Total Quality Management In The Software Industry

Total Quality Management In The Software persistenceAs total property management has a great demand in todays software environment it is al authoritys better to understand non single this concept, but any(prenominal) concept with the help of a case study. In this case we have chosen American multinational technology and consulting firm which has its contribute office at Armonk, New York (IBM). In this case study we will try to strike an understanding of what is total whole step management (TQM) and what are the native steps to be followed to have a successful TQM implementation. We even discuss briefly about the management seven (M7) and quality seven (Q7) assholes which are commonly riding habitd in TQM litigate. We in addition provide recommendation for the people to ensure success during (TQM) implementation.IBM is a glob solelyy renowned organization which is operating over one hundred seventy destinations across the world. Today there are about 40000 employees putti ng their heart and soul to bring in innovative solutions to a diverse client outdoor stage to encounter some of the toughest challenges in their business. IBM is not just the worlds largest IT firm it also cognize to bring innovation and solution for various worldly problems. It is well known for its research and development. It exposeners with various governments to build a smarter planet. IBM can be called as the leading information technology and serve in the planet today.It main services acknowledgeIT servicesBusiness consultingApplication servicesOutsourcing servicesServices for small and medium business(SMEs)Software serviceAsset recoveryIts main products includeSoftwareStorageSystems ServicesInternet securitySemiconductors(US)Point of scale(US)Printing strategys from info pointIBM certified pre owned equipmentIts main aid includesDownloadTroubleshoot financial supportInstallOpen a technical service requestSupport by productCustomer supportCustomersThere a range of gu ests from a verity of business sectors and a range of countries, few of them are listed belowWinn-Dixie Stores (US)Tran zaps (US) on the wholeied Irish bankPost bank Ag(Germany)Japan airlinesPs bank(Philippines)industrial bank of koreaIBM QualifiersEnd to End IT Enterprise Services Ranging from single onsite resource deployment on a time and materials basis to fully managed services of entire system areas.Sector Expertise Core IT sector skills, expertise and experience of working across software, Banking, Utilities, Government, Healthcare and Manufacturing, Hardware and Software..Cost Effective Global Delivery toughie IBM provides clients with cost-effective solutions through worldwide for successful execution of ramble.Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Provides services to the clients and operates progressively.Shows eight Web pages, different treates but same momentSourcewww.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/edge/08/jul08/peraire/index.htmlWinnersIndustry Standard bes t practices Quality initiative at ISL is driven by ISO 90012002, SEI CMM direct 5, SEI CMMi Level 5, SEI PCMM Level 5 backed by IBM cognitive processes and methodologies.Technology Collaborations In global market IMB associations created own repos and given access to all the customers.Operational ProcessesIBM solutions main Operational processThe main operational process that confers to the services delivery of the company can be discept in greater detail as belowTechnology officeGenerally the development of any IT applications and services delivery project usually requires the following main iterationsProject PlanningThe Project planning is key for any project success. This leg prioritizes the identification of potential aspects such as scheduling and developing.Requirements Specification The memorandum that specifies the functional, operational, design and reference points wants of the project is called requirement specific document, this document is generally put together b y the inputs interpreted from the high level authority of the project.Design Development Design is the next step that follows after the requirement specification document is created, This is the phase where the intended features, process diagram, functional hierarchy templates and ER diagram are listed, This phase is immediately followed by the development process, developers use these design elements to develop their source code.Integration Testing Integration is the process where the various modules of the project are integrated in to once system, I E code developed by various developers is put in to one place and the software is now ready to de tested , The testing process is use to test the correctness, reliability and the completeness of the software and defects and incompleteness identified in this phase are corrected by the developers and then again tested, this cycle continues until all the bugs in the software are eliminated.Installation Acceptance Once the software is tested completely and all the imperfections are eliminated the next phase is the installation phase, In this phase the developed software is installed for the clients to use the software, Though this is not the last phase, once the installation is done, the project is almost complete, the final phase of the software implementation process is the User acceptance test(UAT), Here a personal or a team from the users test the application or the software to confirm that all the initial requirements laid out in the SRS document are achieved and there are not bugs in the applicationMaintenance Support This basically depends on the organization that the client and the development company have agreed, it whitethorn occur that the company that has developed the software is responsible for the maintenance and support or the user may hire professionals to do this job for him, any further enhancements to the software can also be added to the finished software.The other business functions or sup porting processes snarly areCustomer Services This is an ongoing process where any suggestions and complaints or requests from the client are communicated to the development team for any further changes to the application .This process also involves providing technical assistance to the customers.Marketing SalesThis is a very important aspect where any incoming business is haved, this team is responsible for decision new customers for the product, this team is responsible for giving demonstrations of the product in an effort to improve business. They also have the responsibility of extending the current time bound contracts to generate further business and following up with existing and new clients until the deal is sealed and the case is handed over to the technical heads.Accounting FinanceAll the financial aspects starting from the pricing of the product to the employees pay scales are handled by this department. Any audit to tax payments are carefully invoiced and documented by this department. benignant ResourcesHuman resource department need to ensure the recruitment of new talent, satisfaction and retention of the existing staff, maintaining the training and learning needs of the staff and ensuring lower limit wage levels and tracking the attendance of all the employees of the organization. They form the back bone of the firm in the sense that they provide the technical manpower to satisfy the clients requirements for skills. literature look backwardAccording to the Websters Dictionary, quality is a degree of excellence a distinguishing attribute. That is, quality is the degree to which a product lives up to its performance, endurance, maintainability, and other attributes that a customer expects to receive from purchasing this product. In order to produce quality product, one must adopt TQM concept into ones product development process.TQM is a management proficiency for continuously improving the performance at every level and in every area of re sponsibility to ensure customer satisfaction (Schulmeyer McManus,2007).It is a itinerary of managing an enterprise towards achieving business excellence (Dahlgaard et al., 1998). TQM can be traced to the work of Dr. Edwardss Deming and dr. Joseph M. Juran during the rebuilding of the Japanese economy in the after math of World War 2. Since American business discovered TQM in the 1980s it has been successfully implemented in a number of well known corporation in the US and XEROX, federal express and IBM (capezio. 1995).Deming (1986) suggested the use of statistical techniques for quality control, and hence mentioned the following principles on qualityThe Deming Management MethodAlthough Walter Shewhart is considered as the founding father of statistical quality control system, W. Edwards Deming is the first one who introduced the TQM concept. Deming offered the management his fourteen points of management obligations and identified seven deadly diseases and some obstacles of TQM i mplementation.The fourteen points as listed below are also known as the Deming management method Walton, 1986.Juran (1986) emphasizing on the vitality of both technical and managerial aspects mentioned the following aspects of qualityPlanningorganization check overThe aim of the management is to reduce the cost of mistakes, reaching a point where the total costs of quality are minimal (Juran Gryna, 1993).TQM Techniques, tools and systemsStatistical Process visitISO 9000 series Pareto Analysis Matrix Diagram HistogramsTree Decision DiagramCritical Path AnalysisFishbone or Ishakawa DiagramTABLE Hard TQM Practices place in Quality Management publicationsISO 9000 seriesThe International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000 is perhaps the most popular quality improvement system. It is an international set of documents astray known as standards written by a worldwide organization known as the ISO/Technical Committee 176 (Lamprecht, 1992).Critical path analysis (CPA). This tool is associ ated with managing projects. It is related to TQM because project management is critical to the implementation of quality programs within an organization (Bicheno, 1998). CPA seeks to establish, through the use of a network of arrows or nodes, a logical order of activities in terms of time and importance for the completion of a project (Bicheno).Fishbone or Ishakawa DiagramThis is one of the classic TQM tools called fishbone or Ishakawa diagram. The fishbone diagram is used to identify causes of a problem without using statistical methods (Bicheno, 1998 Goetsch Davis, 1994). According to Goetsch and Davis, the fishbone diagram serves as an excellent reminder for the things that have to be done.Crosby (1979) defined 14 steps for quality improvement, including top and intermediate management commitment, quality measurement, evaluation of quality costs, corrective action, training, a zero-defect philosophy, objective setting and employee recognition(Crosby, 1979) cited in (Tar, 2005). The key components unavoidable to carry out the TQM process include top management commitment, employee involvement, problem-solving tools, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction, based on the work of Deming, Juran, and Crosby (Haag et al., 1996).The research by all these authors shows both strengths and weaknesses, for none of them offers the solutions to all the problems encountered by firms (Dale, 1999).Total Quality Management for SoftwareProcess ImprovementThe TQM philosophy described above can be applied to any development process, be it product development or software development.The Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC)This phase generally involves intelligence, design, choice, and review Simon, 1977.The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)This phase involves planning, analysis, design, implementation and support Whitten and Bently, 1998.The application of TQM to softwareSoftware development is a process in which the developer merely converts the requirement spec ifications into software products. It is clear that the quality of software is largely determined by the quality of the process used to develop and maintain it (Sanders Curran, 1994).A number of authors have advocated the adoption of TQM for the development and maintenance of software systems (Rowe Neal, 1993).Specific frameworks do exist for the software industry like ISO 9000 and CMM which act as stepping stone towards attaining TQM.Software quality managementMajor quality management processes identified by Schwalbe (2004) areQuality planning determining which quality standards are relevant to this specific project and deciding how these standards will be met.Quality assurance involves evaluating overall performance regularly to ensure conformance to the set standards. Quality audits or reviews can support this function.Quality control monitoring the activities and end results of the project to ensure compliance with the standards utilizing various available tools and techniques .TQM ConceptsTotal Employee Involvement Continuous Improvement Continuous rearing TeamworkEmpowermentTop-management Commitment and Support Democratic Management Style Customer/Citizen SatisfactionTable Soft TQM Concepts Identified in Quality Management LiteratureChallengesMany of the firms implements CMM or ISO 9000 series for improvement and reach their TQM goals. For any Organization to have a successful implementation of TQM it must ensure that the majority of its employees and those part of the value chain are willing to participate and embrace the TQM philosophy before embarking on the journey. Everyone involved in the chain need to actively do work participate and engage themselves in the journey to TQM realization otherwise the whole process will be hindered.The difficulty or factors which need to be taken care off while implementing TQMImproper Management supportLess knowledge and improper market analysis.Short term involvement inability to prevail on target for longFail ure to get worker inputMeasuring profits in short term spanFinancial problems- not possible to invest requisite amounts to bring the changeDespite the benefits TQM brings, problems have been encountered while implementation. Firms must develop a number of components in an integrated way for successful implementation (Easton Jarrell, 1998).Future of TQMThe new age TQM is being built upon the information contained in databases rather than on generic and research models. Thus, TQM will be informed and shaped by customer requirements reflected in accurate data and information systems (Aurand et al., 1996).In summary, technology would remain the key driver of TQM through the use of IT and e-business.The future(a) of the TQM is being designed to address the needs of service based and SMEs, rather than on the conventional product based framework of TQM. Also there would be fast track TQM implementation processes as firms are trying to march ahead on the technology change front.Thus, ther e is likely to be a requirement for more interdisciplinary research as the future of TQM develops (Dale et al., 2001).Also, newer environmental legislation, quality standards, carbon footprint and quality-award model development related issues would be redefining the future versions of TQM.