Suraj C S (surajcs) wrote, @ 2003-08-21 17:05:00

Sorry
A very simple word to use. But Sorry is now becoming a excuse for any inconvenient things we do in our daily life. Everyone while delivering it is aware of the true underlying meaning of the usage of Sorry, but they have taken that word for granted for each and every inexplicable action they perform. I can tell volumes of examples of such sorry usage, but I dont want to bore you further. Anyways, Sorry for the big gap (once again) in writing this live journal on a dailybasis

I have been busy with "Saaftware Praaagraaming"(Typical Tamilian Accent). There exists jargons called Quality, Process , CMM, ISO, Level 5, KPAs etc in any typical software company. A technocrat(By this word I mean any common engineer who knows the language/database/technology/programming logic only) will surely be made to go through the above jargons one day or other while working for his software employer.

I have been lucky(Or Unlucky) to be part of such a "Awareness Study campaign" in all my previous companies(In India only) and now the chance comes for me to be a interviewee to a CMM Level 3 quality assessment for my present employer

If you ask me why quality is needed, I , being a technocrat myself, will answer: For getting more projects, more customers and inturn more money for the company. Thats it. Fullstop

A quality analyst might answer it as a support and enhancing activity for all work products in the company and support it vehemently. He/She might argue that it is for ensuring highest quality with very less bugs in deliverables etc etc. Dont mind, the underlying answer is: MONEY and MONEY only

All these CMM and ISO Levels of quality are mainly for making money for the company, market the company well for the customers and setting up a initial contact with the client.

For established clients of the company, QUALITY DOES NOT MATTER as long as the Code performs its functions in production in the required manner without bugs and the customer is happy and gives more projects. Ofcourse COST and TIME are important and client deadlines only matter for such projects. Again, QUALITY of code does not matter for such projects. I think a good quality process is needed only for starting up contacts with a new customer, not for existing customers. Many wont agree, but its my viewpoint, my esperience till now

I have seen in CMM level 5 companies like US Software, Technopark Trivandrum(My previous employer) where a bunch of people virtually live for quality and are ready to die supporting it. For them, defect finding and sticking to gruesome procedures,formats,checklists,conventions and ensuring quality of documents sent to clients are of utmost priority. For them bug free code is of LESSER priority and they have the false belief that writing a superb optimised code(not following any standards) is not a good solution at all!

Customers(In reality) DONT CARE for such numerous checklists,guidelines,reviews etc, they want the modified code and environment to run in their daily production without bugs and continue their business in a normal manner. And they look only at COST and TIME as other factors and they dont unduly worry about the numerous "Quality Management" activities and gimmick/thantras performed by software companies in India going after each and every release, level and version of SEI-CMM and ISO standards of quality

Dont think this will change in near future, but a good project leader/manager and SBU head should recognize these facts and leave the project developer to his/her own intuition and sensibility in coding for a project. Ofcourse for this, they have to think like the customer and then work can be heaven. Unfortunately many indian companies(Like US Software above) can never come out of this "Quality Mania" :-(

Whatever they say about support of quality inside their company, customer satisfaction is of prime importance and the project team should work independently without quality pressures towards meeting the bugfree implementation of projects within the Cost and Timeline. Thats my viewpoint with 7 years "Saafware Praagraaming" in "Maainfraaaimes" including companies like AT&T and Merrill Lynch(Where thankfully project team is not very much concerned about quality and is rightfully and skillfully managed by Americans with TIME/COST in mind only)

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