Don Dwiggins asked about improving quality in software,
I would suggest Deming's SPC approach. Part of this is to change the
reason for inspection. In traditional inspection process the purpose is to
find defects or mistakes and rewaork the mistake. Accompanying this are
mangers who beleive the proble is in the people so there is blame.
With SPC the purpose of inspection is to evaluate the way work is done and
to find the root causes and reduce the chances of them happening abgain.
This difference in intent makes all the difference inthe level of
cooperation. The difference in inten must show up in the managers hearts
or there will be resistance. People resist when there is blame and
cooperate when there is help and the focus is on how the work is done not
on th epserosn. A traditional manager thinks people are the problem and so
inspires resistnac eot real study of the process.
Many time I have seen the resistance you are concerned with. It is driven
by the intent of managers and the belief that the problem is in the
workers. Managers who believe the problem is in the way work is done have
much lower resistance to finding and fixing problems.
Focus on the the way work is done
Focus on fixing it for next tiem
Focus on improving the processes not eh worker.
Gene
At 08:20 PM 3/21/98 -0800, you wrote:
>My concern here is how to introduce it so as to deal most effectively with
>the possible resistance of the project workers and other people who come
>in contact with the initiative. I believe that I have the leeway with my
>sponsor (the Regional Manager) to "do it right", so there's no pressure to
>ramrod a "prebuilt" process through. On the other hand, there's some
>pressure to have it work out well (being the first step in the
>initiative), and I want to cover all the important bases.
Eugene Taurman
interLinx ilx@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
What you are is determined by the thoughts that dominate your mind.
Paraphrase of Proverbs 23 Ch7
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>