Viewing Failures as Success

To properly evaluate a process or a product requires that an individual possess what most organizations view as a character flaw.  A good process/product evaluator is a zealot with a passion for failure.  Many organizations, through the acceptance and reliance on beta testing, have abandoned even trying to do this work.  Those responsible for creating the process or product attempt to evaluate their own work before giving it to the customers.

The challenges to doing good evaluation work are the realities of schedules and resource constraints.  While cognizant of these, evaluation places them second to the objective of quality.  There is a great difference between being right and not being wrong.  Ensuring that a process or a product is right requires taking a 360-degree view and then challenging all assumptions.  The objective is not to be perfect, just the best possible.

Evaluation requires a significant investment.  How do you compare the cost incurred against the resulting benefit?  Because quality is the objective of the exercise, there will be tangible reductions in the administration or support costs associated with the process or product.  More importantly, there will be a profound satisfaction felt by both the creators and the customers.