The Next Generation of Process and Quality

Building Quality into Your SCM Process
Your automated SCM process will have a lot of good things going for it, but it will also have problems, such as the following:

• the process breaks down when a key person is on vacation;
• the process needs to be modified when you comply with urgent requests;
• when you let developers request features, you may forget to run them by the customer.

The final step of process capability is to allow you to change your process dynamically so that you can respond in a timely manner to such problems as they crop up. By responding, you're improving the quality of your process. Like all changes, of course, process changes need careful review as well, but as you address these problems one by one, you really are maturing your process, resulting in a higher-quality product.

In order to build this level of maturity into your process, you need to be able to easily modify the process over time. This may involve several capabilities, including:

• The ability to add extra data or properties to describe objects (e.g., “These problems are on a gating list, preventing the release to production”). In some cases, this means adding data fields to your schema or allowing new values for existing fields. In others, it means ensuring that you can reference other objects from this object.

• Data-driven process is preferred over scripting, as it allows the process to be more clearly visible, which in turn allows changes to be less error prone and probably faster to implement.

• Simplicity provided through higher-level scripting or even graphical configuration.

If you can quickly identify the cause of problems within your automated process and easily correct them, you're on your way to improving quality. This happens incrementally; a continuous improvement process.

In the End
After all is said and done, you can clearly define your process once you understand what you need to manage and you define the object flow for each object and the work flow across the entire ALM function. Advanced process tools that integrate with your CM or ALM function allow you to put your finger on the cause of each problem, thus making it much easier to improve quality.

Next-generation tools will speed your automation and improvement processes through their advanced capabilities and end-to-end integration of data and configuration tools. The benefits to your product will become obvious in short order, but the benefit in terms of team satisfaction will go beyond improved productivity, allowing team members to feel satisfied with their work.