On the business impact of quality management

Software is an increasingly mission-critical component of many aerospace systems. Improving the quality of that software is traditionally seen as having an associated on-cost to the development activity due to the need to implement more rigorous processes and deploy tools to manage issues such as compliance and traceability. However, improved quality can also eliminate cost from the development cycle by eliminating constant replanning to account for late discovery of defects, reducing reworks costs and providing better predictability in project delivery timing. These benefits are augmented by further business benefits during the in-service lifecycle of the product through improved customer satisfaction, reduced risk of litigation and improved sales and/or brand equity. This paper proposes that an optimum level of quality can be financially justified by development cost savings alone, whilst delivering substantial downstream financial and business benefits. Copyright © 2010 by the American Helicopter Society International, Inc. All rights reserved.