QW2001 Paper 9M1

Mr. Michael J. Hillelsohn
(Software Performance Systems)

Organizational Performance Engineering: Quality Assurance For The 21st Century

Key Points

Presentation Abstract

In too many organizations, quality assurance is relegated to verification and validation activities and is separate from training and software process improvement organizational elements. Proactive quality assurance is actually a multi-disciplinary set of activities that combine these three organizational elements into organizational performance engineering. The approach being advocated uses techniques from quality assurance and control, training, program management, business process reengineering, and software process improvement disciplines to analyze the organization’s practices and behaviors and initiate in-process interventions. The philosophy of organizational performance engineering is based on the notion that people really do like to do things correctly and really hate to go back and rework what they have already completed. It is a pro-active approach that emphasizes preventing problems and defects from occurring.

About the Author

Michael J. Hillelsohn is a Director, Product Assurance at Software Performance Systems (SPS) in Arlington, VA. SPS builds secure e-commerce, case management, and network solutions for government and industry clients. Mr. Hillelsohn is a certified quality professional with more than thirty years of experience doing development, management and performance improvement in software and systems development environments. His multi-disciplinary approach combines quality systems and training expertise to improve the performance of organizations and individuals. Mr. Hillelsohn’s process-oriented, performance engineering methods facilitate adoption of external frameworks (CMM, ISO, Baldrige) to improve the quality of organizational products and services.