Business in India Quality
In the past few years, the Indian software and services industry has relentlessly pursued the goal of acquiring the highest standards of quality, thereby setting in place processes and procedures for offering world-class IT software products and services.
So, it is not surprising that as of October 2001, India has 32 companies at SEI CMM Level 5 assessment. It is understood that only 58 organizations across the world have acquired such an assessment. The motivation for Indian IT software and services companies to attain SEI CMM Level 5 assessment dates as far back as 1995, when Motorola’s unit in India acquired this certification.
The seed for quality was thus sown, and the following years have been that of ‘Quality’ transformation. The quality maturity of the Indian software industry can be measured by the fact that already 201 Indian software companies have acquired quality certification and about 64 more companies are in the pipeline.
And the other heartening feature, as mentioned, has been the growing acceptance and adoption of the newly emerging People-Capability Maturity Model (People-CMM) by the Indian software industry. For a country like India – with one of its large assets as a skilled human resources – the relevance of People CMM needs no emphasis. A large number of Indian IT software and services companies have been quick to this realisation and have either implemented or initiated relevant programs.
Need for Quality
- An IT software and services company today must be able to deliver a product or service that:
- meets customer requirements
- is delivered on time
- is able to work the first time
- is user friendly
- and is technically well designed and developed.
All this is usually achieved by:
- having a talented professional staff
- being customer aware
- working with a well-defined methodology
- and using the best available development and test tools.
Only a company committed to a quality culture is expected to meet all these parameters. Currently, there are many quality standards worldwide ranging from SEI CMM Maturity Level 1 to 5, PCMM, ISO 9000, Bootstrap, SPICE, etc. The costs of developing hardware or software (prescribing to a quality standard) vary greatly, depending on the level at which processes are already prescribed and documented.
The emphasis must be on total quality management, with certification being an important milestone. ISO 9000 is a useful framework for guiding quality improvement in a company, but it may not be an adequate measure of its quality level, tools, and methodologies. Quality is increasingly being seen as an essential business tool rather than just a useful one. Total quality culture rather than quality registration is more relevant to the final services delivered. A greater focus on ‘product quality as a complement to ‘process quality is the latest requirement. The emphasis must be on total quality management, with certification being an important milestone.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy and a way of conducting business, which emphasizes more sophisticated techniques of continual improvement. The requirements of ISO 9000 stop well short of the cultural environment that TQM is seeking to establish.
Indian companies are increasingly adapting to international quality standards. Today, the world looks toward the Indian IT software and services industry for its good quality and high-price performance. A World Bank-funded study conducted as early as 1992 to discuss Indian software strategies had concluded that more and more vendors in the US preferred to get their software developed in India for its quality and cost advantage.