Rhea Stadick, Intel
It is a common pattern for quality advocates or advocates of any kind really (Agile, Waterfall, etc.) to start off banging a drum with almost religious zealotry. “This is the way to achieve quality!” “Follow me or be cast aside!” I have certainly done this and many of the change agents and forward thinkers I respect in the industry have struggled with this as well in their careers. However, riding a train of dogmatic viewpoints and practices has, in many cases, ruined the original efforts of change agents and more tragically, created bad patterns of development. This paper and presentation will explore how we can clarify our intentions and work towards creating an environment where the people involved are empowered to think and experiment but still march in the same general direction. As product development becomes more and more complex, different approaches are needed to get to the right outcome and we can no longer afford to apply rigid methods that worked for a simpler environment. This paper will help the audience think critically about where they are being too dogmatic in their quality efforts while introducing some new ways of thinking around complex adaptive systems and complex product development.
