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From: seb1@druhi.ATT.COM (Sharon Badian)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Software Quality
Message-ID: <7844@drutx.ATT.COM>
Date: 14 Mar 91 22:11:56 GMT
References: <JGAUTIER.91Mar13125937@vangogh.ads.com>
Sender: news@drutx.ATT.COM
Distribution: comp.software-eng
Lines: 47


From: news@iesd.auc.dk
>Instead, we think that:
>
>            a) Software Quality is primarily achieved through good
>               management of the development process.
>
>            c) The hardest task of introducing Quality Management
>               in a company is the change of peoples' habits,
>               not the application of new tools and methodologies. 

in article <JGAUTIER.91Mar13125937@vangogh.ads.com>, jgautier@vangogh.ads.com (Jorge Gautier) says:
> By the way, don't be swayed by the advocates of "integrated CASE
> tools" and "software metrics"-- these people are not software
> developers.  I expect you'll get the inevitable DeMento :-) line of
> "We can't control what we can't measure."  Here's a good reply to
> that: "We can't control or meaningfully measure what we don't
> understand."

I put these two together because I think it is important to discuss them
together. First, what does "good management of the development process"
mean? It means to make decisions about the people you use for your
development, the processes you use, the tools you use, the metrics you
use to measure progress. It means deciding to use CASE tools, because
when you get down to it, the methods and tools work! It doesn't mean
that CASE tools will solve all your problems (and any software manager
or engineer worth their salt will tell you this).

Second, what does it mean "to change peoples' habits?" Habits in what?
Developing software is not a bunch of habits. It's a collection of processes
that people execute to produce a product. I don't believe Mr. Deming
would like to hear anyone say the hardest task is changing peoples'
habits. You make it sound like something is *wrong* with the people. The
people do what they are told to do and know how to do. They will find
better ways to do what they do when given the chance and some amount
of structure around what they do.

If we are talking about the way people view quality, then yes, we have
to often change the way they think and behave. But, I view this as
going far beyond "changing habits." This involves changing the way
people view the world and approach solving problems. But, I certainly
agree that is a very difficult thing to do (not necessarily the most
difficult though).

Sharon Badian
AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!druhi!seb1