• http://www.juran.com/

• http://www.asq.org/juran/

• http://www.skymark.com/resources/leaders/juran.asp

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M._Juran

• http://www.qualitydigest.com/feb99/html/body_juran.html

The Blame Game:  We don't look often enough at the aspects of our personal and business lives that hinder our ability to function, to develop relationships, to interact with others (i.e., to become productive and effective individuals). These neglected or overlooked aspects can become "roadblocks" in our personal and business lives - roadblocks that keep us from “being who we can be.” Often we look at new, “state-of-the-art” ideas, concepts, and technology silver bullets to help change/improve ourselves or our corporations. We always think of “adding” these things to our lives to make a difference. We never seem to think that if we “subtract” or get rid of some things - roadblocks - in our lives, they might make more of a difference. One such roadblock we should think of subtracting is The Blame Game. Our individual and organizational propensity to blame can be a significant factor that weakens our foundations. This session describes how we can become aware of the blaming techniques of The Blame Game, the harm they cause, how much we are engaged in them, and how we can change these practices.

Author: Manfred (Fred) Hein       Date Posted: August 4, 2003

Authors: Eric Patel & Darin Kalashian      Date Posted: April 26, 2003

Making Sense of ISO 15504 (and SPICE): ISO 15504 was initiated in 1993 as the SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) Project, then formally moved into ISO/IEC as JTC1/SC7’s Working Group 10. The first draft appeared around June of 1995 and the second, around October of 1996. Several ballot and comment periods followed and ISO 15504 was issued as a Technical Report (TR) in 1998. Immediately thereafter, work was begun to plan the implementation of changes deemed needed to move the TR to full International Standard (IS) status. This work continues today and, during this time, activities under the name "SPICE" have continued as well such as a series of trials, which have used various versions of ISO 15504, including the TR. Though SPICE activities are not under ISO/IEC auspices, many of the people involved in the ISO 15504 standards effort are also associated with SPICE activities.

Author: Scott Duncan     Date Posted: January 29, 2003

Aligned Empowerment - Could it become a Buzzword?  Sit down with today’s manager and get into a discussion about “empowerment” and see what kind of reaction you get.  Generally a yawn, right?  You might get a shrug, a nod, or maybe even rolling eyes but it would probably be a rare day to find anyone getting genuinely exited about such a dated topic.  While the word "empowerment" may no longer be in vogue, the “concept” behind empowerment remains strong. Empowerment is a basic staple of good management and in a growing number of organizations power is shifting from managers to employees.  Jim's article discusses empowerment and how to ensure that empowerment is "aligned" through information sharing.

Author: Jim Austin     Date Posted: Nov 4, 2002

How to Create Useful Software Process Documentation: Whether our organization is using ISO 9001, the Software Engineering Institutes Capability Maturity Model - Integrated^SM, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma or some other quality framework, one of the cornerstones of any of these frameworks is to document our processes.  Unfortunately efforts to document our process often end up in voluptuous volumes of verbosity that sit on the shelf and gather dust.   How to Create Useful Software Process Documentation introduces the reader to a simple, practical method for defining and documenting software processes that are easy to understand, easy to use and easy to maintain.

This paper was presented as an invited speaker paper at the 11th International Conference on Software Quality (11ICSQ).

Author: Linda Westfall        Date Posted: Mar 25, 2002

Process Definition Template: Utilize this template to document your software process definitions.  This template can be used to implement the techniques described in the How to Create Useful Software Process Documentation paper.  This paper also includes an example of a completed version of this template.

Author: Linda Westfall        Date Posted: Sept 11, 2002

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