Influencing Eskimos to buy Refrigerators

Selling Quality to Senior Management

My identity▪ Ramkumar ‘Ram’ Ramachandran▪ Captive IT unit of Euro-Japanese Automobile Giant▪ GM – Quality & Testing ▪ Global Service Delivery viz. US, UK, China, Singapore,

France, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Bahrain, Kuwait etc.

▪ Aeronautical Engineer / IIMC Alumni ▪ CSQA, CISA, PMP, SAFe Agilist▪ ramkumarramachandran@yahoo.co.in

Disclaimer▪ The content is purely out of my personal experience and

is not out of any research conducted by me or anyone else

▪ Approaches provided here would work in most of the scenarios, but the organizational culture would be a major game changer

▪ CONSIDER-CONSUME-DIGEST-BENEFIT

What’s inside!▪ Why this conflict?▪ The Communication Gap▪ What Senior Management ‘Actually’ Wants▪ The Business Influencers▪ Process Ownership▪ Take the Risk Route▪ Build the Right Team▪ Invest in Innovation▪ Re-Cap

QAManagement

Delivery

Quality

Team

Enterprise

Senior Management CommitmentWe have zero-tolerance to bad

quality…!The biggest investment we

have made in our organization is on quality

We don’t mind having a bad customer to whom we have

delivered good quality

Quality is Numero-Uno parameter for all of us…!

We don’t mind bending backward to bring in quality in our services

We will not bill the customer for any proven

bad quality deliveries

Why this conflict, when quality matters most?▪ In IT industry Quality Models are ‘evolving’▪ ‘Waste’ is not evident▪ Rules could ‘significantly’ vary based on domain & technology▪ Revenue leakages not tracked effectively – Rework / Low

Productivity etc.▪ Quality Professionals do not appreciate technology – Well, Mostly…!

▪ A crowd out there, harps on documents – for proving quality…!▪ Super Heroes / Pockets of Excellence encouraged▪ Systems that suits West implemented in Indian IT companiesSelling becomes

tough…!

Senior Management Vs. Quality – The Communication Gap

Bring Business

Get ISO Certified

Improve Bottom-

line

Get CMMI

Assessed

Improve Profits

Comply to ITIL

Impact of Differences

Give me ResourcesWhat are you doing? Give me a raiseWhat is the value you add? Give me onsiteYou are only a support function

NCs are not closedBut delivery has been good

What does Senior Management bother about?▪ Revenue▪ Profit▪ Customer Loyalty / Satisfaction▪ Key Employee Retention▪ Investor’s Interest▪ Board’s Appreciation

So, what do you do now?

Management Maturity Vs. Quality Focus

Business Excellence

Person Independent / Predictable Deliveries

Reactive / Business

Adhoc / Business

Man

agem

ent

Mat

urity

Tune your expectations

Based on the Maturity

Map Business Goals to ‘Influencers’Revenue

• Productivity

• Good delivery model

Profit

• Less Rework

• High through put

CSAT

• Consistent Good Deliveries

• Vendor Responsiveness

Talk only about ‘Influencers’

Delivery Owned Process▪ Engineering Process Group SHOULD be owned by Delivery▪ Quality Team brings global best practices into QMS ▪ High visibility to Senior Management on EPG activities▪ No cribs: -

– ‘It’s QA Team’s processes’– ‘This process doesn’t fit me’

▪ Quality Team ensures that there is no ‘undue’ dilution of controls

QMS

Senior Managem

ent Recommendations

Best Practices

Operations

Take the Risk RouteHow do you bring in consistency in delivery operations across team?

If a delivery is made successful without practicing process, how to replicate success?

How do you know the un-reviewed code is the most optimal one?

This project looks to be cooking up documents for audit, which will have sustenance issues

There seems to be too many inter-sprint changes, which will make

application too volatileLate deliveries to Testing are eating into regression, which

could lead to heavy defect leakagesThe Product Owner is evidenced to have limited domain knowledge, which could lead to UAT issues

Doing a Fixed Bid project under iterative model will lead to huge revenue loss

Formal Communication Channels

Operational Inputs to Delivery Teams

SQA

Tactical Inputs / Alerts to Delivery Heads

SQA Manager

Strategic Project / Program Risks to CEO

Delivery Excellence Head

Build the Right Team▪ Team that ‘thoroughly believes’ quality▪ Team that appreciates ‘Delivery Nuances’▪ Team Leads / Managers who are strong Communicators▪ Team Leads / Managers who can ‘see beyond the obvious’▪ Managers who can ‘make a point without making an enemy’▪ Team that ‘learns continuously’▪ Team that can outgrow their role very quickly

Your Team is your Ambassador

Invest in InnovationKaizen

Six SigmaInnovation

• Define QMS • Implement QMS

• Validate Compliance

• Take CAPA for violation

Plan Do

CheckAct

Re-Cap▪ Talk the Business Language▪ Never talk about non-compliance, talk only ‘Business

Risks’▪ Make Delivery Teams own the Process▪ Have a Team that shares your Dreams▪ Communicate effectively at all levels▪ Believe & Invest in Innovation

And…now

Ask Me Anything

How do we meet again?My LinkedIn PageAll my knowledge is like open source, you can take it and extend it and return it…!

THANK YOU