Quality Control

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Quality  

With the exception of achieving Six Sigma levels of defect-free processes and products, discussions on quality management have not evolved much since the mid-1990s. True, you rarely hear that “quality is a race with no finish line”, but that sort of died out with the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement. Ironically, within executive circles, the discussions are not about the importance of quality but rather on what quality is, how it is achieved and how it can be measured. The issues surrounding quality seem focused on definition and approach rather than on need

In this article, I will provide my observations and experiences related to my tenure as CIO at an Atlantic City Hotel & Casino and subsequently as a Business Process Improvement Consultant. Specifically, this will cover:

• The definition of quality (what is it and how much is enough?)
• What senior management expects from the quality process
• How these expectations apply to IT
• My experience within IT

What is quality and how much is enough?
When discussing quality with colleagues and associates, two themes consistently collide: “perfection” and “value for the money”.

Technically inclined people tend to discuss quality in terms of achieving technical perfection. To this group, quality is akin to workmanship. IT professionals tend to focus …

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