7.1 QUESTION 1: HOW TO CHANGE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN SMSH

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1 CHAPTER 7 RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter includes the set of recommendations given on the following basis. Literature review on quality models and SME culture for small and medium size software houses according to research questions 1 and 2; Descriptive Analysis findings that gives answer to the problems faced by SMSHs according to research question 3 and analysis & discussions to measure the reliability and goodness of fit of the proposed SPI paradigm according to research question QUESTION 1: HOW TO CHANGE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN SMSH Many companies are not in favour of the cultural change. They resist change as they had a fear of failure. They feel easy to the old environment. They are unaware of the real meaning of implementing the quality in a company. Only relying on training and certifications does not mean the organization has achieved the quality level. According to Crouch (1998), I do wish I had more knowledge in areas such as identifying key business drivers and processes as well as developing performance goals, measures and standards. As all you learn from the training and certification does not work as it is too much academic to go by the book. It should be more flexible and close to the real life examples. But before implementing any strategy, standard and approach the organization should develop clear understanding of processes and standards. SMSHs shall realize the importance of the quality culture and bring the change according to their respective business environment. Process reliability, productivity, quality are usually measured by human perception in a poor quality environment. Preferably, an effective way to measure process performance and quality is to first understand the process at micro and macro levels and then use statistical measurement techniques and automated software tools for data analysis (Siok and Tian, 2007). Make the practitioners and leadership believe that yes there is a need of the radical cultural change 119

2 in the organization for the improvement of business performance. The local SMSH still fail to gain the latent benefit of cost of quality concept that it is an investment and not an over head cost (Deming, 1986). SMSH need to reengineer their old processes according to the new upgraded technologies and need to automate their quality management systems. In early 90s a number of large scale change management projects failed for the reasons related to technology up gradation as the managers continued to rely on the old processes (Markus, and Keil, 1994). So there is a need of not only to bring the change but the essential part is to reengineer their old processes and to create process alignment with technology and organization culture. As a result performance efficiency will increase due to SPI and reduction in rework costs. Improvement in quality will achieve economies of scale and thus local software products will be more competitive in global markets. That s the reason why SMSH should implement TQM principles along with ISO 9000 or CMM /CMMI for continuous improvement of the quality. To bring the change in the culture of our local software industry through TQM a transition to total quality culture is required and behaviour towards quality needs to be changed among the local IT practitioners. Top management should delegate powers to empower employees to take appropriate actions when the things go wrong or to take preventive action before they go wrong instead of inspection and fire fighting afterwards. There should be an open communication between the employees at all levels, instead of having weak communication pattern based on the grapevine and secrecy. As advised by Deming, (1986) break communication barriers and learn from mistakes instead of hiding them or finger pointing on others. He advised to adopt learning culture through training and retraining to develop awareness in quality. Promote freedom of speech and open channels of communication with internal and external customers. It s top management s responsibility to create vision and lead the organization to success with excellence in quality management (Anderson et al.,1994). 120

3 7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ON FINDINGS SMSH All the responses from the IT practitioners were tabulated for descriptive analysis and results. Based on the feedback, comments from the respondents and in the light of literature review of quality models, quality and quality culture in SME following recommendations are proposed ORGANIZATION SIZE & STRUCTURE Employees should be hired on basis of available resources of the organization. An organization needs to have at least one technology specialist for each set of process areas and technology based departments because all rounder cannot perform technical and trivial tasks in making high quality products. A leader must be qualified, skilled and must have guidance and leadership abilities in right directions. There should be a separate department for Research and Development. The central and tall structure is not appreciated because it can cause delays in decision making during project development phases and also during quality improvement. There should be criteria for employee harmony based upon their performance and assessment and some beneficial services for employees. In this way the employees can work with motivation and with their heart and soul which is a key point for quality culture and a good environment. It also reduces turnover rate. SMEs should make favourable human resource policies to retain employees to prevent knowledge and brain drain due to high turnover rate ORGANIZATION CULTURE Time management and time scheduling should be arranged according to the project deadlines. Before committing and signing agreement with customer regarding project cost and completion deadlines, top management should consult project technical team leads. Offering overtime hours is not a good approach as it signifies lack of time planning and time management. There should be appropriate pay scales for IT professionals and working overtime hours to be discouraged. Top management should take interest in time scheduling and time planning as it will increase project success rate. 121

4 Freedom of speech is one of Deming s 14 points and free communication across organization should be encouraged. Top management should promote learning culture by encouraging employees as well as for management to learn on continuous basis. Training about new and upcoming technologies is necessary for the organization to compete in local and global markets. A specific budget should be allocated for such trainings. The assessment results lead to quality and performance improvement. An organization should practice 360 degree assessment technique for employee assessment and should reward people on good performance which will also motivate remaining employees to work hard and perform better ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS QUALITY An organization should take only those projects for which required technical resources are sufficient and currently available. Resource optimization and workload management helps to achieve high quality at low cost. Tests are conducted to remove errors and non conformances of software product. Quality can never be achieved by increased number of tests. Top management should adopt preventive approach rather than corrective approach toward testing and quality improvement. There should be a separate team or department for quality control and quality assurance with qualified and trained senior level quality assurance professionals REQUIREMENT DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT Requirement development needs adequate time schedules to avoid from rework. The accuracy of time planned for requirement analysis and commitment should be done on realistic timelines and not just estimates that make the management happy. Implementation of estimation tools and techniques should be encouraged. The accurate time scheduling for requirement development and management would also take less effort for requirement change management and configuration management. It is difficult to reach total customer satisfaction but if a documented procedure is followed 122

5 for change management and software configuration management is practiced as a tool, then most of the disputes and disagreements with the customer can be settled. Top management should be involved in time scheduling. There should be frequent and close communication with the customer and all changes should go through change control board. The requirement specification should be made by the involvement of customer to achieve completeness. The orientation of the SMEs should be towards total customer satisfaction. There should be a change management agreement for requirement change to avoid rework. Companies that are involved in offshore projects should hire legal firms to develop agreements and policies to subcontract projects RECOMMENDATIONS: PROJECT PLANNING Top management should develop comprehensive quality improvement approach towards prevention of errors because non conformance after handing over not only has high change management over heads, rework costs and warranty claims, but it also maligns the repute of organization. User Acceptance Tests (UAT) should be developed at design stage as required by standard quality practices and software engineering models governing SDLC. A given software development life cycle helps in defining a concrete way of development and also prevents from rework. Developing test cases during development lead to poor quality assurance practices. The project quality and delivery depends upon schedule planning through Project Development Plan (PDP) and Quality Management System. The variance in schedule planning may affect timelines and project cost. There should be strict schedule planning to prevent from rework and variance. Project resources should be planned before project start to avoid from inconvenience from available resources. Risk management is an important component of project management (PMbok.) 8 best practices, and risk management monitoring and 8 Project Management Book of Knowledge, Project Management Institute (PMI). 123

6 mitigation plans should be made part of SDLC. Top management should practice proper effort estimation and resource utilization techniques to give equal importance to all the projects regardless of size or profitability to ensure uniform quality output. Management should follow a standard policy for assigning project estimation deadlines in consultation with technical team leads. Common coding standards should be established and shared through knowledge base library. Orientation training should include training on Coding standards. By implementing coding standards software code becomes more readable and understandable and it helps the developers during change management and maintenance MONITORING AND CONTROL The management should put emphasis on project monitoring and process assessment side by side during project work by using standard procedures because only functionality reviews and audits do not assure the quality without appropriate quality control procedures. The management should have ability to reorganize their effected plans and should allocate optimal resources to timely accommodate changes without disturbing the schedule of PDP. The management should introduce a trend of using metrics at project measurement level for monitoring and tracking to get accurate figures of process and project performance. Capability Process Index CPI for all critical processes should be regularly monitored and tracked. It will help to not only enhance the performance of individual processes but will also improve the synergy and alignment between the processes. Team culture and spirit of team work should be promoted among team members. It will create stronger bonding and more communication among team members. 124

7 MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS It is up to management to inculcate the performance measurement culture in the organization. Secondly management should involve employees in setting measurement goals. The basic system and identifiers for process measurement and process improvement should be developed for top managers and employees. Mostly measures are not specified but if measures are specified, then these measures should be linked with smart goals and objectives. Data collection and storage procedures are not properly defined. In this undeveloped environment, process measurement and process improvement is a big challenge for SMSH. These software organizations need to have highly qualified managers that are adequate to inculcate the measurement culture in software houses and who should be able to develop a mechanism for data collection System (DCS). Process efficiency and effectiveness is an important measure to calculate process alignment and over all process synergy. As a guideline top management has to assure that all processes are aligned together and are working in synergy. Management should develop template for post-mortem summary which should highlight lessons learned through failure and should also list down mistakes which should not be repeated again. Overall performance measurement is very weak area and effort should be made to improve quality through performance measurement PROCESS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT Management should adopt quality culture by initiating programs like ISO/CMMI certification. IT should develop quality training programs to create quality awareness among the employees. Management should allocate separate budget for Quality improvement and should consider it as an investment (Juran, 1984). Management should also invest in having qualified QA resources for process tailoring and up-gradation. Processes and procedures internally developed should be practiced in letter and spirit and not just left alone in the files and folders. Process improvement is most important process in order to achieve quality product. If processes are not 125

8 improved frequently this means processes are not measured. Recent attitude shows least concern towards process measurement. No check and control towards quality because top management is interested towards quantity rather than quality. If process is not measured, gap analysis cannot be performed and hence processes improvement is not possible. But as it is seen through following data organizations rarely improve its processes LQIM (PARADIGM) FOR LOCAL SMSH In chapter 6, structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to come up with an evolved LQIM to depict quality improvement paradigm and standards practiced in the local software industry. LQIM is a tailored and economized paradigm according to the practices and perceptions of the local IT practitioners. The proposed LQIM is an indigenous model which when improvised in accordance to the SMSHs cultural recommendations can establish to be a fit model for SMSHs. The LQIM has already been ratified according to generally accepted good fit indices in SEM analysis. It has been established through literature review that to implement ISO 9000 SMSHs should adopt TQM philosophy, long term planning and measurement culture as such practices have proven to produce good results in the industry. The main objective of the research was to propose a Lean Quality Improvement model suitable for local software industry. This LQIM was derived through SEM in the previous Chapter. Implementation of Indigenous LQIM is proposed using the Deming s philosophy of Plan DO Check Act, PDCA Cycle for continuous process improvement and is shown In FIGURE 8 IMPLEMENTATION OF LQIM MODEL The conceptual detail of the LQIM is given in TABLE 27. The LQIM Deployment plan mapped with PDCA is given in TABLE

9 TABLE 28 FIGURE 8 IMPLEMENTATION OF LQIM MODEL LEAN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT MODEL DEPLOYMENT PLAN The current model provides us with a Lean Quality Improvement Model (LQIM) for a SMSH. The model does not include planning and monitoring of projects being performed in an organization. Most of the software companies rely on their project management of software development, considering project planning to be an important part of this activity; In a SME model 127

10 development study in Finland Saastamoinen and Tukiainen, (2004) also emphasized that planning and continual monitoring of quality activities as key prerequisite for good quality products. The Finland study also covered Quality practices like Planning, data collection, data validation, process reporting and process measurement Planning and Monitoring, its absence effect s the prime objective of quality achievement rather negatively. Moreover without any controls for monitoring deployed, there is far less chance of timely identification of errors / issues and their timely rectification. The model actually expresses use of Quality Assurance at some stages for identification of issues, but without planning various stages of project management and without their monitoring, Quality Assurance will eventually lack a timely and planned response therefore leading to rework and waste of resources. According to Allen, Ramachandran and Abushama, (2003) in PRISMS study mentioned most important Quality metrics like project tracking, monitoring and defect detection. PRISMS study as well as literature review on SPI also emphasized on automation of data collection activities to support planning and timely decision making. As indicated in LQIM deployment plan is mapped with Deming s PDCA cycle based on the conceptual understanding given in TABLE 27 and guidelines given in the literature review. 128

11 TABLE 28 LQIM DEPLOYMENT PLAN MAPPED WITH PDCA PLAN DO CHECK PHASE I : REVIEW & GAP ANALYSIS (Performed Once Only) Company Wide LQIM Review & Gap Analysis Review of Existing Processes, Policies and Procedures Identification of Gaps based on best management Practices Submission of Gap Analysis Report with recommendations and solutions TRAINING A: Introduction and Awareness on LQIM DELIVERABLE : LQIM GAP ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATION REPORT PHASE II : SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT / REVISION / IMPROVEMENT Development of Quality Policy & Quality Objectives Development of Process Flow Charts, Corporate Organization Chart and Departmental Charts LQIM Development and Implementation Monitoring Team Development of Technology Development & Research and Development Department Development of Procedure for Corrective and Preventive Measures Development of HR Policies (to reduce turnover rate) Development of Knowledge base Library Development of Procedure for control of non conformance Development of Procedure for Quality Assurance Development of Procedures for Communication Development of Training and Awareness procedures and plans (Systematic Culture Change Acceptance) Development of Procedure for internal system auditing (development of Audit Checklist) TRAINING B: Documentation, Recording and Reporting based on LQIM requirements DELIVERABLE : LQIM POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND TEMPLATES PHASE III : IMPLEMENTATION Implementation Team Assignment Implementation of Records as per developed procedures Implementation of Records & Awareness verification Relating to LQIM Correction of Documentation based on Feedback Implementation Team Assignment DELIVERABLES: LQIM MANUAL PHASE IV : AUDITING Selection of Internal Auditors Planning the Internal Audit Collection of Defect Logs and updating knowledge base library Company wide LQIM Internal Audit Corrective Preventive Actions/Audit Non Conformity Closing Perform Trend Analysis on the basis of previous audit results TRAINING C: Internal Auditing Training DELIVERABLES:INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT ACT 129

12 TQM SUGGESTIONS AND GUIDELINES In order to implement LQIM more effectively in the local software industry a set of TQM implementation guidelines is presented which were developed during literature review to fulfil the environmental and cultural requirements of proposed model. Top management should assure total commitment towards optimum resource allocation, training and CPI. Planning should be made important part of all organizational and project management activities continually on long and short term basis Achievement of organizational goals through customer relationship management (CRM ) and customer orientations. Management to rethink quality as a way of doing business, and resources spent on quality improvement should not be considered as a cost but it is an investment which reaps higher profits in the long run. Learning culture through training development programs to enhance human resource performance skills, capabilities and quality awareness. It will help to inculcate positive culture and work ethics. Open Communication Channels across the organization for employees to freely express ideas and share information and develop a sense of team work within organization. (one man show to be discouraged). This will help SMEs to capitalize on employee s talent and innovativeness. Selecting right people for the right job based on their academic qualifications and skills; and selects the best cross-functional teams for LQIM Development and Implementation Monitoring Team. Do not re-engineer on large scale, bring the change through small baby steps ( wins), by forming a result oriented strategy and preventive approach. Management needs to provide enough resources for monitoring, mitigation and management of assessed organizational risks. Business process redesign should be carried out across the organization to resolve the problems of resource contention which is the biggest problem in SME. Business process redesign will reduce the 130

13 synchronization delays in processes and hence improve overall effectiveness and profitability of SME. Performance incentives and rewards should be separate from regular increments based on annual assessment in order to create value driven employees. To create Involvement and ownership, Top Management should share development of annual quality objectives in consultation with employees. Improve the work environment and culture through benchmarking with industrial leading best practices and develop opportunities through innovation, change management and feedback from all stakeholders. SPI activities should be linked with customer satisfaction and organizational goals, and top management should prioritize to improve key process areas accordingly. All activities like process measurement, data collection and process rating should be automated by SME as human perception is poor and inefficient as compared to automated process measurement tools LIMITATIONS OF PROPOSED LQIM PARADIGM As LQIM is Culture changing process, normally the level of acceptance expressed by human resource is very low in the beginning. Not all personnel can be part of Skill Development & Training Programs due to limitation of resources Lack of Consistency by Management in long term planning for system improvement. Customers may prefer (and enforce in some cases) their own process improvement policies over LQIM Policies. Departments get resources according to their priority in LQIM, therefore some departments are ignored intentionally in the beginning Based on observations from local IT industry culture, employee empowerment to take decisions is discouraged by higher management 131

14 Lack of proper inflation adjustment to annual increments which eventually leads to higher turnover rate.. All processes should be spiritually followed so that organization is able to deliver quality software products.. TQM culture is not found in these models therefore TQM should be made part of SPI activities to reduce schedule delays, cost over runs, and rework costs SUMMARY This chapter provides a set of recommendations based on literature review and the empirical analysis of the research conducted. It also presents an implementation and deployment model of the proposed LQIM. In the end TQM guidelines are proposed for deploying LQIM based on Deming s PDCA cycle. The next chapter concludes the thesis. 132