Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Quality Rant

Men more brilliant than ourselves have tried for decades to get the idea of quality across to businesspeople and tradespeople (including software craftsmen) and have had only very limited
success.

TDD is just another grandchild of Quality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Deming.27s_14_points

Deming's points didn't stop applying just because we're in software. The excuse,"Our problems are different" was specifically listed as an obstacle to real improvement.

But still we feel have to justify the desire to increase quality of our products. Does this seem silly? I spend far too much time trying to get people to build quality in via TDD and JIT inspection (AKA pairing) and collaboration, but still they feel that this is slowing them down.

"We all *know* the sun circles the earth, because it rises in the east and sets in the west. Stupid heliocentric theory is a fun pastime for intellectuals, but doesn't work in the real world."

My vent for the day, from very real frustrations.

For the lazy, busy, or browser-impaired:

* Create constancy of purpose toward improvement
* Adopt the new philosophy
* Cease dependence on inspection
* Move toward a single supplier for any one item
* Improve constantly and forever
* Institute training on the job
* Institute leadership
* Drive out fear
* Break down barriers between departments
* Eliminate slogans
* Eliminate management by objective
* Remove barriers to pride of workmanship
* Institute education and self-improvement
* The transformation is everyone's job.

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