How does the Customer influence your definition of Quality ?
Most definitions of ‘Quality’ are very esoteric, quantitative, or routinely bookish and highly cliched. We struggle to connect those definitions to everyday life objects, actions and experiences. We all say that we want quality, but how do we really relate our daily actions to those theoretical definitions? Do these everyday actions effectvely demonstrate our love for a specific aspect of quality - something that we would not have done otherwise? Of course, we surely do several things. Choosing brands is one - in our mind, a great brand invokes strong emotions of reliability, safety, childhood memories, family bonds, hygiene, fairness, value for money…the list is endless (and another endless list for negative emotions that lousy brands invoke !). Apart from choosing a specific brand, does our behavior refelect what we consider as ‘quality’ in everyday life.  In my view, Quality is that differentiator in...
What is your Software Development Religion today ? And where does the Customer fit in that ?
The Swiss Army manual says: When the map and the terrain disagree, trust the terrain. However, in software industry, there seems to be an unending effort to make sure the terrain is retrofitted so that it looks much more like the map in hand ! So, I have modified the Swiss Army saying to suit the reality in the software development community as: When the real-life and bookish process definition differs, it clearly shows you have not understood the bookish definition, and hence you must change the real-life until it looks like the bookish definition and then trust the bookish definition. Statutory Health Warning: Reading this blog post further could be bad for health, especially for those who love the process vocabulary more than the process intent, see the means more clearly than the ends and anyday favor the established...