dilton_dalton

 Profile Answers by dilton_dalton 

• Dec 7th, 2007

 

This is a difficult question to answer unless you have an operational definition of quality.  In most organizations, quality is the absense of waste.  Given this definition, any process that causes waste is an opportunity to improve.  Waste is unproductive work.  In order to identify waste, things have to be measured.  For example, one might examine the process of code inspection.  Inspections take time and are supposed to find defects.  If they find fewer defects than an equal amount of effort doing something else, then the difference is waste.  Either inspections have to be reduced or eliminated or they have to be made more efficient at finding defects.  If the latter (and the recommended) path is taken, the first thing to examine is "are they being done?"  If they are being done for all code, the next thing to examine is "are people following the process?"  If the answer to both questions is yes, then the process itself has to be examined to determine why it is not providing a net positive contribution.  This has to be done for every process that has a significant impact on the cost of developing and maintaining software.