Dilemma of a Software Quality Professional

The prominence of the Software Quality function in the IT companies was mainly due to the Software CMM, which required an independent function to deploy and monitor adherence to the defined processes in the projects. The role of the Software Quality personnel was initially to help the project tailor the standard processes to their specific needs and to audit for conformance. The model did not make it clear that as the organization matured ownership for processes and quality of deliverables should be well integrated with the delivery teams (project teams) so that the so-called overheads are minimized.

The customer needs and priorities always revolve around the project results at better cost efficiencies. But, the Quality group is seldom in the loop with the customer because of lack of visibility or the customer organization's choice to keep the communication through the delivery teams only.So, as years passed, the role of the Quality group has stagnated to maintaining the processes, for whatever its worth, and to run certain routine checks and balances. Having reduced to a support function, rather than an expert consultant, the Quality professional finds himself/herself facing an uninteresting career prospect in the organization, mostly limited to operational management activities. In the worse scenario he/she is treated as a necessary evil because of the compulsion of keeping the quality certifications alive. CMM caused harm by separating the Software Quality function from the Project Management and not emphasizing on the integration of the responsibility of quality with the project manager's responsibilities. CMMI has not done much in improving the prospects of the Software Quality Professional, and the story will continue with more assessments and added administrative tracking that has been introduced in V1.2 of SCAMPI. Commiserations to the Software Quality Professional!