The Seapine View

In the early 80’s I was a marketing director for a small oil field service company located in Abilene, Texas.  It was electrifying to be on location when a wildcatter hit oil.  If investors happened to be on-site during the discovery they would literally break out the champagne bottles.  If the driller hit water and the well started pumping mud the show was over.  The only thing that can be done at that point is to plug the well, tear down the drilling rig, and move to the next location.  It seems fitting that during that early 80’s oil boom the developers at Texas Instruments would borrow oil field jargon to describe one of their error messages:

“SHUT ’ER DOWN, CLANCY, SHE’S PUMPING MUD”

Of course when a phrase of that nature is associated with code instead of oil the reaction – and results, can be devastating.  High-risk is a given when it comes to oil exploration.  In fact, only about 40% of wells recently drilled find commercial hydrocarbons.  When it comes to software though, customers expect the applications they buy to work 100 percent of the time.  Software defects can cause serious business consequences that have the power to ruin a company’s reputation, and possibly “shut ’er down” forever.

Zero defects sounds unachievable, particularly during a time when products are so complex.  After all, aren’t software bugs just part of the feature set?  In truth, research shows that given the choice of higher cost, longer delivery time or poorer quality, customers will choose to protect quality.  That means development and QA organizations need to think like customers, and put aggressive quality programs in place to remain true to their customer-focused objectives.  A sustainable competitive advantage emerges when quality-centric business practices are put into place.  A focused discipline on service, quality, and reliability has proven to be a timeless strategy that both engages the customer, and builds loyalty.

Pluto got bumped from the line-up.  According to a committee of scientists the small solar-system body failed to meet planet-standards, so they downgraded the former planet to an asteroid.  Plutoed; chosen as the 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society, it means to demote or devalue someone or something – to be unceremoniously relegated to a lower position.

In a down economy it might be tempting to pluto your quality improvement initiatives.  When economic indicators are pointing towards a rough landing the “cost of quality” may seem out of orbit.  Anyways, perhaps your customers really won’t notice if quality is dialed down a notch or two.  In fact, generally speaking satisfaction with a company’s products and services is built by repeated customer experiences. So, unless the experiences are below or above expectations, it takes a while for an attitude shift to take place.  Like Pluto’s orbit around the sun – you’d have plenty of time to recover satisfaction, and shift any negative loyalty inertia that might develop – right?  Don’t count on it; because the “cost of poor quality” can strike at the speed of light.  How?  Thanks to user-generated reviews the business solar-system is much smaller now.  Research shows that your customers are increasingly learning about your brand from individuals outside of your control.  And to that point a recent article in marketing news stated that 76% of people who are shopping check out user-generated reviews and that 16% of those reviews were negative.

Bottom line; keep your quality initiatives in place or you’ll be taking yourself out of alignment with your customers’ needs and expectations – because your customers care about quality.  Your customers care about software quality because your code is often critical to their business.  Your software not only impacts their customer’s experiences, but also puts their brand reputation on the line.  Whether you’re writing code or responsible for QA; your good name is also on the line.  So, don’t pluto quality.

Recently one of my students stated that, “quality means different things to different industries.”  The example they shared was that the toys they buy their kids better work (or not be coated with lead paint) because that’s what they expected. However; for intangible items – like the accountant they hired for their business taxes, they evaluated quality differently.

Reflecting on those differences, my student suggested that creating a “quality process” would require different goals and organizational efforts. For example, at a high level, manufactured goods require more of an engineering perspective of quality. Conversely, business that is more complex or intangible may need a program to define quality in the relationships they have with their customers.  The mention of quality around customer relationships brought the PIMS (profit impact on marketing strategy) study into our classroom discussion.  The PIMS Principle (Buzzell and Gale, 1987) contains interesting research. The study indicated that the profitability of a business is affected by 37 basic factors, explaining the more than 80 percent profitability variation among the businesses studied. Of the 37 basic factors, seven proved to be of primary importance. Based on analysis of information available in the PIMS database, Buzzell and Gale hypothesized that “in the long run, the most important single factor affecting a business unit’s performance is the quality of its products and services relative to those of competitors. A quality edge boosts performance in two ways. In the short run, superior quality yields increased profits via premium prices. In the longer term, superior or improving relative quality is the more effective way for a business to grow, leading to both market expansion and gains in market share.”

The concept of quality as it relates to the software industry generally blends three perspectives. First, in many industries software is mission critical; meaning the features must be reliable and always work. For example, a financial services organization is not going to tolerate bugs/defects that result in posting errors. A bank needs to keep their debits and credits in the correct column; its just one of those regulatory things! The second perspective that directly impacts the customer experience is technical support. In the case of an issue or problem users can be very unforgiving if prompt attention and follow-up is lacking. The third area involves innovation. Software users expect applications to continuously evolve to meet their ever changing needs and desires. Each perspective is important, and consistent quality practices will help business managers make customer-focused decisions.

While passing my bookcase last night I felt compelled to pull out Peters and Waterman’s 1982 classic “In Search of Excellence.”  I found what I was looking for … in chapter six (“Close to the Customer”) I came across this golden nugget; “Service, quality, and reliability are strategies aimed at loyalty and long-term revenue stream growth.
Developing a Quality Obsession …

For purposes of this short conversation I’d like to focus on quality and reliability from a marketing perspective.  A recent article in Marketing News stated that “this year of recalls and disasters related to products made overseas have left American consumers feeling deceived and vulnerable … Consumers are yearning now for reliable, high-quality goods.”  Now, I’ve taken some liberty with the quote from the article above because the main focus was on the “Buy American … Made in the USA” theme.  However; one might get the feeling that suddenly quality and reliability are back in fashion.

Did quality and reliability ever really go out of fashion with customers?  I doubt it.  Which begs the next question: How do you define a quality-ready organization?  For me, a quality-ready organization is focused on quality assurance.  The American Society of Quality (ASQ) defines quality assurance as:

Software has become mission critical for most companies, as glitches with application software can cause serious business consequences.  When I talk to software development organizations they are quick to point out that software is increasingly determining the nature of the customer experience which means that software quality and reliability have become the new lifelines to customer loyalty and profitability.  For them quality-ready software development means being able to profitably design, develop, test and deliver quality software applications on time and within budget.

When I polled my marketing students for feedback concerning quality and reliability one response stood out:  “Quality and reliability are expected, and were your tickets to the dance in the first place.  If quality and reliability fail your chances of dancing with me again are slim.”

Are you building a Quality-Ready organization?  If not, your chance of dancing with the stars (loyal customers) is at risk.