Development and Validation of Quality Management Constructs For Software Industries

Abstract

Global competition, which has now become fierce because of newlineadvancements in technology and changing equations in the global economy, has newlinemade its impact on the software industry as well; various studies have been done newlinein the manufacturing and service sectors to find out the relation between quality newlinemanagement practices and operational performance. This study in the software newlineindustry is to develop and validate the quality management constructs. newlineLiterature survey is done to find out the work done in quality management area in newlinethe manufacturing and service sectors.The critical factors of quality management implementation were identified newlinefrom this and from personal contact from the people working in the software newlinearea. Data was collected from software companies with regard to their quality newlinemanagement practices and its effect on the different organizational parameters. newlineDimensional analysis of top performing companies are done to do the clustering newlineof dimensions in the response collected. The coefficient of range and coefficient newlineof variation of quality management factors are done to find out their consistency newlinein the response collected data.. Quality management can be achieved only with newlinecontinuous improvement. The main aim of this study is to develop and validate a newlineperformance measure and their items/variables .in the practice of quality newlinemanagement. After a through synthesis of the quality management literature and newlinediscussions held with software practioners and academicians twelve newlineperformance measures are developed; top management commitment and newlinexiii newlineleadership, quality policy, employee training, software product design, quality newlineinformation system ,employee participation, human resources management, newlinecontinuous improvement, organization culture, infra- structure and facilities and newlinefinancial growth. A survey instrument is developed to collect the data by using newlinesnowball sampling from the real software practitioners. newline