S4 E1 - Adam Hawkins - Seeking Quality in the Digital Landscape
Feb 7, 2024
auto_awesome
Digital quality expert, Adam Hawkins, and the host explore Deming's perspectives on quality, connecting SLOs to acceptable loss. They discuss variation, the red bead experiment, measuring quality in software, and the challenges of conveying Deming's ideas. Quality is contextual, varying across systems. They emphasize shared mental models for applying quality in the digital landscape.
Quality is contextual and varies across systems, emphasizing the importance of understanding different business needs.
Having a Chief Quality Officer can ensure quality remains a priority, integrating Total Quality Management principles for improved outcomes.
Precision, accuracy, and variation are key in software development, with SLOs and SLIs helping achieve desired quality levels.
Deep dives
The Importance of Quality and Value Streams in Software Development
Quality in software development is infinite, and it's crucial to adopt a mindset that prioritizes accuracy and value streams. While black and white thinking may lead to rigid expectations, understanding the contextual nature of quality allows for better decision-making. Metrics like SLIs and SLOs play a significant role in measuring and evaluating quality. The goal is to find the right balance between customer needs, business value, and the cost of achieving higher levels of quality. By focusing on value streams and continuously improving the process, organizations can deliver high-quality software while prioritizing customer satisfaction.
The Role of a Chief Quality Officer and the Need for Holistic Quality Management
Many organizations overlook the importance of quality management, particularly in areas like banking or software development. Having a Chief Quality Officer or a similar role can help ensure that quality remains a top priority across the entire organization. This role would focus on managing value streams, measuring accuracy and completeness, and identifying areas for improvement. By integrating the principles of Total Quality Management and Lean practices, organizations can create a culture that values quality at all stages of the development process, leading to improved customer satisfaction and business outcomes.
The Relationship Between Precision, Accuracy, and Variation in Software Development
Understanding the concepts of precision, accuracy, and variation is essential in software development. While precision focuses on reducing variation, accuracy ensures that the product meets the requirements and expectations of the customer. By adopting practices like SLOs and SLLIs, software teams can strive for accuracy in their deliverables. Recognizing that all applications are not created equal and that different contexts require different levels of quality is crucial. Instead of aiming for a one-size-fits-all approach, organizations should tailor their quality practices to fit the specific needs and value streams of each application.
The Infinite Nature of Quality and the Interconnection with Society
Quality, according to the teachings of Deming, is the minimum loss imparted to society by a product after it is shipped to the customer. This concept emphasizes the interconnectedness between the producer, the consumer, and society at large. Examples like nuclear waste disposal, financial system failures, and biased AI algorithms showcase the societal impact of quality in different domains. When organizations adopt a system-thinking approach and prioritize the value delivered to customers and broader society, they can create infinite opportunities for improvement and enhance the overall quality of their products and services.
Breaking Free from Black and White Thinking in Software Development
Black and white thinking, such as the belief that all applications should have the same level of quality, can hinder innovation and hinder progress in software development. Embracing shades of gray and recognizing that quality is contextual can lead to more effective decision-making. Value streams, SLIs, SLOs, and other quality management practices enable teams to make informed trade-offs based on customer needs, business value, and cost. By embracing a pragmatic approach and applying appropriate measures of quality in different situations, organizations can optimize resources and deliver better outcomes.
I have an enlightening conversation with Adam Hawkins in this episode. We dive deep into W. Edwards Deming's seminal perspectives on quality.
Our dialogue explores how this expansive framing of quality requires connecting producers and consumers in a broader system. We relate these concepts to service level objectives (SLOs) and their role in quantifying acceptable loss balanced against keeping systems valuable. This leads us to the profound realization that quality is contextual, varying across different systems and business needs.
Among other topics, we touch on the intricacies of variation, Deming's red bead experiment, the challenges of measurement and pragmatism, bringing quality thinking into software, and the difficulty of conveying Deming's multifaceted ideas to novices. Our exchange centers on constructing shared mental models to apply Deming's deep knowledge in today's digital landscape.
