Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
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Cut Defects, Not Corners
The pressure on software project teams to reduce costs and stay on schedule should dictate more -- not less -- investment in appraisal activities. Done properly, they can help reduce the most expensive item of all: the cost of failure. But some methods for detecting and removing defects are more effective than others.
How high is the cost of quality on your software projects? The answer might surprise you. Yes, it includes reviews, the quality assurance infrastructure, and preparing tests — those are your appraisal costs. But how high are your failure costs — the cost of defects?
Your engineers spend time in diagnosis and rework; development schedules slip; support costs climb; and your company's and products' reputations sink. These failure costs, which are the more significant cost of quality, are beyond your direct control. But you can gain control over them indirectly, by investing in appraisal costs that minimize failure costs, reducing your total cost of quality and making it more predictable.
Cost of Quality: Appraisal vs. Failure Costs
Quality is a significant cost on any project, so prudent managers look for ways to keep those costs in check. The quality costs we can control are things like performing reviews, preparing tests, and maintaining our quality assurance infrastructure: appraisal costs. But there are also the quality costs we cannot control.
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"Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences." - Freeman Dyson |