Strategic design as a tool to manage quality : case: Statistics Norway
Viikki, Susanna (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060219258
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060219258
Tiivistelmä
Main objective of this thesis was to design and develop a method and guideline how to define an ambition for quality for Statistics Norway. Moreover, this thesis aimed to study how Statistics Norway’s IT-department can evaluate quality of the IT-products and -services. Quality of software is composed of several elements and quality ambition aims to strengthen agile teams focus on quality and support strategical goals of Statistics Norway. Test strategies and test plans define what and how to test but quality ambition is a more overall quality goal and thereby guidelines development next to requirements.
Development task in this thesis was to produce a process and guidelines how to define quality ambition. Quality ambition will be defined by agile development teams for the products and services the teams are responsible of developing and maintaining. Teams will use quality ambition as a part of software development process.
Theoretical framework of this thesis explores concepts of strategy, strategy formation and strategic design. The other angle for the framework was software quality and how to evaluate software quality. ISO/IEC 25010 is a system and software quality model to evaluate product quality. Model presents nine quality characteristics that are used to evaluate functional and not functional product quality based on uses and other stakeholders’ needs. Strategic design combines design practices and strategic discipline impacting the whole organization by introducing change in small pieces. Framework was applied to development tasks and quality ambition method was introduced.
The study was conducted by using qualitative research method and was based on service design approach. Methods included cooperative workshops and brainstorming, observation, content analysis, service blueprint, prototyping and testing. Development was done in several phases following double diamond design process. Process involved several iterations, since it was challenging to define research problem. There is a lot of studies and research done generally on test and quality management, agile development, and quality in software engineering but knowledge how to define quality as a goal for agile development team is lacking.
As a result of the development task new quality ambition method was produced with the accompanying guidelines and process description. Key findings of this thesis are that service design methods used are applicable for an innovative development task. Service design methods were applied also included in quality ambition method to guideline and streamline definition process done by agile development teams.
In conclusion theses contributed integrating and complementing strategic design and software quality management in a new way managing software quality from a broader perspective than traditionally done by using test strategies and more detailed test plan. Moreover, development task challenges to work with software quality more strategically but at the operational level, enabling agile development teams to own their own quality ambitions.
Development task in this thesis was to produce a process and guidelines how to define quality ambition. Quality ambition will be defined by agile development teams for the products and services the teams are responsible of developing and maintaining. Teams will use quality ambition as a part of software development process.
Theoretical framework of this thesis explores concepts of strategy, strategy formation and strategic design. The other angle for the framework was software quality and how to evaluate software quality. ISO/IEC 25010 is a system and software quality model to evaluate product quality. Model presents nine quality characteristics that are used to evaluate functional and not functional product quality based on uses and other stakeholders’ needs. Strategic design combines design practices and strategic discipline impacting the whole organization by introducing change in small pieces. Framework was applied to development tasks and quality ambition method was introduced.
The study was conducted by using qualitative research method and was based on service design approach. Methods included cooperative workshops and brainstorming, observation, content analysis, service blueprint, prototyping and testing. Development was done in several phases following double diamond design process. Process involved several iterations, since it was challenging to define research problem. There is a lot of studies and research done generally on test and quality management, agile development, and quality in software engineering but knowledge how to define quality as a goal for agile development team is lacking.
As a result of the development task new quality ambition method was produced with the accompanying guidelines and process description. Key findings of this thesis are that service design methods used are applicable for an innovative development task. Service design methods were applied also included in quality ambition method to guideline and streamline definition process done by agile development teams.
In conclusion theses contributed integrating and complementing strategic design and software quality management in a new way managing software quality from a broader perspective than traditionally done by using test strategies and more detailed test plan. Moreover, development task challenges to work with software quality more strategically but at the operational level, enabling agile development teams to own their own quality ambitions.