Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The CMMI process improvement project lead who I worked with at BOND
was also given the responsibility to initiate a quality program in the com-
pany. At BOND, one of the objectives the owners of the company gave the
CMMI team was to maintain the successful Agile culture in the organization.
One of the benefits to this culture was the
team approach
that everyone
brought to all challenges faced. To maintain this culture at BOND, rather
than create the “police force” quality group, we created a quality role with
clearly defined responsibilities. We instituted a program where developers
in the organization would
cycle through
the quality organization, each taking
turns taking on a quality role. The organization already had a culture where
individuals enjoyed and were encouraged to wear multiple hats by taking on
multiple roles
and helping each other, so we just extended that culture as we
built the quality organization.
There were very clear responsibilities associated with the quality role on a
project at BOND. A quality plan had to be written. This was actually a section
of the Project Management Plan. The plan clarified which products and
processes would be checked. A checklist was created, and used by the quality
engineer to ensure the project was following its processes and building its
products in accordance with their own plan, and agreed-to templates.
An unanticipated benefit that resulted was a strong
mentoring culture
that
became one of the main themes of the quality organization. Rather than
being viewed as the “police force,” they became viewed as mentors who
shared their experiences, and provided assistance to less experienced per-
sonnel.
Quality audits became opportunities for people to share knowledge across
projects. An individual taking on the “quality role” on one project was often
actually a developer on another project. This implementation of PPQA
enhanced a mentoring and sharing culture within the organization.
One disadvantage to this PPQA model observed at BOND was the difficulty
those in the quality role had when it came to
raising a deficiency
to senior man-
agement. The purpose of PPQA is
objective insight
, which means when
deficiencies are not being corrected in a timely manner, they need to be
raised to Senior Management and actions need to be taken. Because those in
the quality role viewed themselves as “helpers” and “mentors,” rather than
as the “police,” they found it difficult to raise issues of compliance in a timely
way. As you decide how to create your PPQA culture, both sides of this issue
should be seriously considered.
