WilliamEdwardsDeming's management philosophy can be best summarized by the
FourteenPoints for good management, from his book '
OutOfTheCrisis', ISBN 0911379010.
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- http://www.deming.org/theman/teachings02.html
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SteveCline
Actually, when I re-read them, I find many of the points consistent with the philosophies of
ExtremeProgramming - continuous improvement, end useless inspections, ensure quality as part of the process, bid work on best value rather than lowest cost, drive out fear, down barriers between departments, etc. --
SteveCline again
What Deming meant by inspection is closer to the idea system test than what we mean by code inspection.
ExtremeProgramming does not eliminate code inspection, rather, it attempts to move inspection closer to to the time of defect injection by the practice of
PairProgramming. --
CoreyLadas
As Deming's ideas took hold in Japan, they were refined by the people who created the Toyota Production System, particularly
ShigeoShingo. They had some principles that converged even more to XP: just-in-time production (do nothing until it is needed); and
PokaYoke or mistake-proofing, which meant techniques to prevent bad work from being produced. I think XP unit tests would be the software equivalent of
PokaYoke. --
BobHaugen
Deming was actually very critical of
PokaYoke methods, arguing against them in terms of the
TaguchiLossFunction. Like inspection,
PokaYoke is an after-the-fact technique that masks root cause. Deming clearly demonstrated why it is counterproductive to intervene in a process that is in a state of statistical control. XP units are
PokaYoke only if you think that the point of
TestDrivenDevelopment is testing. If you think the point of
TestDrivenDevelopment is design specification, then unit tests have nothing to do with
PokaYoke, and everything to do with
OperationalDefinitions. --
CoreyLadas
For some reason, I am always amazed at how the very Deming-esque ideas presented by XP (or even the ideas and proposals put forth in the
CluetrainManifesto) are considered "new-fangled" by a number of executives.
It's too bad Deming himself did not live long enough to see
SoftwareEngineering emerge and the various processes introduced (like XP). It would have been interesting to hear his perspective.
--
ChadThompson
See also:
ProfoundKnowledge,
CategoryManufacturing
CategoryBook