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| PRABHU
SINHA |
Satyam
has been a major name in quality consciousness in the Indian
IT industry. Satyam, as a company, has a high process capability.
This means that its Quality Management System is mature, comprehensive
and institutionalised. Satyam’s metrics programme has
ensured that process capability is measured quantitatively
and used in all projects to set performance goals and meet
them. Regular company baselines also demonstrate that Satyam
has achieved a significant return of investment from its quality
movement. The relative improvements observed over the past
two years (1999 and 2000) in development projects are 20 percent
reduction in effort variance, 50 percent reduction in schedule
variance, 12 percent improvement in product quality and 10
percent increase in defect removal efficiency.
In maintenance projects, Satyam’s defect removal efficiency
ranges between 95 to 100 percent. Over the past three years,
Satyam has also achieved a 70 percent improvement in product
quality in maintenance projects. In bug-fixing and support
engagements, Satyam has a 95 percent adherence to turnaround
time and has achieved 20 percent improvement in product quality
in the past three years.
Senior management in Satyam receives regular feedback on the
quality of their projects. They review their projects every
month and resolve any quality issues that may exist in these
projects. At the project level, the Quality Management System
with its years of experiential learning from software projects
provides a backdrop for efficient project execution. A high
level of process automation also assists in achieving ambitious
project targets. The metrics programme ensures that projects
set and achieve quantitative targets for schedule, cost and
quality.
Customers of Satyam are the major beneficiaries of its quality
movement. They run a lower risk while outsourcing work to
Satyam, due to the efficient practices followed by it. Risks
in the areas of schedule slippage, cost overruns and high
defect rates are significantly reduced by the transparency
of Satyam’s software processes and effective management
practices. Major global companies who are customers of Satyam
are now utilising its Software Process Consultancy Service
offerings to improve their own quality processes. Satyam’s
quality consultants are facilitating these engagements.
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