The quality discussion is a hard one to have – within teams, and within an organization. Lyssa Adkins, author of Coaching Agile Teams, sent out this inspirational quote along with the following question in one of her newsletters.
Quote: Quality is not an act, it is a habit – Aristotle
“If your product was dinner, would you serve it to your children?”
I wrote back to her and we had a great discussion. I suggested that it wasn’t the best analogy because I often gave my children peanut butter sandwiches if I was in a hurry. I know give my grandchildren macaroni and cheese (because it’s their favourite) which is not a high quality meal by any standards.
We refined the question to be more like this ….
“If your product was dinner, would you serve it to your in-laws or maybe your boss?
Another question that you may want to ask your team is …
“Do your customers actually like using your product, or do they just tolerate it?”
These questions won’t necessarily answer your quality question, but they can get the conversation started. On agile teams, quality is everyone’s job so start by having the discussion. Don’t ignore it.
2 comments on “A Quality Discussion”
I found your discussion very enlightening. I add the agile view and think the lab test the cook does before the final dinner as how we develop our values to the customer. The customer representative, PO and team are in the lab as often as needed to taste and adjust the deliveries during the lab work to make sure the final dinner has the right composition, quality and value.
Janne, I like that analogy. Thanks for sharing.