A sustainable TQM programme
Michael Hewson · WIT transactions on information and communication technologies · 1970
In this paper I look beyond the hype and fog generated by the three little words 'Total Quality Management' and describe a sustainable implementation of that works for software development. It is based on process modelling, process improvement and objective-setting. Praxis was the first independent software house to gain certification of a quality management system (QMS) to ISO 9001 (BS 5750 : Part 1). Since gaining our registration in 1986 we have continued to develop our quality management system and in 1990 we took the decision to implement a programme of Total Quality Management (TQM) in order to ensure that our services are not simply fit for client purpose, but satisfy all of our client's needs; the quality that will delight our clients. The focus of our QMS is on providing our project managers with an effective framework of formal and systematic processes and standards that assists them in achieving quality for our clients and for Praxis. We soon found that there is not much that is formal, or systematic or standard about most of what is promoted under the banner of TQM. Although there are a large number of techniques called and an even larger number of consultants and gurus who claim to help you do TQM we could not find any definitions of a process that applied to our business (systems design) or our product (software services). We therefore set about developing a Praxis process. This paper describes how we: