Value is in the Eyes of the Beholder: Quality

In an earlier post, I introduced six Key Value Factors that I consider to be drivers of high value perception:

• Timeliness
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Responsiveness
• Quality
• Integrity

In this post, I will expand upon the fifth factor:  Quality.  I will do so by defining what it means and discussing what it entails.  While the focus of this post is based on my experience and approach at Remote DBA Experts, these factors are universal and thus applicable in multiple individual and business contexts.  Being timely, efficient, effective, responsive, and delivering quality output with high integrity will score big on anyone’s value scorecard.  That is why awareness of them is so important!

What is Quality?

My definition of quality comes from my days at Westinghouse.  Their Productivity and Quality Center came up with what I consider to be a great definition:

“Doing the right things right the first time”

It is a straightforward, yet meaningful, definition.  So let’s delve into what it all means.

What does Quality entail?

There are three aspects to the definition:

1. Doing the right things.
2. Doing them right.
3. Doing them right the first time.

Before getting into them, let me say that Quality, like the other Value Factors, is an Attitude embedded in individuals and in the organization’s culture.  Quality has the same enablers as the other factors:

• Processes
• Procedures
• Methods
• Tools
• Information

You must want to “do the right things right the first time” and be expected, enabled, and encouraged by the organization to do so.  Now let me get back to what it entails:

Doing the right thing means that the first thing you need to do in order to deliver quality is to know what the right things are.

• What are you supposed to do, deliver, accomplish?
• What are the expectations, requirements, specifications, SLAs, etc.?
  • When is it expected?
  • How is it expected?
  • Etc.

Once you know what the target is, you can deliver it better.

Doing them right means that you have to meet the expectations, requirements, etc.  It means delivering what the customer needs, wants, or expects.  Not only are the quality attributes important, but the time dimension also plays a key role in perception.  The right thing has to be done right at the right time.  It can be well done but late and make the quality aspects be less meaningful.  While I have treated Timeliness as a separate Factor, it is also a critical dimension for this Factor!

Doing them right the first time has internal and external implications.  It means that you minimize rework and thus save time and money on the company side.  The external implication is a time implication.  Rework implies taking longer to complete a project, and thus, affecting the Timeliness Factor perception, and its influence on the Quality Factor.

Probably more than any of the other factors, Quality is in the “eyes of the beholder”.  You must set and manage this expectation more than any other. Quality can become a fuzzy factor if not carefully managed.  Keep that in mind!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO