At present, there is no methodology or solution strategy available for an organization that wants or needs to establish a quality system. By providing this, organizations may be better able to select and effectively apply appropriate quality tools to solve relevant problems. Team 726 is using DFSS/DMADV to establish a Quality Systems Development Roadmap (e.g. flowcharts, decision trees) for an organization to launch a new quality program using application templates from the Lean/Six Sigma/Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT). The approach will be validated by applying it to the early stages of developing a quality system for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) End to End Operations division.

What's the best quality system? In the July 2003 issue of Quality Progress, this question is examined by reflecting on a question that any quality professional might encounter during his or her career: "My company has just charged me with starting a quality program. Where do I start?" The collection of articles included by the editor outline ISO 9000, Quality Operating System, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean and Six Sigma combined, Deming/systems thinking, complexity theory, Baldrige criteria, combinations of the above, and unique approaches, but the full article ultimately fail to answer the central question that was posed. Though the differences between quality systems, methodologies, and design tools are obscured (a common problem in the literature addressing quality issues), the "key linkages" between the quality approaches are identified providing a very useful overview of how they interrelate. What is still needed, however, is a general approach to determining what quality system(s) should be used (if any), what methodologies to apply to which processes, and how to select appropriate quality tools (e.g. APQP, FMEA, QFD) for the questions that need to be answered while initiating a quality system.

There are many quality methodologies, systems and tools in existence today. There are third party concepts and standards (ISO 9000, Malcolm Baldrige) and variations of standards specific to industries (e.g. AS 9100, TS-16949). There can be individually tailored quality systems designed for a specific business or business unit. It may be difficult for an organization to choose which quality system to apply to meet their specific and individual needs. However, new companies, organizations without an enterprise quality system, or organizations just starting to implement quality can have a difficult time determining what systems, methodologies or tools to use. There is no tool, no checksheet and no internet guide to implement a quality system where one currently does not exist that will meet an organizational need "out of the box". There is no framework with which to choose a quality system. There are consultants who can recommend specific products, but no structured path exists to assist an organization with making decisions that are firmly founded in the research literature or organizational best practices. (Olson) There is no all-encompassing process or tool to assist organizations in making decisions about what aspect of quality to use based on organizational factors, situations and conditions.

This is a problem for the organization leaders and specifically staff charged with implementing a quality system or performing quality related tasks. Developing a solution to this problem would assist organizations introducing quality to their organization for the first time as well as organizations with existing quality methods or tools who need help determining what methods or tools to use.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has launched its End to End Operations initiative whose goals, in part, include eliminating waste and rework in software development and user support. We must answer the question raised by Quality Progress in 2003. NRAO is a national laboratory that operates major research instrumentation, producing data and science products so that astronomers and other researchers can make new discoveries about basic physics and the universe. But the organization has been criticized in the past by review panels for its inefficiencies in software development. End to End Operations was launched in April 2006 to break down barriers in communication between software development and service delivery and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of each area. In 2006 the work was focused on relationship building, team building, identifying early initiatives, identifying funding, and establishing management relationships.

To reduce variation in day-to-day, mundane tasks, and establish a foundation for process improvement, it is now important to develop a framework quality system for the new group to execute the initiatives that have been defined, and to provide completely traceable and auditable reports of what has been done and how well the group is achieving its objectives. Finding a process to guide this challenging activity is now critical.

If you wish to test or apply this roadmap for use with your research or in your organization, please use the following citation:

Olson, D., Radziwill, N., Lippert, T., Vollmar, A., Mattis, T.B., Van 
Dewark, K., Sinn, J.W. (2006). Quality Systems Development Roadmap, 
version 1. Retrieved from http://www.nrao.edu/~nradziwi/qs726 on 
Month DD, YEAR.