Quality - where the buzz comes from?

The whole industry wants to produce better quality products. Why is that?

Some time ago we figured out that our relation with customer is better for both parties if it is not a one night thing but more long term bond – we can mutually provide our areas of expertise (or money equivalents in some cases) and benefit from each other even after those magic novelty sparks fade away.

With switching the mindset from sell & run, a new concept has arisen – product maintenance. If we are in touch with the customer whenever our product misbehaves, the customer asks us why is that and expects ‘it won’t happen anymore’ answer. Unless we want to find out that our customer is now in relationship with some other (much uglier obviously) company, we have to start investing into this relationship.

So now we are in sell & fix business. That way we sell more, which is good, but then there is this second part – we have to fix what’s broken. The worst about it is that it costs. What comes to mind naturally is to revert to freestyle sell & run approach, but then two things stop us – customers communicate among themselves and our chances of getting rejected rise significantly, and then there is this other company which does similar thing to what we do, so suddenly our customers have a possibility not to choose us. Scary stuff.

So we are back in sell & fix mode. We decide to face the problem of fixing. We provide maintenance service and pay the costs of fixing. And then there is this customer saying that she is tired of working on our relationship constantly and she leaves for the other company. You shout ‘pastures are always greener’ but back of the ungrateful customer is getting smaller and smaller. After the anxiety connected with rejections fades the reflection comes – apparently the customer somehow participated in costs of the fixing and that made her leave. We have to find a way to fix the problem of fixing. It was painful enough for us to pay for it. But customer leaving is too much. And then there is this beautiful idea that only broken things need fixing.

So figuring out how to provide something which breaks less easily is now what’s on our mind. Improving quality it is. And suddenly it all makes sense - we invest in advance, do tests, find out weak spots, fix them. Customers are loyal and relationships expand. We are happier and happier as we provide something valuable. Our stack of pesos rises. Good old happy end.

That makes the story all right. But in the real world… Well let me say I’ve seen different.

Intro

I'm creating this blog to try to define/discuss what are the useful quality related practices in software development, where are the borders between what is useful and what is an overkill, what are the symptoms that disease is approaching or spreading etc. I have some experience on the subject, but I will appreciate any comments, suggestions etc as this is where I foresee potential value of this blog.