Zero Defects – A philosophy

A software defect is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that produces an incorrect or unexpected result. Most defects arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's design or code. They arise from oversights or misunderstandings made by a software team during specification, design, coding, data entry and documentation. Software team here includes every

Software defects have significant costs associated with them – money, time, resources, and lost reputation for all parties involved in the project. Programs to eliminate defects can be expensive and time consuming.

In such case, Project managers generally have two options
1. Insist on eliminating all the defects at any cost
2. Accept that certain number of defects is acceptable, just bear the costs and learn to live with them?

Eliminitating all defects no matter what the costs – achieving Zero Defects.
"Zero defects." – is a phrase which was coined by Philip Crosby in his 1979 book titled, "Quality is Free." His position was that where there are zero defects, there are no costs associated with issues of poor quality; and hence, quality becomes free.


Explaining the Idea
Zero defects is a way of thinking and doing which reinforces the notion that defects are not acceptable, and that everyone should "do things right the first time" across all stakeholders. This would help in increasing profits by eliminating the costs of failure and increasing revenues through increased customer satisfaction.

"Zero defects" is referred to as a philosophy, a mentality or a movement. It's not a program, nor does it have distinct steps to follow or rules to abide by. This is perhaps why zero defects can be so effective, because it means it's adaptable to any situation, business, profession or industry.
Zero defects is not bout being perfect. It is philosophy that motivates everyone to do things right the first time. Zero defects is about changing the perspective of all stakeholders by

• Recognizing the high cost of quality issues
• Continuously thinking of where and how new defects might occur
• Work proactively to address such defects in the software and the processes, which allow defects to occur.

When buying a used car also, u take the car in for brake service, you expect that the mechanic will install the parts exactly as the manufacturer prescribes. No defect is an acceptable defect when it affects you personally.

So why then, is it so easy to accept that "defects happen" when you are the one producing the product or providing the service? This is the interesting dichotomy that presents itself. Zero defects is one of the best ways to resolve the discord between what we expect for ourselves and what we can accept for others.

Management must commit to zero defects. Zero defects requires a top down approach: The best-intentioned employees cannot provide zero defects if they are not given the tools to do so.

Being a good Product manager

If you want to be a BAD product manager, ignore issues and risks. But act as if you know and are in control in front of everything when before your bosses.

• Act as if no issues exist and just hope that they magically go away - especially when reporting to your higher-ups — since if they find out, it will make you look weak and like you can’t control your product.

• Downplay the likelihood of risks becoming issues, and downplay the impact of issues that have come up.

You want to look like you know what you’re doing, and you can’t do that if people are focusing on all of the things that are going wrong.

If you want to be a GOOD product manager, your main task is to identify and proactively manage risks and issues.

• You need to prevent risks from becoming issues, and prevent issues from having a negative impact.

• Track issues and risk for the product in the market – do a continuous SWOT analysis of your product.

• Proactively communicate the impact of potential risks for others to plan on how to react if they do become serious issues. Stakeholders may not be happy with these issues, but they at least will not be surprised and can help work through solutions.

A successful project or product is not one where there are no issues or risks. Instead, a successful project or product is one where there are many issues and risks, but the product manager or the project manager are able to identify, address, and mitigate them, and still deliver a successful product.

Product Management Vs Project Management

It is very important to learn the difference between “Product Management” and “Project Management”, If you want to be a good product manager.

Despite the similar names, there is a huge difference between product management and project management. Confusing them is common, even among those experienced in product development.

Product Management
• Product managers are responsible for overall success of the product – life time endeavor throughout the life of the product

• Product managers remain to manager the product through the entire lifecycle

• Product manager maintains customer confidence by defining the project goals and guiding the team to accomplish the business objectives that have been defined

• Product managers add a lot of features to meet the observed customer needs

Project Management

• Project managers are responsible for the successful delivery of a project – a one time endeavor with a scope, deadline, budget and constraints

• Once the project to build is completed, project manager moves on

• Project managers usually undertake projects to build a product, to add new features to a product, or create new versions or extensions of a product.

• Project managers keel the scope as small as possible so that the project is delivered on time and under budget

Good product managers and good project managers are able to create a balance of these conflicts.

• Good project managers know that the true success of a project is not whether it is on time and within budget, but whether it meets the defined goals and objectives.

• Good product managers know that all the features in the world will not matter if the project is continually delayed and never makes it to market or if it is too over budget to be completed