Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level

Developing an Adaptive, High-Performance Agile Approach

The Influence of Total Quality Management (TQM) Part 1

1
The Influence of Total Quality Management (TQM)
Part 1

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 2

In this first section, we’re going to discuss the influence of Total Quality Management (TQM).

2
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?

Total Quality Management (TQM) was originated by W. Edwards Deming

in the automotive industry in Japan

• Caused Japanese automotive manufacturers to gain significant market share

against American cars
• Requires a very different approach to quality management

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 3

Total Quality Management (TQM) was originated by W. Edwards Deming in the automotive industry
in Japan. After World War II, Japanese products were noted for being of very poor quality and
Japan had almost no market share in the automotive industry.

TQM was a revolutionary new approach at that time to optimizing the quality of products and
caused Japanese automotive manufacturers to gain significant market share against American cars

It requires a very different approach to quality management

3
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?

Prior to total quality management, the emphasis was on inspection to find defects

Requires labor to find defects

Inspection technique can never be 100% complete

“Quality” is seen as the inspector’s responsibility

Results in unnecessary rework and scrap

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 4

Prior to TQM, the primary approach to quality management was heavily based on quality control
and inspection…you typically had a number of inspectors at the end of an assembly line whose job
was to inspect products and find defects. They rejected the products that they found with defects
and those products either went back for rework or were scrapped. There are a number of
problems that are inherent to that approach:

1. Requires Labor to Find Defects – it can require a significant number of inspectors to

perform a relatively complete inspection on products to find defects

2. Inspection Technique Can Never be 100% Complete – Even with a large number of
inspectors; however, all inspection approaches rely on sampling and because 100%
sampling is rarely practical, some defects will ultimately be missed and will slip through and
get to the consumer

3. “Quality” is Seen as the Inspector’s Responsibility – A very important problem is that

“quality” is sometimes seen as the responsibility of the inspectors which doesn’t result in a
broad-based commitment to achieve high levels of quality throughout the organization.

4. Results in Unnecessary Rework and Scrap – Finally, when defects are found at the last
minute before the product is ready to ship, a significant amount of rework and/or scrap
might be required

4
 Even after all of that, the overall quality of the
finished product may still be very mediocre

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 5

All of that was extremely inefficient and resulted in very poor quality. It was a systemic problem
that was inherent in the way quality was managed in those days. TQM required a considerable
amount of rethinking of the whole approach to managing quality in order to find a much more
efficient and effective systemic approach to achieve much higher levels of quality.

5
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?

The Philosophy behind TQM was that:

Instead of inspecting for defects at the end of the production line,

The emphasis was placed on:

Going upstream in the process,

Building quality into the products as they were built, and

Eliminating defects at the source.

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 6

The primary shift in thinking behind TQM was that instead of inspecting for defects at the end of
the production line which was the primary way of implementing quality management in the typical
assembly line process prior to TQM, the emphasis was placed on going upstream in the process,
building quality into the products as they were built, and eliminating defects at the source.

6
 Agile is also based on going upstream in the
process and building quality into the product as
it is built and eliminating defects at the source
as much as possible

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 7

I think you can see how this same kind of thinking helped to influence an Agile product
development approach. In the original Waterfall approach, quality testing was done sequentially
with development in a similar way to how quality control and inspection was originally done in a
manufacturing assembly line prior to TQM.

Agile was based on going upstream in the process and building quality into the product as it was
built and eliminating defects as much as possible at the source just as it was done in a
manufacturing environment with TQM.

7
Key TQM Principles

Cease Dependence on Inspection and Build Quality Into the Product

Traditional Approach Agile Approach

Testing is the responsibility of the Everyone on the team needs to be

QA or QC organization responsible for quality, it is not “someone
else’s responsibility”.

It is up to that organization to find QA testers should be an integral part of the

defects development team.

Cobb, Charles G., The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile –

Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach, Wiley 2015

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 8

There were a total of 14 points behind TQM that were originally created by Dr. Deming in the
Japanese automotive industry but I’ve summarized them a bit into five key points that I believe are
the most important ones and the ones that continue to have the most relevance today in an Agile
development approach:

1. The first is “Cease Dependence on Inspection and Build Quality Into the Product” – Probably
the most important principle in TQM is that you have to go upstream in the process and
eliminate defects at the source by designing the process to be inherently reliable rather than
relying heavily on inspection to find defects at the end of the production process.

An important implication of this is that Instead of testing and quality being the responsibility of
the QA or QC organization to find defects, everyone on the team needs to be responsible for
“quality” and needs to take pride in developing high quality products that are free of defects
and provide high levels of satisfaction to users. That’s a very important shift in thinking that
needs to take place.

In a traditional quality management approach:

• Testing is the responsibility of the QA or QC organization

• It is up to that organization to find defects

In an Agile approach:

• Everyone on the team needs to be responsible for quality, it is not “someone else’s
responsibility”.

8
• QA testers should be an integral part of the development team.

8
Key TQM Principles

Cease Dependence on Inspection and Build Quality Into the Product

Traditional Approach Agile Approach

Testing is done sequentially with

Testing should be done as a parallel and
development and after a significant
integral part of development rather
amount of development has been
than as a separate, sequential activity
completed.

Cobb, Charles G., The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach, Wiley 2015

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 9

Here’s how that principle applies to Agile:

• Prior to Agile, a Waterfall approach might typically have done testing separately and sequentially
from the development effort, by a separate organization, and after most of the development
process had been completed. That approach is very similar to the old manufacturing inspection
approach and has all of the same problems: unnecessary costs of resources for inspection,
reliance on sampling reduces overall quality, and lack of a broad-based commitment to quality.

• In an Agile approach, “quality” is everyone’s responsibility…it is not someone else’s job and it is
an integral part of the development process rather than a sequential effort that is done later by
a separate organization.

9
Key TQM Principles

Cease Dependence on Inspection and Build Quality Into the Product

Traditional Approach Agile Approach

User Acceptance testing is Quality is not just reduction of

typically done as a sequential defects, it is producing a product that
effort once all development and is going to provide high levels of user
testing has been completed satisfaction

Cobb, Charles G., The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach, Wiley 2015

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 10

• In a traditional approach, user acceptance testing is typically done as a sequential effort once all
development and testing has been completed and it is typically limited to validating that the
product meets the previously defined requirements and has no significant defects

• Agile also adopts a much broader definition of “quality”. It is not just reduction of defects. It is
producing a product that is going to produce high levels of user satisfaction.

10
 A fundamentally different approach to quality is
needed to build products efficiently and
effectively that are not only free of defects but
also provide very high levels of business value
and user satisfaction

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 11

The key point is that a fundamentally different approach to quality is needed to build products
efficiently and effectively that are not only free of defects but also provide very high levels of
business value and user satisfaction. Instead of relying heavily on inspection to find defects after
the product has been developed and built, quality should be an integral part of the process for
designing and building products and users need to be much more engaged in providing feedback
and inputs to maximize business value and user satisfaction.

11
 NEXT LECTURE…
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
PART 2

© 2014-2019 High Impact Project Management, Inc. 12

In the next lecture, we’re going to continue our discussion of the Influence of TQM on Agile

12