After the CEO and the top management team have bought into the DFTS initiative, the team must assess its preparedness to launch the initiative. Such an exercise provides an opportunity to take stock of key organizational issues before a formal launch.
DFTS sometimes is mistakenly thought of as merely a technology to develop robust software. Such a flawed conception must be corrected. Just like Six Sigma, TPS, and TQM, DFTS is essentially a leadership initiative.
Although the DFTS principles, tools, and techniques are relatively straightforward, they are not easy to implement. Realizing their full potential may be even more challenging. It requires competence as well as leadership commitment.
TPS is widely considered to be the world's most advanced production system. It has been developed over a period of nine decades, and it is still a work in progress. What is remarkable about TPS is its steady progression and its zealous custodianship by four generations of Toyota leadership.
TPS is based on five core principles: eliminating waste, Just in Time, continuous improvement, mistake-proofing, and worker involvement.
TPS is characterized by 4 P's: philosophy, planning, production, and people.
The critical elements of GE's Six Sigma initiative are CEO-driven, cultural compatibility, strategic compatibility, enabling management infrastructure, supportive reward system, and investment in human capital and first-rate teaching infrastructure.
It has taken GE a decade to learn, implement, and assimilate Six Sigma. It is still a work in progress. It has evolved and expanded across every GE business around the world. Beyond measures of improvement, Six Sigma's true and enduring success lies in the fact that it is now an integral part of GE's culture. It defines how GE works.
The leadership challenges for achieving organizational excellence and delivering transformational results are not industry-specific. Although industry experience is a valid managerial issue, leadership challenges transcend industry specificity.
The Toyota and GE case studies illustrate the tasks that a corporate leader faces in leading an organization to commanding heights and delivering enduring results. Leadership research illustrates that there is no one ideal characteristic of a great or even good leader.
The characteristics to inspire, motivate, and lead to lofty heights are needed in all leaders. Beyond that, leadership depends on the particular era, situation, and cultural context. Eiji Toyoda, Akio Morita, Jack Welch, and Andy Grove have all been great corporate leaders, but with remarkably different personal characteristics, styles, and attributes.
In a software development context, creativity and the ability to inspire on a personal level may be highly desirable traits, particularly in small organizations and small software development teams. Because software development is still a highly humancentric craft, the ability to extract the best from individuals and groups is a highly desirable leadership trait.
In a software development context, leaders may also need to be technically savvy. Sony's famous duo, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, formed a formidable team, but with remarkably different leadership attributes. Morita was outgoing, charismatic, and forceful. Ibuka was detail-oriented but also a dreamer. He was technically brilliant and could always be counted on to inspire his engineers to overreach themselves. Morita and Ibuka fulfilled two distinct leadership needs for their organization.
Rarely, if ever, do leaders possess all these characteristics. But great leaders always recognize their own shortcomings and have others within the organization lead in areas where they lack capabilities. So what are the distinguishing features of a great leader in the software area? We believe it all depends.
The key elements of assessing organizational preparedness are creating leadership commitment, understanding the leadership role, assessing strategic linkages, ensuring organization-wide participation, understanding the need for customer focus, and assessing current quality management capability.
Such analysis creates an awareness of leadership and organizational challenges during the preparatory stages. Invariably, such an analysis leads to the identification of important organizational deficiencies that need to be addressed. Asking the right questions is the key.
