The Quality Movement

Presently senior managers at organization by the industrialized world recognize which high product quality translates to cost savings and an improved bottom line. Moreover, this was not always the case. The quality movement starts in the 1940's with the seminal work of W. Edwards Deming [DEM86] and had its first true test in Japan. By using Deming's ideas as a cornerstone the Japanese have established a systematic approach to the elimination of the root causes of product defects. By the 1970s, 1980s their work migrated to the Western world and is sometimes called TQM that is known as total quality management.     However terminology differs across different   organization and authors a basic 4-step progression in commonly encountered and forms the foundation of any good TQM program. The 1^st step is called kaizen which is refers to a system of continuous process improvement. The main target of kaizen  is  to  build  a  process  in this  case  the  software  process  that  is repeatable, visible,  and measurable.

The 2^nd step invoked only after kaizen has been achieved that is called atarimae hinshitsu.   This step examines intangibles which affect the procedure and works to optimize their impact on the procedure. Example for the software procedure may be affected through high staff turnover that itself is caused through constant reorganizations within an organization. It may be that a stable company structure could much to improve the excellence of software. Atarimae hinshitsu would lead management to suggest difference in the way reorganization occurs.

While the first 2 steps focus on the process the next step which is called kansei   translated as the 5 senses concentrates on the user of the product in this case, software. In essence through examining the way the user applies the product kansei leads to improvement in the product itself and potentially to the procedure which created it.

The final step is called miryokuteki hinshitsu   broadens management concern beyond the immediate product. This is a business-oriented step which looks for opportunity in related fields that can be identified through observing the use of the product in the marketplace. The software world miryokuteki hinshitsu might be viewed as an attempt to uncover profitable and new products or applications which are an outgrowth from an existing computer-based system .For most organizations kaizen should be of immediate concern. Until a mature software procedure has been achieved there is little point in moving to the next steps.