Establishing Leadership in Quality Management

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Establishing Leadership inQuality Management

• John Griffin
• Presented to COQAA
• May 16th, 2005

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Setting Context
• Defining the Vision
• Action Plans
• Next Steps
• Questions

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Establishing Leadership inQuality Management
Introduction
One of the most frustrating realities of our
industry today, as Steve McConnell puts it, is
the gap between the state of the art and the
state of practice. The state of the art being
what we know as certified, credentialed, and
experienced practitioners of our trade to be the
proper concepts, techniques and skills to apply
to a problem. The state of practice being what we
are forced to accept (and live with the
repercussions). Using the premise that armed
with the same objective information, rationale
people will make similar, or at least consistent
decisions, this presentation will discuss how we,
as practitioners familiar with the state of the
art, can create a culture of accountability and
an infrastructure dedicated to improving
quality. Specific techniques to be presented (at
a conceptual level with some examples) include
How to challenge without complaining How to
institutionalize accountability How to take
current state toward future state (not to future
state - yet) How to leverage results for
continued support.
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John Griffin
Introduction
John is currently a Delivery Director for
Perficient, Inc., an IT solutions consulting firm
(www.perficient.com). John has worked within the
IT industry for over 17 years with specific
expertise in leading custom software development
initiatives as Project Manager, Requirements
Engineer, and Quality Assurance Leader. In his
career, he has established new solution delivery
practices for employers and customers that
address issues ranging from methodology selection
(including adaptation, implementation and
realization), project management controls,
requirements engineering techniques, and
quality-driven development. In these initiatives,
John has assisted software development
organizations in improving the quality of their
products, corporate IT organizations in
increasing the effectiveness of their resources,
and consulting firms in increasing their level of
client satisfaction. John has a BS in Computer
Science from the College of Engineering at the
University of Illinois.
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Domain Disclaimers
Context

• Examples cited are from custom software
  engineering domain
• Custom corporate applications and Custom
  commercial applications
• Problems centered on ensuring payment for custom
  software
• We had to prove that what we delivered satisfied
  customer request
• Quality Assurance rigor was driven by legal
  necessities
• Contract disputes, Bankruptcy claims, Collections
  procedures, etc.
• Principles presented appear to be applicable in
  other domains
• However, everything is discussed from a project
  perspective
• We found that leaders armed with facts can change
  culture
• Further, that a culture of accountability created
  more leaders

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Symptoms
Context

• Lack of executive commitment to QA
• Sponsor decisions contradict the QA strategy
• Budget and schedule cuts consistently target QA
  efforts
• Informal (at best) gathering of quality data
• Team members view QA as an obstacle
• Quality voice often silenced by Project
  Management voice
• Quality feels like a 1-person show
• Increasing support costs or decreasing customer
  satisfaction

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Reference (Horror) Stories
Context

• Developers as testers experience
• Before after Extreme Programming popularity
• What are we testing? experience
• No requirements documents but code is ready for
  test
• Testing tools over testing skills experience
• With XYZ tool, we can use anyone to test our
  software
• Two weeks to test experience
• Two weeks to design, create, execute all testing
  (and resolve defects)

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Problem Statement
Context

• How can I change my organization to
• Leverage state of the art Quality Management
  principles?
• Value fact-based decision-making, especially with
  respect to quality?
• Create a culture of accountability for quality?
• Accept the fact that cost of quality is less when
  invested earlier?
• Apply quality management at every step and level?

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Imagine
Vision

• Executives who
• Expect defect statistics to report phases of
  origin and resolution
• Conclude that investing in QA tools process can
  save money
• Request direct reporting from a teams QA leader,
  not through a PM
• Cancel or reject projects that cannot justify
  their budget with promised benefits
• Project Team Members who
• Reject work packets as being incomplete,
  inconsistent or ambiguous
• Define test scenarios in parallel to in
  partnership with system design efforts
• Use defect trends to improve their own
  development processes
• Organizations who
• Produce solutions more frequently with reduced
  support costs
• Increase customer satisfaction with every release
• Are capable of successfully reacting to dynamic
  market events regularly
• Celebrate appropriate project cancellations as
  project completions

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Inspiration
Vision
Ideas and concepts published by the following
thought leaders inspired many of the techniques
described in this presentation
Software Project Management Walker Royce
Good to Great Jim Collins
The Reengineering Revolution Michael Hammer
Steven Stanton
Jack Straight from the Gut Jack Welch
Six Sigma Mikel Harry, Ph.D. Richard Schroeder
Professional Software Development Steve McConnell
Software Project Survival Guide Steve McConnell
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Key Concepts
Vision

• People are the key
• Successful processes require skilled, empowered
  practitioners
• Resistors, complainers and those who lack
  motivation can derail efforts
• Culture changes begin at the grass roots level
  with daily actions reactions
• Objective expectation management
• Teams that understand what is expected of them
  are more accountable
• True constraints are explicit and traceable to
  their original owners / requestors
• Hope is not a Strategy (borrowed from the book
  by Rick Page)
• Build on current capability
• Too many improvement efforts try to change too
  much at once
• Many failed improvement efforts fail to account
  for current state realities
• Successful improvement efforts take measured
  steps to the defined goal state
• Sequence improvements based on ranking of ideas
  (e.g., impact vs. difficulty)

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Empowering People
Action Plan

• Project team staffing
• Break the typical human resources patterns
  loyalty, tenure, etc.
• Derive critical skills from proven performers
• Typical skills include intellect,
  attitude/passion, adaptability
• Project team structure
• Empower the QA Leadership role (for example)

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Institutionalizing Accountability
Action Plan

• Control Points
• Designed to plan, monitor and report project work
  objectively
• What does done mean, especially in iterative
  environments?

Start
Finish
Work Elements
Control Point Activities
Control Point Activities
Control Point Activities
Expected Outputs

• Control point examples include
• Ready for Review
• Reviewed by SME
• Updates Completed
• Tester Accepted
• Unit Tests Completed

Examples include use cases, test cases,
deliverable documents
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Institutionalizing Accountability (continued)
Action Plan
Work Elements (from Elaboration)

• DVA
• Developer Accepted
• Development team leader signature indicates
  packet is ready to be coded

• UTC
• Unit Test Completed
• Developer signature indicates packet passed all
  unit tests

Work Elements (to Production)

• Testing
• Integration Tests Completed
• User Acceptance Tests Completed
• Stakeholder signatures indicate compliance with
  expectations and approval to proceed with
  production deployment

• FCC
• Functional Consistency Check
• Allows Stakeholders one last pass to incorporate
  good ideas, design improvements, etc.
  consistently across all functions.
• SME signature releases packet for coding

• TCV
• Test Case Verified
• Test case developer signature indicates test
  scripts are valid

• QAA
• QA Accepted
• QA team leader signature indicates packet is
  ready to have a test script defined

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Institutionalizing Accountability (continued)
Action Plan
1 signature sheet per work element
Signature areas for each control point
Each control point has an explicit agreement
Final version with all signatures are scanned
attached to each packet
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Introducing Objectivity
Action Plan

• Methodologies are a foundation not a silver
  bullet
• Practitioners must adapt methods to the
  organizations capabilities
• Use your best brightest to lead methodology
  SMEs, not vice versa
• Translate methodology language into your
  organizations language
• Enforce explicit agreements that methodologies
  rely upon
• Traceability
• Trace requirements, features, constraints to
  their requestors
• Maintain traceability out to test cases, code,
  etc.
• Enforce rules for completeness, clarity,
  consistency, accuracy, etc.
• Requestors must know they are expected to defend
  their requests

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Introducing Objectivity (continued)
Action Plan

• Measure what is important to your organization,
  for example

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Introducing Objectivity (continued)
Action Plan

• Within the accepted methodology, define
  measurement points
• By what criteria are proposed projects evaluated?
• What is the ratio of rejected to proposed
  projects?
• How is progress measured, reported evaluated?
• How is the quality of project outputs evaluated?
• How are quality metrics related to customer
  requests expectations?
• In sponsorship reviews, planning meetings, etc.
  demand clarity
• Insist that discussion context be established
  expose assumptions
• Insist that commitments be made to action items,
  decisions, etc.
• Lead by example practice these techniques
  personally
• Avoid complaining explain why context
  commitments are needed

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Getting Started
Action Plan

• Pilot projects
• Regardless of the action items you choose to
  attempt, pilot them first
• Introducing change too early on too many efforts
  often fails
• Use lessons learned and key resources to expand
  pilots into reality
• Cross-pollination of key resources
• Pilot projects often produce champions, who can
  inspire others
• Strategically positioning these converts can
  accelerate improvements
• Avoid swat team approach after initial pilots
  divide conquer

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Getting Started (continued)
Action Plan

• Sample graph of ideas by value versus difficulty

High Value
Move the wrong people out of the way
Introduce Control Point concept
Introduce traceability tools processes
Get the right people in position
Alter project organization structure
Enforce objectivity in Executive Reviews
Improve project team staffing standards
Implement / Improve development methodology
Introduce new metrics to projects
Assess current capabilities
Low Value
Easy to Implement
Difficult to Implement
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Extending the Concept
Next Steps

• Strong QA often leads to improvements in
  development ability
• QA rigor empowers Requirement Engineers to up
  their game
• Improved requirements discipline produces
  improved systems
• Control points help to enforce quality standards
• Formalize personnel development
• Introduce mentoring programs
• Promote leaders regardless of tenure, loyalty,
  politics, etc.
• Train associates who do not meet defined
  performance goals
• Terminate associates who cannot meet those
  performance goals
• Publish performance expectations be honest
  open universally

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Extending the Concept (continued)
Next Steps

• Manage executives by example
• Change tone and language of executive sponsor
  reviews
• Rely on objective facts, not subjective hunches,
  feelings, etc.
• Dont get painted as a complainer, be firm
  focused
• Measure, measure, measure
• Use defendable data and context to support plans
• Evolve metrics keep 5-7 key metrics
• Typically performance persists after measurements
  stop

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Questions Answers
Questions
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Vision
Vision
For Delivery Experts (e.g., IT) who value their
time enough to not contribute to imminent
failures, and Executive Managers who value their
resources (human, physical and financial) enough
to insist on executing a project successfully the
first time, Leadership in Quality Management
results in increased productivity, reduced
support costs, and increased customer
satisfaction unlike weak or non-existent
commitments to quality management disciplines,
this process improvement encourages
accountability at all levels, demands
objectivity, and establishes continuous
improvement behaviors and attitudes throughout
the organization.
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Notes SlideContext / Problem Statement
Context
My experience Software engineering
domain Typically for custom, or first-time
applications Problem was always, How can we
ensure final payment from our customer? Answer
was simple Prove that we delivered what they
asked for. Implications were complicated 1. Did
we define what they asked for? If so, how, where,
when, with whos approval? 2. Did we deliver what
they asked for? If so, who accepted it? 3. How
can we prove it? Who established the objective
criteria for evaluation and who validated that it
was met? The answer always relies on individuals
acting in the proper way at the appropriate time.
Typically, delivery experts, customers, managers,
etc. are not using the same information to
evaluate, and so they make inconsistent
decisions. Leaders drive groups to ensure
consistent context, data and actions.
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Notes SlideAction Plans
Action Plan
Control Point concept applied to all project
team members Quality-driven development
methodologies Agile/XP for example Project
structure changes gang of 4 (PM, TA, FA, QA)
peers Traceability from requirements to test
cases functional coverage metrics Challenge
subjective assertions and demand objective facts
instead ltConsider showing these actions /
opportunities in implementation complexity versus
value graph/matrixgt
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Notes SlideExtending the Concept
Next Steps
Strong QA teams almost always lead to strong
Requirements teams QA rigor empowers
Requirement Engineers to up their game and
control points help to enforce Formalize
mentoring and skill-development training
programs Promote leaders, regardless of tenure,
loyalty, politics, or other subjective or
less-valuable attributes Terminate the bottom 10
in every population, using objective measures of
leadership, accountability (e.g., instances of
demonstrated ownership of successes
failures) Change the tone and language of the
executive sponsor review sessions to rely on
objective facts, not subjective feelings,
hunches, gut checks, etc. Measure, measure,
measure use data and context to improve
decision-making consistency