There is a
particular section – especially two sentences – from the PeopleWare eBook that has become quite literally lodged in my head.
“In some Japanese companies, notably Hitachi
Software and parts of Fujitsu, the project team has an effective power of veto
over delivery of what they believe to be a not-yet-ready product.”
And
“Enough of a quality culture has been built up so
that these Japanese managers know better than to bully their workers into
settling for lower quality. Could you give your people power of veto over
delivery?”
My Japanese wife
will simply point out that being a hairy white barbarian I naturally have no
concept of good quality or culture, hence I cannot marry the two concepts
together. Going beyond the humor of our cross cultural marriage these are quite
profound statements.
Imagine being on
a project team and having the final say. No pressure from the project manager,
your manager, senior managers, directors, they all understand that quality is
first and if the product is not a quality product you do not deliver.
Quality initiatives
can come in any forms. Often they are driven from the ground up. The truly
professional motivated IT people will brand together, set standards, establish
principles and seek to eliminate poor practices. However without management
support these ideas are likely to last more than a week, maybe a month if you
are really keen. The constant and often overbearing demand for an output – be
it any output – overrides the ideal of quality. How many times has a senior
manager pursed their lips and said “I don’t care, it needs to be done”.
Managers
themselves – often aware of the technical debt or far from complimentary
feedback on their teams’ products – may also embark on quality initiatives. The
more senior ones will have enough authority and budget to essential to drive
these initiatives. Teams will respond to this. Managers may lack the details of
implementing quality. At a detail level they will need to trust and empower
their team members. However such great ideas will get derailed by others whom
will politic, escalate and literally yell to get things done.
Therein lays the
obvious yet challenging secret to the Japanese success. Culture. They all
accept it. It is an establish professional protocol. Not a fad, not a CIP, not
a fancy presentation from a suite wearing smooth latté slipping consultant. You
don’t need to sell an ideal to a group that have in established from birth. The
entire organization buys, they all accept it. And therein lies the reason for
sustainable success – the entire organization buying in.
It makes you think
of John Lennon’s famous lyrics “imagine all the projects, with quality outcomes…”
