• Its Knowledge/ Idea
• Where does the transformation from raw material
  to finished product happen?
• Its in the Minds of people
• Computer is only a tool to capture facilitate
  the thoughts
• How do we know then, how the transformation is
  happening?
• Break the transformation into smaller steps
• Bring visibility (e.g. pictures, documents,
  models, prototypes)
• What is the measuring equipment to verify whether
  transformation is happening correctly or not?
  (the calipers?)
• Another knowledge body (e.g. peers, customers,
  experts)
• Collective wisdom (Peer Reviews, Brainstorming)
• Knowledge Era Product Engineering
• From raw material to finished product, the object
  is not physical in nature. No Laws of Physics
  governing the engineering principles, like in
  Mechanical or Civil engineering

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The Spectrum of Variability in Knowledge Era Eco
Systems
System
Life Critical
Proof of Concept
Risk
Undoable Disaster
Redo-able Demonstrations
Technology
Lagging Edge
Bleeding Edge
Static
Chaotic
State
High Continuity
High Change
Monumental
Accidental
Process
Bureaucracy
Adhocracy
People
Stereotype
Herotype

• One size doesnt fit all
• Critical success factor Striking the right
  balance across these dimensions based on the
  context of each business problem

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Reducing Variability Vs Increasing Innovation

• Based on previous 2 slides
• We are dealing with intangibles like knowledge
• We are dealing with Idiosyncratic human beings,
  and not Stereotype machines, as transformation
  engines
• Leads to high diversity variability
• Striking the balance based on the business
  problem context
• Reducing the variability to get more
  repeatability, predictability efficiency
• E.g. Life Critical Systems like Avionics,
  Application support/maintenance
• Harnessing diversity to increase innovation
• E.g. New Product Creation, Proof of Concept of a
  new idea

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Measurement in Knowledge Era

• The Dichotomy
• Dealing with intangibles like knowledge, human
  beings need more measurements to bring
  visibility, objectivity, common understanding
• Measurement is more abstract (no physical
  entities) high subjectivity variability (e.g.
  size complexity of software)
• Measurement goal orientation beyond a point can
  become counter productive be judicious
• Mind-world works differently (indirect) than
  Physical-world
• E.g. if we set a goal to concentrate, we loose
  concentration
• E.g. if we want to forget something, we have to
  remember something else
• Need to apply use measurement in proper context
  with qualitative info
• Need to rely on Vision, Values, Collective-wisdom

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Distributed Collaboration speed up
transformation of Idea to Visible Output
Tacit Knowledge
Thinking Techniques Facilitation
Techniques Brainstorming Mind Mapping.
Audio/Video conf calls Virtual Whiteboard Collabor
ation tools.
Interplay
Peer Reviews
Document sharing tools Config Management, Defect
Tracking tools
Explicit Knowledge

• Virtual Team Virtual Mind (including
  Customers)
• Build ideas one on the other
• How much tacit knowledge to be converted to
  explicit knowledge contextual

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Customer-Supplier Role Reversal Collaborative
Approach
Customer
Customer-role
Supplier
Supplier-role
Reqmt Stage
Implementation Stage
Acceptance Deployment Stage

• Intrinsic Quality thread flows right from the
  Customer side
• Understanding Customer-Supplier role reversal (by
  both parties) is a key enabler for collaboration
• Software Industry (especially Service) needs much
  more collaboration between Customer and Supplier
  than probably any other industry

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Hierarchy of Knowledge
Wisdom Ability to re-apply Knowledge from one
context to different contexts
Knowledge Synthesized patterns of Information
Information Analyzed Sets of Data
Data Footprints of an action

• Challenge in Knowledge Era
• How to quickly take Data to Wisdom level
  (learning)
• How to build capability in people to develop
  Wisdom from Data (ability to learn)

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Quality is more Intrinsic in Knowledge Era

• A Construction industry analogy
• LT Constructions have different supervisory
  ratios
• One Supervisor for every 25 civil construction
  laborers
• One supervisor for every 10 mechanical worker
• One supervisor for every 5 electrician
• Moral of the story Higher the skilled labor,
  higher the supervision needed
• Software Engineering is a highly skilled labor
  needs one supervisor for one engineer
• In other words, PRACTICALLY, knowledge era
  workers systems need to be SELF-MANAGED
• GE Example
• No Quality Department. Quality is built into the
  line function through Black Belts and Green Belts
• Highly scalable and sustainable approach

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Intrinsic Quality Examples from MindTree (1/3)

• MindTree Quality Policy
• Quality is Value as Perceived by Customer
• Customer-backwards and business-backwards rather
  than Standards-forward
• MindTree Quality/Process Philosophy
• Quality is built into the Line Function
• MindTree processes are practitioner defined and
  practitioner refined.
• MindTree processes are context composed
• MindTree Quality sustenance built into the Line
  Function
• Process is integral part of Project Execution
  Strategy
• Quality Review by Delivery Head
• Project Management Review by Delivery Manager
  with PM
• Dashboard active review of project metrics
  on-line
• Cross-project audits PMs auditing other projects

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Intrinsic Quality Examples from MindTree (2/3)

• MindTree Quality Function structure

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Intrinsic Quality Examples from MindTree (3/3)

• Strong focus on Knowledge Management
• Consider Human Minds are the transformation
  engines in knowledge era
• How to enhance the capacity yield of these
  engines
• Harnessing collective wisdom
• Portal Driven Mortal Driven
• Explicit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge
• Strong focus on continuous Learning
• Part of the Value System
• C2 (Culture Competency) Initiative
• Strong focus on Peopleware aspects
• Attitudinal, Behavioral aspects
• Through CLASS value system

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We need to change

• Its high time we integrate/ingrain Quality into
  the Line/Practitioners
• We in Indian Software Industry have separated the
  Quality from the Line/Practitioners enough
  (thanks to wrong usage of CMM)
• No other industry has succeeded in as much as we
  have done!!!
• In order to leapfrog into the Knowledge Era, let
  go of the legacy and embrace the future
• We Quality professionals, who are Change Agents
  in the organization, have the highest resistance
  to change (introspect)
• We are the ones who cling to the legacy most -
  fear to let go
• We need to have enabling/liberating mindset
  instead of compliance/constraint mindset

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Quality Organization

• What are the characteristics of a high quality
  organization?
• Quality is ingrained in day to day working and
  thinking at all levels in the organization
• Quality is seen in the context of Customer Value
  and Business Value (and not so much as meeting
  Standards or Compliance perspective)

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Quality SQ Professional

• Who is a successful SQ Professional?
• One who brings a state that there is no need for
  a separate Quality Function in the
  organization/project
• Quality is built into everyones everyday working
  thinking

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SQ Professionals Role

• Change Agent, Catalyst
• Coach, Mentor
• Consultant, Facilitator
• Auditing
• Process Definition

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SQ Professionals Qualities

• Should have played the game Developer, Tester,
  PM roles
• Should know the game Domain expertise in
  Software Engineering and Project Management
  Processes, Tools, People Competencies
• Soft Skills
• Communication, Interpersonal skills
• Ability to balance between attention to detail
  and holistic systems thinking
• Ability to Abstract/Generalize, See Patterns,
  Process Mapping, Process Architecting skills
• Good Facilitation skills
• Understand the larger context of
• Customer
• Business
• Technologies involved

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Future of SQ Professionals

• Go beyond the basic governance mechanisms like
  ISO, CMM
• In the knowledge-era, major improvements have to
  be human-centric. We need to understand
• Complex Adoptive Systems, Systems Thinking
• Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology
• Understand how Mind works ?

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Quality in Knowledge EraThink about it
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Imagination
Action
Joy