An effective Quality Assessment Framework must be holistic.It should address the four dimensions of Quality (the 4 Ps) – the Product, the Process used to develop the product, the People involved in developing the product and the Propellers i.e. enablers for high quality products, processes and people.
The slide below shows the areas which can be typically assessed under the 4 P dimensions of Quality :
While the well known frameworks like CMMI, ISO 9001, PCMM, ITSM, Agile, Excellence Models etc. do address the 4Ps, they are not equally focused on all the dimensions.
Therefore it will be worthwhile exercise for an organization to develop an integrated QMS (Quality Management System) based on 4P Framework. Such an holistic framework needs to leverage proven models like CMMI, PCMM, ISO9001, ITSM, Agile etc. yet should be customizable according to business needs. A simple yet rigorous assessment methodology can also be developed in-house for the organization to benchmark itself against its QMS and set goals for continuous improvement.
