Jiri’s Notepad

Funny thing, but the intuitive feeling that ISO 9000 is not worth the paper it needs to be produced for certification and that the fixation of parts of the software industry on CMM is misplaced have been partially proven by the recnet article on impact of qualitty and process management initiatives on innovation published by Knowledge@Wharton:

Benner and Tushman examined the photography and paint industries from 1980 to 1999, choosing these two industries for differences in their competitive arenas.

“In photography, increased ISO certifications were associated with “a significant decline in the number of patents that were based entirely on knowledge new to the firm.” In paint, the effect was not as strong but echoed the photography industry’s disappointing experience.

The results suggest, the authors write, “that in both the paint and photography industries, as process management activities increase, exploitation increases at the expense of exploratory innovations.”

“Brand new technologies to produce products that don’t exist are difficult to measure. This kind of innovation may be crowded out when you focus too much on processes you can measure.”

First steps to tame, rather than feed, the process monster we have created?