On your computer screen, you have created a document with four terms: Error. Defect. Deviation. Nonconformity. The next moment, an employee inputs the wrong delivery date, a finished package has a torn seal, a piece of equipment reads a temperature out of the normal range, and a required inspection record is missing. In quality management, all four terms describe issues, yet they are not the…
“A careless operator caused another delay” might sound like a problem statement, but in truth, it isn’t. By saying an operator was careless, you are already stating the result of an investigation. You’re identifying a party (the operator), stating an assumption (carelessness) and you’ve left out any data that would help you investigate. A helpful problem statement says what the desired result should have been,…
Try to pick a process that you use regularly. A good candidate might be to respond to a customer request or submit an order or request approval for a document. Draw a box on the left with a first step and a box on the right with a finished state. Fill in between that first step and the end with all of the steps that…
“Make it look better.” What a seemingly useful quality requirement! But as soon as two people get to it, they have a different definition of “better.” Someone might emphasize its visual appeal, another its speed, and a third its accuracy. All three could be confident they met the same quality requirement, yet produce different results. Acceptance criteria provide an answer to this conundrum by detailing…