While most of us may not see a relationship between W. Edwards Deming and building software and new technology, only assembly line types of work that might be short sighted. I would offer that Jake Trueper’s presentation does a good tie out to UX for software and developing high quality products which engage teams, rally organizations and provide viable market offerings leveraging Deming and the auto industry as an example.
Here are the 14 points from Deming which Jake built out in his preso.
- Create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service…”
- Adopt the new philosophy.
- Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
- End the practice of awarding business based on price tag.
- Improve constantly
- Institute training and retraining.
- Institute leadership.
- Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
- Break down barriers between departments.
- Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity.
- Abolish numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
- Remove barriers to pride.
- Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement.
- Put everybody in the company to work toaccomplish the transformation.
If you look to embrace these 14 items, Deming states there are a bunch of things we need to look out for, here a 10 to keep top of mind:
- Lack of constancy of purpose
- Emphasis on short-term profits
- Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
- Mobility of management
- Running a company on visible figures alone
- Neglecting long-range planning
- Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions
- Excuses, such as “our problems are different”
- Placing blame on workforces who are only responsible for 15% of mistakes where the system desired by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences
- Relying on quality inspection rather than improving product quality
