Tag Archives: QA

Barriers to Quality

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People say they want quality; however, their actions may not support this view for the following
reasons:

  1. Many think that defect-free products and services are not practical or economical, and thus believe some level of defects is normal and acceptable. (This is called acceptable quality level, or AQL.)

  1. Quality is frequently associated with cost, meaning that high quality is synonymous with high cost. (This is confusion between quality of design and quality of conformance.) Organizations may be reluctant to spend on quality assurance, as they do not see an immediate payback.

  1. Quality by definition calls for requirements/specifications in enough detail so that the products produced can be quantitatively measured against those specifications. Few organizations are willing to expend the effort to produce requirements/specifications at the level of detail required for quantitative measurement.

  1. Many technical personnel believe that standards inhibit their creativity, and thus do not strive for compliance to standards. However, for quality to happen there must be well defined standards and procedures that are followed.

The contributors to poor quality in many organizations can be categorized as either lack of involvement by management (Phillip Crosby), or lack of knowledge about quality. Following are some of the specific contributors for these two categories:

Lack of involvement by management based on studies from Phillip Crosby
  • Management's unwillingness to accept full responsibility for all defects
  • Failure to determine the cost associated with defects (i.e., poor quality)
  • Failure to initiate a program to "manage defects"
  • Lack of emphasis on processes and measurement
  • Failure to enforce standards
  • Failure to reward people for following processes

Lack of knowledge about quality

  • Lack of a quality vocabulary, which makes it difficult to communicate quality problems and objectives
  • Lack of knowledge of the principles of quality (i.e., what is necessary to make it
  • happen)
  • No categorization scheme for defects (i.e., naming of defects by type)
  • No information on the occurrence of defects by type, by frequency, and by
  • location
  • Unknown defect expectation rates for new products
  • Defect-prone processes unknown or unidentified
  • Defect-prone products unknown or unidentified
  • An economical means for identifying defects unknown
  • Proven quality solutions are unknown and unused

If achieving quality (i.e., defect-free products and services) were easy, it would have been
accomplished years ago. Quality is very difficult to accomplish – it requires the close cooperation of management and staff. Achieving quality requires a commitment and the establishment of an environment in which quality can flourish.

The Different Views of Quality

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Industry accepted definitions of quality are “conformance to requirements” (from Philip Crosby) and “fit for use” (from Dr. Joseph Juran and Dr. W. Edwards Deming). These two definitions are not inconsistent.

Meeting requirements is a producer’s view of quality. This is the view of the organization responsible for the project and processes, and the products and services acquired, developed, and maintained by those processes. Meeting requirements means that the person building the product does so in accordance with the requirements. Requirements can be very complete or they can be simple, but they must be defined in a measurable format, so it can be determined whether they have been met. The producer’s view of quality has these four characteristics:
  • Doing the right thing
  • Doing it the right way
  • Doing it right the first time
  • Doing it on time without exceeding cost

Being fit for use is the customer’s definition. The customer is the end user of the products or services. Fit for use means that the product or service meets the customer’s needs regardless of the product requirements. Of the two definitions of quality, fit for use, is the more important. The customer’s view of quality has these characteristics:
  • Receiving the right product for their use
  • Being satisfied that their needs have been met
  • Meeting their expectations
  • Being treated with integrity, courtesy and respect

In addition to the producer and customer views of quality, the organizational infrastructure also includes a provider and a supplier view.

These views are as follows:
  • Provider view – This is the perspective of the organization that delivers the products and services to the customer.
  • Supplier view – This is the perspective of the organization (that may be external to the producer’s company, such as an independent vendor) that provides either the producer and/or the provider with products and services needed to meet the requirements of the customer.

The Two Quality Gaps
Most Information Technology (IT) groups have two quality gaps: the producer gap and the customer gap as shown in the figure below. The producer gap is the difference between what is specified (the documented requirements and internal standards) versus what is delivered (what is actually built). The customer gap is the difference between what the producers actually delivered versus what the customer wanted.


Closing these two gaps is the responsibility of the quality function. The quality function must first improve the processes to the point where the producer can develop the products according to requirements received and its own internal standards. Closing the producer's gap enables the IT function to provide its customers consistency in what it can produce. This has been referred to as the "McDonald's effect" - at any McDonald's in the world, a Big Mac should taste the same. It doesn't mean that every customer likes the Big Mac or that it meets everyone's needs, but rather, that McDonald's has now produced consistency in its delivered product.


Closing the second gap requires the quality function to understand the true needs of the customer. This can be done by customer surveys, Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions, and more user involvement through the process of building information products. The processes can then be changed to close the customer gap, keeping consistency while producing products and services needed by the customer.


Quality Control and Quality Assurance

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Very few individuals can differentiate between quality control and quality assurance. Most quality assurance groups, in fact, practice quality control. This section differentiates between the two, and describes how to recognize a control practice from an assurance practice.

Quality means meeting requirements and meeting customer needs, which means a defect-free product from both the producer’s and the customer’s viewpoint. Both quality control and quality assurance are used to make quality happen. Of the two, quality assurance is the more important.

Quality is an attribute of a product. A product is something produced, such as a requirement document, test data, source code, load module or terminal screen. Another type of product is a service that is performed, such as meetings with customers, help desk activities and training sessions. Services are a form of products, and therefore, also contain attributes. For example, an agenda might be a quality attribute of a meeting.

A process is the set of activities that is performed to produce a product. Quality is achieved through processes. Processes have the advantage of being able to replicate a product time and time again. Even in data processing, the process is able to replicate similar products with the same quality characteristics.

Quality Assurance (QA) is associated with a process. Once processes are consistent, they can "assure" that the same level of quality will be incorporated into each product produced by that process.

Quality Control
Quality Control (QC) is defined as the processes and methods used to compare product quality to requirements and applicable standards, and the action taken when a nonconformance is detected.  QC uses reviews and testing to focus on the detection and correction of defects before shipment of products.

Quality Control should be the responsibility of the organizational unit producing the product and should be integrated into the work activities. Ideally the same group that builds the product performs the control function; however, some organizations establish a separate group or department to check the product.

Impediments to QC include the following:
  • Quality Control is often viewed as a police action
  • IT is often considered an art
  • Unclear or ineffective standards and processes
  • Lack of process training
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance (QA) is the set of activities (including facilitation, training, measurement and analysis) needed to provide adequate confidence that processes are established and continuously improved in order to produce products or services that conform to requirements and are fit for use.

QA is a staff function that prevents problems by heading them off, and by advising restraint and redirection at the proper time. It is also a catalytic function that should promote quality concepts, and encourage quality attitudes and discipline on the part of management and workers. Successful QA managers know how to make people quality conscious and to make them recognize the personal and organizational benefits of quality.

The major impediments to QA come from management, which is typically results oriented, and sees little need for a function that emphasizes managing and controlling processes. Thus, many of the impediments to QA are associated with processes, and include the following:

  • Management does not insist on compliance to processes
  • Workers are not convinced of the value of processes
  • Processes become obsolete
  • Processes are difficult to use
  • Workers lack training in processes
  • Processes are not measurable
  • Measurement can threaten employees
  • Processes do not focus on critical aspects of products

Differentiating Between Quality Control and Quality Assurance
QC is an activity that verifies whether or not the product produced meets standards. QA is an activity that establishes and evaluates the processes that produce the products. If there is no process, there is no role for QA. Assurance would determine the need for, and acquire or help install system development methodologies, estimation processes, system maintenance processes, and so forth. Once installed, QA would measure them to find weaknesses in the process and then correct those weaknesses to continually improve the processes.

It is possible to have quality control without quality assurance. For example, there might be a standard that “ALTER GO TO” statements in COBOL should not be used. Regardless of whether a program is produced using a system development process or done by an individual without a process, it could still be checked to determine whether or not “ALTER GO TOs” are in the program.
The following statements help differentiate QC from QA:
  • QC relates to a specific product or service.
  • QC verifies whether particular attributes exist, or do not exist, in a specific product or service.
  • QC identifies defects for the primary purpose of correcting defects.
  • QC is the responsibility of the worker.
  • QA helps establish processes.
  • QA sets up measurement programs to evaluate processes.
  • QA identifies weaknesses in processes and improves them.
  • QA is a management responsibility, frequently performed by a staff function.
  • QA evaluates whether or not quality control is working for the primary purpose of determining whether or not there is a weakness in the process.
  • QA is concerned with all of the products that will ever be produced by a process.
  • QA is sometimes called quality control over quality control because it evaluates whether quality control is working.
  • QA personnel should not ever perform quality control unless doing it to validate quality control is working.