Section 1.1. A Path of Quality


1.1. A Path of Quality

Of course the fault does not lie solely within corporate IT. Those numbers just cited are symptoms of multiple conditions: constrained resources, disconnected business objectives, changing market forces, new statutory and regulatory climates, finicky boards, and so on. But while that might help explain the result, it doesn't change the result. If that's the sea IT must sail on, it's better to adapt practices to make the sailing as smooth as possible.

The point I'd like to put forward here is that the poor technology performance that produces unusable software, severely compromised systems, or delayed business objectives has a real corporate cost no matter how often it is resettled into new projects or new initiatives. The failures may go away, but their impacts don't.

Today, technology has become too much a part of overall corporate success for its effectiveness to be left to chance. The stakes are too high. Fortunately, more and more companies are beginning to embrace this idea. The idea of "quality management" is being reinvigorated. Recognized and proven quality programs, such as ISO 9001:2000, the Capability Maturity Model, and Six Sigma, are rising in popularity. More and more technology managers are looking for ways to help remove degrees of risk and uncertainty from their business equations, and to introduce methods of predictability that better ensure success. But before I move into that topic, let's look at why it's even relevant. Let's look briefly at how the worlds of business and technology can no longer be considered separate, or complementary. They are not even two sides of the same coin. They are the same side of a one-sided coin.




Process Improvement Essentials
Process Improvement Essentials: CMMI, Six SIGMA, and ISO 9001
ISBN: 0596102178
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 116

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