Michael Perelman wrote:
Someone like you who really knows the business does not have to rely on academics, so help me out here.
. Despite the horrendous sociological conditions that rapid industrialization has brought on the societal structure of Japan, W. Edwards Deming's priciples took hold in fertile ground, a society where the community/cooperative ethic was strong, That may have changed, but some things didn't. One may point to suicides, more disturbingly group suicides by adolecents, masses of unemployed sleeping in railway station across Japan, and people who 'look' like they are going to work in the morning but hang out at cafes all day because they are too embarassed to admit to their families that their job dissappeared, but that doen't imply that the basis of his philosophy is in any way diminished in the industrial realm, and software IS an industry. A hint to American software/hardware manufacturers, from a QA inspector who got disgusted with too much talk about quality assurance, milspec 415-D, ISO whatever-the-number, and all that, just to see those simple statistical calculations gerrymandered or abandoned at the whim of management's drive for bigger numbers @ the bottom line, and let the product and customer be damned. You're doomed. FWIW, a listmember @ [a-list] recently posted on Sony's Customer service. It was exactly what I expected. Read it and weep: http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2007w03/msg00059.htm Leigh
