Software Quality is like Sex? Speak for yourself!

The problem of quality management is not what people don't know about it. The problem is what they think they do know. It is made difficult by the conventional assumptions about quality that people develop over years of successfully making a living in some line of work other than quality management.

In this regard, quality has much in common with sex. Everyone is for it. (Under certain conditions of, course.) Everyone feels they understand it. (Even though they wouldn't want to explain it.) Everyone thinks execution is only a matter of following natural inclinations. (After all, we do get along somehow.) And, of course, most people feel that all problems in these areas are caused by other people. (If only they would take time to do things right.) In a world where half the marriages end in divorce or separation, such assumptions are open to question.

It is difficult to have a meaningful, real-life, factual discussion on sex, quality, or other complicated subjects until some basic erroneous assumptions are examined and altered. The only ones who are usually willing to take that step are those who are ready to admit they are in trouble, or have an intellectual interest in improvement. I have had hundreds of discussions with operating managers over the years and can state absolutely that their interest in quality is proportional to the amount of profit-deteriorating situations they are experiencing at that exact moment. I can't speak for their attitudes toward sex.

Given the chance to explain quality management to people who will listen, regardless of their motives, it is possible to make a case for becoming deeply involved. No other action a manager can take will generate improved operations, increased profits, and reduced costs so quickly with so little effort. But before all that can occur, we have to examine the thinking process that lead some to believe that quality is merely goodness that always costs more.