Quality Process Template

7/10/99 - Jack Harich - Go Back

Predictably achieving high Quality rapidly at low cost is tough. Just figuring out how to best approach it is a mindbender. To help make starting a Quality Process easier this document provides the key high level abstractions, which you implement to suit your needs.

A "Quality Process" encompasses everything done to move ideas from what the customer needs to what the customer gets. It entails optimizing the delicate balance in the Iron Triangle of cost, time and functionality. We use the term Quality Process rather than just Process to emphasize high customer satisfaction as a single unifying goal.

The following abstractions define the essence of a Quality Process, which is really just a pattern created by these abstractions. Understanding the Quality Process Pattern and filling in the blanks will lead to quick assimilation of what quality and process are all about. This deeper knowledge can be used to create or refine an approach at your organization or personal work space, or just to penetrate the concepts a wee bit deeper.

The blanks can be filled in or links can be used.

Abstractions Template

Our definition of Quality is _____ .

We use a Defined Process to rapidly achieve high Quality at low cost. This is available at _____ .

Validation is "Building the right product". Our process ensures this by _____.

Verification is "Building the product right". Our process ensures this by _____ .

Efficiency is "The ratio of output to input". Our process achieves high efficiency without sacrificing high quality by _____ .

Feedback Loops allow a system to affect itself. Metrics collection is a particularly well focused way to do this. The Metrics used in our process can be summarized as _____ .

Process Improvement is "Continually improving how Quality is achieved". We do this by _____ .

A Quality Group is responsible for assuring the quality of all products offered to the customer, such as personal contact, literature, software, hardware and support.. Our Quality Group is defined at _____ .

Quality Assurance occurs best when the Quality Group is separate from what it is responsibile for observing and has no conflict of interest. We achieve this by _____ .

Shortchanged Quality occurs when the Quality Group has insufficient energy, skill, direction, management support, etc. We have resolved this risk by _____ .

Reference Material

One definition of quality is "We will deliver services to meet our customer's requirements on time, every time, at a profit to ourselves".