PICS is a 15-step implementation framework for DFTS deployment. It identifies major activities and issues in the deployment process along its four phases: plan, implement, control, and secure.
It is important to identify both long- and short-term objectives for DFTS training programs and to ensure that they are complementary.
All training programs must be customized for a particular organization as well as differentiated along specific roles and responsibilities of the participants.
Organization-wide learning starts with training two groups of support personnel: the senior executives and the support staff in HR, sales and marketing, finance, IS, and so on.
All software professionals, from Vice President of Software Development/Chief Software Architect down to young software engineers, must undergo black belt training. It should also be required training for all quality professionals, from Chief Quality Officer downward.
The leadership must make training and learning a big deal. Everyone with any link to the DFTS process must undergo trainingand that starts with the CEO.
Successful completion of training and subsequent contribution to DFTS deployment and integration must be made the major requirements for individual rewards and growth for everyone, including the CEO and the top management team.
The quality and HR departments should come up with a certification scheme for the DFTS trainees in consultation with academia and possibly outside consultants. Trainee participants must meet a specified level of proficiency for certification purposes.
Each week-long DFTS training phase is followed by software project work and Customer Appraisal and Review (CAR) before the next phase of training and further development work. This is a process of action learning in that the team learns not only in the classroom but also during the software development process.
A defining aspect of the DFTS learning process is the practice of self-appraisal, successive appraisal, and review of work carried out to date with the customers. Here customers are not only external but internalthe next person(s) in the development process.
Simon's Levers of Control consists of four constructs: belief systems, boundary systems, diagnostic control systems, and interactive control systems. They deal with strategic control of the enterprise.
Another set of control mechanisms, internal control systems, are not used to control strategy but are fundamental in ensuring the integrity of data used in strategic control systems. It is therefore essential that those responsible for the organization's internal control systems also be involved in safeguarding the integrity of DFTS process and quality data, especially CoSQ and other financial data.
Operational controls of the process are accomplished through feedback control systems, an integral part of the PICS framework, and through project management, which has its own control devices.
The DFTS feedback control system must be designed to measure variables that are important, measurable, and actionable. They meet five different sets of objectives: learning and teaching capabilities, CoSQ capabilities, customer satisfaction, process robustness, and improvement opportunities.
Feedback control systems essentially provide visibility on cost, quality, and other measures of performance. They often become sociopolitical in nature because the people involved may feel insecure or perceive a loss of power as a result of such visibility on their performance. Therefore, these systems must have the support of the CEO and the top management team to be viable.
Although feedback control systems have been in use for all kinds of control purposes, they are not always perceived and designed well.
A well-structured review system should be more than just a control mechanism. It should enrich and energize the initiative across the organization by providing required measures to improve the product and the development process. GE's Operating System is an excellent example of an innovative review and learning system.
Project management competence is an important skill set for a successful DFTS implementation. We recommend that MBBs earn Project Management Professional Certification, offered by the Project Management Institute.
Transformative changes are difficult to introduce and sustain without positive driving forces such as the organization's reward system and leadership support. At GE, 40% of bonuses and promotions are dependent on Six Sigma project results. Furthermore, MBBs and BBs are accorded high standing.
A solid assimilation of an initiative involves integration at three levels: management principles, implementation practices, and cultural changes.
DFTS tools, techniques, and methodologies are applicable to both large and small organizations. In fact, quality initiatives thrive in small groups. It is not so much a question of DFTS's applicability in small software organizations. It is more a question of whether small enterprises have awareness of and timely access to knowledge and learning that larger organizations may have. That is true for both DFTS and any idea or innovation.
Large organizations, when outsourcing to other software firms, need to ensure that their development partners meet and understand their quality needs. They owe it to themselves to provide the necessary support and training. Many manufacturing firms in Japan and elsewhere provide such support to their suppliers. This needs to be better managed in software outsourcing.
