Customer Satisfaction through Quality Index	First published Sept 07
Lokesh Gulechha	Rating
(Download pdf version)

What is Quality

The term 'quality' is often used in a vague, blurred way. It means different things to different people.So the definition of quality varies from person to person. Some may define quality as reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable.

Exhibit 1 : Different view of Quality from different person

The definition given by the ISO/IEC 8402 standard is-

"The totality of features and characteristics of a product or a service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs".

Definition: Quality Index

What is Quality Index?

We can’t measure quality of a product that is performing well today, but can go down tomorrow because of changes in customer needs. Thus we define Quality Index (QI), which is a measure of quality.

• Customer satisfaction is one of the most critical things when it comes to quality of the application. Based on the QI, one can measure customer satisfaction.
• Easy for management to digest one number and drill down, if required.
• The QI trend provides continuous feedback, which is required for control. It is easy to monitor when the process is going out-of-control.
• 

Quality Characteristics of Product

Exhibit 2 : Quality characteristics of product

Quality can be seen as the sum of multiple separate quality attributes i.e. quality characteristics of product.

Let’s look at each characteristic and their sub-characteristics on which they are judged in following table

Evaluating Quality Index

There are two approaches for evaluating QI:

• Metric based Approach
• Question-Answer (QA) based Approach

Question-Answer (QA) based Approach

This approach is easy and works well for evaluating QI. Based on the requirement and the view point of the customer, we can measure QI and drill down, if required.

Process

Each Characteristic and their Sub-Characteristics are converted into meaningful questions and sent to the stakeholders. Stakeholders should rate each one on a scale of 1 to 3 as follows: -

• Bad = 1
• Fair /Acceptable = 2
• Good = 3

We can use the rating table for this purpose.

Rating table

The following rating table can be used for calculating QI , which contains questions as a measurement, on the basis of which the rating can be decided:

Exhibit 4 : Rating Table

Calculation:

Once rating is completed, calculate rating of each Characteristics using following formulae:-

Where,

C (j) = Rating of Quality Characteristics,

S (i) = Rating of Quality Sub- Characteristics on which C (j) is judged,

N (j) = number of Sub- Characteristics. For Characteristics not having
Sub - Characteristics N (j) will be 1,

i, j = 1, 2, 3…n

After C (j) is computed we calculate QI of product using formulae:

Where,

QI = Quality Index

n = number of Quality Characteristics

Based on the QI calculated we can decide Quality level of product using following table: -

Exhibit 5: Quality Level of Product

Remember

• QI, as a number per se, is probably not meaningful. It's the trend that is relevant.
• QI number can't be compared across companies in the industry, as there are a lot of variables, which won't cancel each other!
• QI cannot be compared across different teams within the same company

Conclusion

Quality is a subjective term. Each type of 'customer' will have their own slant on 'quality' - the accounting department might define quality in terms of profits while an end-user might define quality as user-friendly and bug-free. Quality Index is a measure of quality.

The objective of calculating QI is to achieve customer satisfaction and also result in improved productivity, reduced errors, reduced training and improved acceptance.

Finally I would like to conclude with following statement by Kitchenham (1989):

“Quality is hard to define, impossible to measure, easy to recognize”

Reference

• Center of software engineering:
  http://www.cse.dcu.ie/essiscope/
• Software QA and Testing Resource Center: http://www.softwareqatest.com/

About the Author

A Capgemini India Test Engineer with over two years of proven test execution and test analysis experience using Mercury (now HP) tools in the Financial Services sector . Highly organized, versatile and results-oriented team player, with an energetic and articulate approach to testing. Ability to acquire new skills within short time scales, adapt to rapidly changing work practices and build and maintain excellent working relationships with colleagues.

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