Why quality includes "Indian heritage"
Have you been following the hoo-ha in Montana, USA? There's been an ongoing battle there for a while.
You see, the state's constitution requires the legislature to provide a system of free quality public education. Some differing views about whether the current system was achieving that or not led various parties into court.
Problem: the court found there was no definition of what 'quality' public education is. So if you don't actually know what it's supposed to be, how can you decide whether it's meeting that standard or not?
The court instructed the legislature to first define “what is a quality system of education”.
Before you read on, can I suggest you spend a minute or two thinking about how you would define that?
OK, here's what Montana's 2005 Legislature came up with.
They defined a basic quality system as one that:
* meets state accreditation requirements
* provides special education, qualified teachers, buildings, distance learning, busing and testing
* preserves local control; and
* teaches all students about the state's Indian heritage.
Now, is that the same definition that you came up with? Did you include Indian heritage in yours? No?
Quality is one of those words that everyone thinks they know the meaning of, but often don't.
Do you begin to see why the ISO 9001 Standard requires you to have a quality policy and objectives - in other words, to say what YOU believe quality is, and what you want from your quality management system?
Just as I was finishing this, another example dropped into my inbox (don't you love Google's watch facility)?
"The Interior Department has removed systems integrator BearingPoint Inc... from the Financial and Business Modernization System project to install a new enterprise resource planning system, the department said.
The department has severed its business relationship with BearingPoint for implementation of the Financial and Business Management System,” Interior spokeswoman Joan Moody said today.
She added, “We are committed to the success of the FBMS project, so we are taking the necessary management action to ensure that we can deliver a quality system.” (bolding mine)
Hmmmm. With a project rumoured to have a budget of $120m... I would certainly hope that they have defined what a 'quality system' is. Wouldn't you?
You see, the state's constitution requires the legislature to provide a system of free quality public education. Some differing views about whether the current system was achieving that or not led various parties into court.
Problem: the court found there was no definition of what 'quality' public education is. So if you don't actually know what it's supposed to be, how can you decide whether it's meeting that standard or not?
The court instructed the legislature to first define “what is a quality system of education”.
Before you read on, can I suggest you spend a minute or two thinking about how you would define that?
OK, here's what Montana's 2005 Legislature came up with.
They defined a basic quality system as one that:
* meets state accreditation requirements
* provides special education, qualified teachers, buildings, distance learning, busing and testing
* preserves local control; and
* teaches all students about the state's Indian heritage.
Now, is that the same definition that you came up with? Did you include Indian heritage in yours? No?
Quality is one of those words that everyone thinks they know the meaning of, but often don't.
Do you begin to see why the ISO 9001 Standard requires you to have a quality policy and objectives - in other words, to say what YOU believe quality is, and what you want from your quality management system?
Just as I was finishing this, another example dropped into my inbox (don't you love Google's watch facility)?
"The Interior Department has removed systems integrator BearingPoint Inc... from the Financial and Business Modernization System project to install a new enterprise resource planning system, the department said.
The department has severed its business relationship with BearingPoint for implementation of the Financial and Business Management System,” Interior spokeswoman Joan Moody said today.
She added, “We are committed to the success of the FBMS project, so we are taking the necessary management action to ensure that we can deliver a quality system.” (bolding mine)
Hmmmm. With a project rumoured to have a budget of $120m... I would certainly hope that they have defined what a 'quality system' is. Wouldn't you?
posted by JaneB at 2:53 PM
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