Quality - A Priority In Service Engagements
- 1. January 31, 2006 (Bangalore) Quality Priority in Service Engagements Dr. Partha Pratim Das Interra Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.
- 2. Agenda Recap Organizational Objectives Typical Work Cycle Quality What is Quality? Why is Quality Significant? Quality Perspectives Interra Quality Plan Q & A
- 3. Organizational Objectives Increase Efficiency Increase Effectiveness
- 4. Organizational Objectives Increase Efficiency Do things RIGHT Lines of ‘quality’ code produced per man-hour Instances of ‘quality’ support provided per man-week Increase Effectiveness Do RIGHT things Lines of ‘quality’ code produced per dollar Cost for every instance of support
- 5. Typical Work Cycle A typical cycle can be Need Requirements Design Code / Perform QA QC
- 6. What is Quality? A degree or grade of excellence or worth Dictionary Meaning Meeting and exceeding expectations Quality is NOT Grade. Because Low Grade / High Quality Few features No obvious bugs Good Documentation Low Quality / High Grade Many bugs Poor Documentation Many features
- 7. What is Quality? “The totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs” PMBOK, 2000. “ Somewhere down the line, we need to stop and think what the customer actually wants - and what more we can do which would make a difference to their perception. . ” – Kousik Mukherjee, Dir. Of Engg,, Interractions Vol 4(3).
- 8. Why is Quality Significant? To meet specs To meet targets To pass acceptance tests … … … To be “efficient” and “effective”
- 9. Why is Quality Significant? Quality is the most important factor that determines the value of the product or the engineering solution helps engage with a customer at an emotional level recommendations repeat business drives business growth Quality is what distinguishes a good company from a great one.
- 10. Why is Quality Significant? "Improvements in quality always and automatically result in reductions in schedules and costs, increases in productivity, increases in market share, and consequently increases in profits." Out Of The Crisis, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Cambridge: MIT Center for Advanced Engineering, 1986.
- 11. Quality Perspectives Notions in Quality Management Quality Planning Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them Quality Assurance Evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards Quality Control Monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance
- 12. Quality Perspectives Quality Intervention at Various Stages Prevention at Origin Requirements / Design Containment by Appraisal / Review Spec Review, Design Review, Code Review Wake up after Internal Failures Unit Testing, Developer Testing, Regressions Fire Fight on External Failures Testing by Customer, At the field – after deployment
- 13. Quality Perspectives The Cost Of Fixing Defects An unpublished IBM rule of thumb for the relative costs: during design, 0.5; prior to coding, 1; during coding, 1.5; prior to test, 10; during test, 60; in field use, 100.
- 14. Quality Perspectives The Cost Of Fixing Defects Remove as many defects as early in development as possible. Remove as many defects as is reasonably possible before the delivery. “ Bugs squashed early rarely threaten a project's deadline and budget.” – Scientific American, September 1994.
- 15. Quality Perspectives Product / Solution / Software Quality Usability. Is the product easy to learn and use? Does it require training and technical support before any productivity increases occur? Example, ZenTime learning loops Efficiency. Does it utilize the resources (memory, execution time, license etc) conservatively? Example, Performance increase in NDM, CDA & TDL Utility Reliability. Does the software perform the job it's supposed to without crashing or causing errors, even in stressful environmental conditions? Example, TDLChecker (limitation on the number of TDL files), TDLGen (limitation on hierarchical path) Integrity. Does the product prevent unauthorized or improper access to its programs and its data? Adaptability. Can the software be used, without modification, in applications or environments other than those for which it was specifically designed? Example, EDAObjects™ on several platforms.
- 16. Quality Perspectives Process Quality Maintainability. Can the software be easily modified to change or add capabilities, improve performance, or correct defects? Example, Plug-and-Play Architecture of Unified Prime and CC-DFTM Flexibility. Can the product be modified for users or environments other than those for which it was specifically designed? Example, Handoff QC – SoC Integration, Library Verification, Test Handoff. Portability. Does the software easily operate in an environment different from that for which it was specifically designed? Example, … Reusability. To what extent can the components of the software be used to build new products? Example, DTIF – Design Test Input Format. Called by Perl Callback. MVV. Understandability. Is the source code, especially at the detailed-statement level, easy to read? Is the software easy to understand at both the system- organizational and detailed-statement levels? Example, For every release one should have – SoW, SRS, WBS, SDD, STP, Release Notes and Metricate Sheet.
- 17. Quality Perspectives Quality is about perception In most scenarios, “degree of excellence” is not measurable objectively Particularly true in services or solutions based businesses like ours Sundar’s perception on DFT-TK Claudin’s perception on RTL-TK Daniel’s perception on DV-TK Vaidee’s perception on AutoRTL Saby’s perception on PD Amit’s perception on Package Analysis Quality could be redefined to be the “customer’s perception of the degree of excellence” Quality is the Entire Company's Business Quality Must Be Built into a Product / Solution
- 18. Quality Perspectives How to develop quality perception? Not just by the quality of the end product or solution that you deliver Quality becomes important at every stage of the project Quality of Communication Intermediate deliverables Processes that are followed Conducts in the meetings Patience, perseverance and planning Damage done when quality is missing at any level
- 19. Items in Interra Quality Initiative Programming Guidelines Naming Conventions, preferred practices Safe Idioms / Unsafe Idioms Debugging Methodology Built-in Tracer / Profiler Assertions Maintain a Problems Database Code Review Process Self / Peer Review (“Code Complete”) Review by Manager / PL Test plan & Testing Methodology * Unit / Directed Tests Random Tests Performance Tests Quality Audit Plan Issues Tracking Process GNATS / WEBS / Client-specific Version Control Process CVS / ClearCase / Client-specific Performance Metrics * Release Process * PNB – Project Note Book Documentation Plan User Guide Code Documentation README, Checklist Confidentiality Guidelines Sensitivity to Interra’s IP / Client’s IP Build Guidelines * Portability Guidelines * Environment Standards * …
- 20. Q & A How could I have prevented this bug? How could I have automatically detected this bug?
- 21. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- #14: Changed “during design, 1.5;” to “during design, 0.5;”