The Keystone Cops strike back!!

A couple of weeks ago, there was this exchange on one of the usenet forums where the original poster was at a loss asking for help. He was the only and new QA/QC in a software software shop that had 30+ developers.

Tall order. A lot of people chipped in, myself included. But there was one posting that struck me because it was odd. The post argument was that because QA/QC is a "support activity" (that encompases with debugging around 80% of any software project) the solution was for the guy to start his own quality movement in the hope that help would jump in after a while. Apparently, this approach was suggested in a tech book.

If one were to contrast that approach with Deming's TQM (something hard to argue against: Toyota, etc...) is a failed Quality 101. Deming's work proved that quality has to come from the top of the company to be really successful.

So what is a "support" guy to do?

Then the answer came through this posting on GK blog: the fad du jour. It is not a secret that a lot of companies manage by fads. These ones do come from the top.

So until quality becomes the fad du jour (FDJ) and stays that way long enough the "support" guy has to go with the FDJ, or risk being fired, or quit.

And top management will not support Quality until...

The cycle repeats itself: Vista is nowhere to be seen and this is the most visible one. What about the ones that do not get as much press coverage?