According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has received considerable academic attention in the past few years. But the nature of the exact relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction (especially in the way the two constructs have been operationalized) is still shrouded with uncertainty. Many researchers have operationalized customer satisfaction by using a single item scale and many others have used multiple item scales. The present study adopts a different approach and views customer satisfaction as a multi dimensional construct just as service quality, but argues that customer satisfaction should be operationalized along the same factors (and the corresponding items) on which service quality is operationalized. Based on this approach, the link between service quality and customer satisfaction has been investigated. The results have indicated that the two constructs are indeed independent but are closely related, implying that an increase in one is likely to lead to an increase in another.

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction – a factor specific approach

Safety management practices and safety behaviour: assessing the mediating role of safety knowledge and motivation.

While the quality literature abounds with prescriptions for how quality should be managed, no one has proposed an organization-theory explanation for how quality is managed in organizations. This paper proposes a system-structural model of quality management that relates organizational quality context, actual quality management, ideal quality management, and quality performance. The relationships between organizational quality context and actual and ideal quality management are investigated using data collected from 152 managers from 77 business units of 20 manufacturing and service companies. A previously reported instrument is used to measure managers' perceptions of ideal and actual quality management in terms of eight critical factors including product/service design, training, employee relations, and top management leadership. Several measures are used to characterize organizational quality context including company type, company size, degree of competition, and corporate support for quality. The results indicate that organizational quality context influences managers' perceptions of both ideal and actual quality management. This suggests that knowledge of organizational quality context is useful for explaining and predicting quality management practice. Important contextual variables are corporate support for quality, past quality performance, managerial knowledge, and the extent of external quality demands.

The effects of organizational context on quality management: An empirical investigation

This paper summarizes the current state of the art and recent trends in software engineering economics. It provides an overview of economic analysis techniques and their applicability to software engineering and management. It surveys the field of software cost estimation, including the major estimation techniques available, the state of the art in algorithmic cost models, and the outstanding research issues in software cost estimation.

Software engineering economics

The factors of ever-increasing customer demand, global competition, and software quality have made the process of software development with a focus on quality quite demanding and challenging. Over the past few years the organizations engaged in the software business have been forced to adopt new managerial philosophies and techniques that seek to address the technical and human issues for an effective software-quality management. Many organizations have started adopting Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy, which aims at ‘quality through the process of continuous improvement, teamwork, and customer satisfaction’, as a useful tool for enhancing software quality. In this article, the critical factors of quality management in software are identified from an exhaustive survey of the literature, and propose a conceptual framework for the implementation of TQM in the software industry.

A conceptual framework for total quality management in software organizations

Most of the available literature on quality management is based on management's perception; few studies examine critical issues of quality management from the customer's perspective, especially in the software industry. In order to gain an insight into what customers expect from a product/service, an analysis of quality management from customer's point of view is essential. Such an understanding would help the managers to adopt strategies that can enhance the satisfaction level of their customers. The present study highlights the critical factors of quality management in the software industry from the customer's perspective. Six critical factors are identified: and an instrument, comprising these factors, is developed and validated so as to measure the customer's perception of quality management in the software industry.

An instrument for the measurement of customer perceptions of quality management in the software industry: An empirical study in India

The software industry has felt the impact of global competition, and software quality practitioners are seeing total quality management (TQM) as a competitive strategy to help gain a competitive advantage. Factors critical to TQM in the software industr..

A Holistic Framework for TQM in the Software Industry: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

An empirical study conducted in the software industry in India addresses total quality management (TQM), ISO 9000, the capability maturity model standards, and the consequent operational-performance indicators of organizations. Results of the study show..

Significance of Quality Certification: The Case of the Software Industry in India

This paper presents a view that the key to software quality lies in satisfying customers. Such a view of defining software quality from the customer's perspective is in line with the Total Quality Management (TQM) implemented in the manufacturing and service sectors. Although the importance of customer-perceived quality is recognized worldwide, especially in the manufacturing, marketing and service organizations, it appears that there exists no rigorous framework for measuring customer- perception of software quality. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for customer-perceived software quality and an instrument to measure it.

George Issac

Papers

A conceptual framework for total quality management in software organizations

An instrument for the measurement of customer perceptions of quality management in the software industry: An empirical study in India

A Holistic Framework for TQM in the Software Industry: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

Significance of Quality Certification: The Case of the Software Industry in India

Determinants of software quality: Customer's perspective