Our March, 2009 meeting will be held on Tuesday, March. 24th at 6:00PM. Please RSVP to news@ssq.org.

Topic

Is There a Disconnect Between Organizational Strategy and Quality?

Stan Rifkin - Master Systems, Inc.

As quality professionals why is it that we have to fight so hard to convince our organizations to adopt quality principles and practices? Might it be because in the appropriate priorities for our organizations quality is not placed in the top three? This presentation frames quality improvement initiatives in terms of organizational strategy and explains where — in different strategies — quality ranks. It also presents how to re-frame quality in terms of what each strategy is trying to optimize. In the speaker’s experience, this re-framing remarkably accelerates the adoption of quality initiatives. This presentation is like the one Stan gave at our joint meeting with a local American Society for Quality chapter this past July, except that this one is filled with software examples.

About Our Speaker

Stan Rifkin is a principal with Master Systems Inc., an advisory services firm in its 23rd year. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt who focuses on knowledge work, primarily software management and development. He has been the associate editor in chief for the quality and management areas of IEEE Software magazine, was a founding member of the editorial board of Empirical Software Engineering, was a project leader at the Software Engineering Institute and on the Project Management Institute’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model, and is a founder and operates the San Diego Software Process Improvement Network.

Stan received his BS in business (quantitative methods), MS in engineering (computer science), and doctorate in executive leadership and organizational systems.

Location:

Cardinal Health
(C1-A306)
6055 Lusk Blvd
San Diego CA 92121

From Lusk Blvd turn right at first driveway. Turn left at the roundabout. Drive around to the back of the building and park. The conference room is located at the rear of the bldg. and is accessible from the parking lot.

View Larger Map