Comments on: What is QA?

By: David Moses

David Moses — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:37:50 +0000

Thanks everyone for the posts.
zpduffy, your comment is taken to heart. As you probably know, safety is always the #1 objective.
Jayo, we’re always wanting to know what our passengers preferences are. There’s a great group of people here who focus solely on reaching out and getting opinions from you. I’ll pass your post along to them.

Expect a new post in a few days. There’s been some baseball action going on lately and I’ve been able to participate in the fun!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

David

By: Jayo Z

Jayo Z — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:40:05 +0000

This is great. Initiatives like this can only help make sure everything goes according to plan. I can see this giving Delta a huge leg up on other carriers. Reminds me a bit of what JetBlue did back in August; they had a “trial run” at the new JFK T5 to make sure everything worked properly. Not only was it fun, but from what I heard it went really well and it helped a lot. If you ever need volunteers, you know where to look (Feel free to email me; I would LOVE to help.)

By: zpduffy

zpduffy — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:36:35 +0000

I am glad to see this interchange between David and Dennis Arter. I have memories of supporting Delta HQ software and operations center in Greebrier before it moved out to the “new” building at the airport in the mid-1980s. I was software support manager with a major Delta vendor at the time. Even 23 years later I still remember the commitment of the networking and operating systems programmers I worked with during installation and maintenance activities. Anyone who manages their computer operations as effectively as Delta must be able to fly an airplane. I will pass my Million Miles with SkyMiles in 2009. It makes me feel more secure seeing David put a post like this out in the open. Keep looking for more opportunities for improvement and reliability. Literally, my life depends on it.

By: Aimee Siegler

Aimee Siegler — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:04:23 +0000

David,

Based on your conversation on quality with Dennis Arter, I’d like to invite you to join ASQ. It is on the internet as http://www.asq.org.

Aimee Siegler, NWA Silver Elite and Senior Member, ASQ

By: David Moses

David Moses — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:00:34 +0000

Thanks for the posts!

That’s a great explanation of the terminology and I get where you’re coming from. At Delta my team owns all of what you mention above and more. You’ll hear more about what we do and how we’re doing it as we go along.

By: dennisarter

dennisarter — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:48:53 +0000

Dear David,

Thank you for letting us know about Delta’s efforts to give us a great user experience. The approach is great. But your terms are a bit dated.

What you just described to us is QC – Quality Control. In software, QC is examine and test. The designer will write code and do a self-check of the completeness and logic. Others may examine the source code. Then it is put through logic engines, to check the syntax. It might be compiled and run as a module to see if it goes to completion. These are all examples of QC.

You do more QC when you do integrated testing of completed modules and code libraries. You do validation to see if the whole thing works and verification to make sure you achieved the design specifications.

Quality Control is when an item (code, car, or chemical) is measured and compared to a specified requirement. It is PRODUCT focused.

The term QA – Quality Assurance – is PROCESS focused. It began in the 1960s, as military and nuclear activities became more complex and dangerous. We needed to make sure the processes were understood and performed consistently. Emphasis was placed on standard methods (procedures and manuals). If there was a problem, the immediate answer was to revise the procedure. QA peaked in 1994, with the second revision of the international quality standard ISO 9001. This is about the same time Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute came out with the Capability and Maturity Model. QA is captured in the phrase, “Say what you do and do what you say.”

As the twentieth century came to a close, we began to understand that software, manufacturing, and indeed all work activities required a holistic approach. We need to look at the methods, the materials, the machines, and all the rest. We entered the era of Quality Management. In the software world, this was reflected in CMMi (Capability and Maturity Model Integrated). CMMi was the combination of CMM (process) and ISO 9001:2000 (system) into one unified approach.

I am not suggesting that what you are doing at Delta is wrong. In fact it is vital for survival. I only point out that your term (QA) and your descriptions (QC) don’t match.

Keep up the good work to make our flying experience enjoyable!

Dennis Arter, Platinum Medallian and Fellow, ASQ

By: HWGeek

HWGeek — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:56:14 +0000

QA is only as good as the people who do the testing.

Can’t wait to see what you guys are working on!