It's not that any of these statements are actually wrong and I don't mean to disparage any. But, none of them has a handle for technical people to grab and run with. The definitions do represent valid intentions, but they are really no more than bumper stickers of such meaningful intentions. So… how can product developers gain any utilitarian interpretation from these phrases?
Some companies retain Quality and Reliability experts to help reduce these adages to tactical utility, but many startups and small to medium size companies do not.
The reason?
Because product developers either invent or 'know about' Quality and Reliability… somehow or "There's no room in the budget for this… or… "Who cares, anyway?
This discussion is not a technical treatise of either Quality or Reliability as I am neither a Reliability Engineer nor a Quality Engineer. The intent herein is to unmask the enigma of Quality and Reliability, perceived by many Techies, and show the pragmatic use of, and technical difference between, the two disciplines; i.e., how can they can be used by Techies within the PD processes.
To set the framework, let's define the term
qualities (lower case 'q'), the phrase
Product Development and the term
Product with terminology that fits within the contemporary sense of the high-tech industry. These will be needed to grind out useful PD tools from the illusive riddles of Quality & Reliability.
Following are definitions of
qualities or
quality (lower case 'q') from various media:
- "That which belongs to something and makes or helps to make it what it is; characteristic element; attribute"
- "The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to meet a stated or implied need"
- "An entity or a characteristic of that entity that bears on its ability to satisfy confirmed or implied needs of the operator, user or beneficiary
- "An essential or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute
- "A character or nature, as belonging to or distinguishing a thing
- "The collection of attributes, which when present in a product, means a product has conformed to or exceeded customer expectations. (The Product Development Management Association Handbook, 1st Edition - http://www.pdma.org/library/glossary.html
