1. Interactive information technology
for quality management and quality assurance
Juhani Anttila
Academician, International Academy for Quality (IAQ)
Venture Knowledgist, Quality Integration
Helsinki, Finland
juhani.anttila@telecon.fi , www.QualityIntegration.biz
September 18, 2010
These pages are licensed
under the Creative Commons 3.0 License
1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
(Mention the origin)

2. Interactive information technology
for quality management and quality assurance
Contents and key themes:
1. Business-integrated QM and QA
2. Information, knowledge and learning in the context of business management
3. From information technology (IT) to interactive technology (IT)
4. Examples ZEF and Dicole
5. Conclusion
2
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3. Business management, quality management and
quality assurance are based on business knowledge
Successful business management is based on right business related knowledge and
management skills to be used effectively and efficiently for the current and anticipated
business needs.
==> Quality management (QM) is a business management issue. It equals quality of
management.
 Coordinated activities to direct and control an organization with regard
to quality. Direction and control includes establishment of the policy and
objectives, planning, control, assurance and improvement.
==> Quality assurance (QA) is a communication issue between an organization and its
stakeholders.
 A part of QM focused on providing confidence among an organization’s
stakeholders that quality requirements will be fulfilled.
3
3830/2.9.2010/jan (Ref.: ISO 9000)

4. Quality management (QM) and quality assurance (QA)
- Consistent business management issues
Quality management (QM)
Output/Product
Process
management
Input Product delivery Customer
channel
Quality assurance (QA) (**)
QA communication
(*) E.g. ISO 9004 for quality management guidance channel
“e-Certificate”
(**) Standard model ISO 9001 or tailored, and
quality assurance plan / agreement
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5. Guiding principles, core values and concepts of the
QM are with high information and knowledge content
The QM principles of the ISO 9000 standardization: The essence of the QM principles
The fundamental truths and propositions that serve include:
as the foundation for a system of belief and - Communicating and discussing
behavior, and for a chain of reasoning for all - Sharing knowledge and pooling
professional QM approaches in organizations
experience
– Customer focus - Training and learning
– Leadership - Understanding
– Involvement of people - Providing confidence
– Process approach
– System approach to management
– Continual improvement
– Factual approach to decision making
– Mutually beneficial supplier relationships
Also the performance excellence models, e.g. the Malcolm Baldrige model and EFQM model,
are based on similar fundamental core values and concepts as the ISO 9000 standards
5
3832/2.9.2010/jan (Ref.: ISO 9000)

6. Good management of an organization is particularly related
to managing organizational information / knowledge
Practically Quality Management equals with good management of organizational information
and knowledge:
Procedure document, standard, operational
model, recorded operation, factual knowledge,
etc. (explicit issue)
Conscious Reality of the issue in the minds of the
individuals and in the practical operations
(implicit / tacit contents of the issue)
Sub-conscious – This part is the most significant
regarding to the actions for the
issue realization.
– The contents may change due to
time and situation and depending on
influences and learning.
A serious problem in existing QM
approaches is that explicit information,
especially documentation and records,
6 is overly emphasized and tacit
(Ref.: http://qualityintegration.biz/TacitKnowledge.html )
knowledge almost ignored.
2645/9.9.2010/jan

7. Empirical fact-based information and inherent
knowledge are needed for successful management
Wisdom
- myths
- values
Knowledge Intervention
- explicit records Reflecting and deciding
- tacit knowledge Plan / Act
(know-how, competence)
Information
”Ba” Analysing
You get what
A P you measure
Data
C D
Environments Measuring ...
Facts Effects
7 The performance reality of the company business processes
0609/25.3.2008/jan

8. “Ba” as a shared context in motion
Knowledge
Individual
Individual context
context
Shared context
Ba:
(originating+dialoguing+systemizing+exercizing) Ba = A shared space for
emerging relationships
8
2690/14.2.2006/jan (Ref.: Nonaka)

9. Enhancing and regenerating business knowledge
through training learning
Continuous organizational and personal learning are prerequisites for the quality of
management and for a sustainable business success in organizations.
Investments in training by traditional or e-learning means have not proved very effective.
- Only basic skills may be learned through traditional training and education means.
- Responsible business people are very busy and they have not enough time to attend
comprehensive training and education programs and they are not very interested to use e-
learning systems.
On-the-job learning offers a cost-effective way to link learning to the organizational needs
and priorities.
Effective learning requires application of new learning theories like connectivity, interactivity,
and sharing knowledge that are based on collaboration.
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10. Informal learning – The other 80%
"The best learning ”Cappuccino U is a metaphor for a new approach to learning based on
happens in real life community, networking, self-study, distance education, and
with real problems technology. The Third Place, the coffee shop where people gather to
work and chat, we can transpose it to libraries, hotels, and other
and real people and locations (including our homes) where we might work and meet with
not in classrooms." other people, or may be alone in a crowd – or just alone.” (*)
Charles Handy
”3rd place hosts the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily
anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and
10 work.” (**)
3423/17.1.2008/jan (*) Jay Cross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlETGJ0mnno (**) Ray Oldenburg

11. The knowledge-conversion process:
Tacit  Explicit
Knowledge conversion process, SECI:
t Tac
Taci it
Knowledge
Explicit
Exp
it
Tac
Conscious
licit
Socialization Externalization
Sub-conscious
S E
Tacit
I C
Tacit
Expl
Internalization Combination
t ici
it
Exp plic
11 licit Ex
3528/14.5.2009/jan (Ref.: Nonaka - SECI, Shiba)

12. An example: Traditional IT and communications in /
from / to a grouped business community
 E-Mailing Business environment
- good for in one-to-one Interested parties
communication Stakeholders
- ineffective in group
communication
 Intranet domain
- difficult to use and maintain
- ineffective in use
 Homepage in the Internet The
- passive, stagnant Community
 Phone, SMS
- good for acute one-to-one
communication
- disturbing, expensive
 Physical meetings
- necessary for networking
- expensive, time consuming
- difficult to arrange
 Publications
-difficult to know what and
where, passive, expensive
What are the needs for enhancing
effectiveness and transparency?
12 IT Systems
3808/6.9.2010/jan

13. New IT* supported information/knowledge-intensive
business operations
New integrated and effective solutions:
• Portal solutions, integrated information technology solutions
(sustaining technology): TOP DOWN:
– Complicated FOCUS ON
– Difficult to use and maintain TECHNOLOGY
– Expensive
• Interactive technology solutions: Collaborative groupwork and social networking
infrastructures, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, RTE - Real Time Ecosystem
(disruptive technology):
– Simple BOTTOM UP:
– Easy to use FOCUS ON
PEOPLE
– cheap, or free of charge Human inside
(open source)
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3514/20.1.2010/jan (*) IT = Interactive Technology

14. Cloud computing and SaaS
Cloud computing is an Internet-based provision of shared resources, software and
information provided to computers and other devices on-demand, “computing on tap”.
You pay for what you consume.
SaaS (software as a service) means that a complete software application is
offered as a service, on-demand. A single instance of the software runs on the
provider’s infrastructure and serves multiple client organizations.
Business management applications of the cloud computing are very hot isses
right now world-widely.
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15. Practical examples
Practical examples are considered here from two areas of business activities that are
interesting from the professional quality approaches’ point of view:
o Information and knowledge acquisitions by using interactive surveys
technology
 ZEF
o Collaborative cooperation for knowledge-working by using Web 2.0 social
media technology
 Dicole
There are already many service providers
and commercial products available for these
applications. Here described ZEF and Dicole may at
least be used as good experienced benchmarks.
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16. Example: ZEF evaluation methodology
ZEF is an advanced interactive evaluation methodology and tool that is originated from strong core
competences of evaluation technique and human interface technology.
Origin:
• ZEF methodology was developed in Finland at Oulu University as Z-scored Electronic
Feedback (= ZEF) tool. Effectiveness of its two dimensional evaluation structure was
validated by University of Lapland.
• Commercial ZEF solution is a product of Oulu based company ZEF Solutions Inc.
Usage:
• ZEF is an all-purpose tool that is suitable for all kinds of organizations.
• ZEF evaluation services are web-based solutions operating as SaaS (Software as a Service).
With ZEF on-line tool one may collect, compare and evaluate data effectively and efficiently
from even a big group of people.
• ZEF tool has been used by a lot of organizations for business information and hundreds
thousands of ordinary citizens in several survey-cases of general societal interest.
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3336/.20.3.2008/jan (Ref.: http://zefsolutions.com/www/english , http://qiblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/carry-out-appropriate-surveys.html )

17. ZEF as a communication media
An advanced questioning methodology is more than only collecting information. It
functions as a media between specialists and other parties.
By means of an effective surveying tool a specialist can communicate his/her
area of expertise that might be difficult to others to understand, and receive
valuable information as a feedback.
The tacit knowledge of different parties becomes visible (ref. the SECI
process). Within organizational environments, this comes into question
when a professional expertise is used in communication with the
management, personnel, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders.
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18. Performance evaluation for excellence
through a multi-faceted and consistent approach
Overall business performance (e.g. 3-In-1 criteria)
2. Strategic 5. Human
management resource focus
7. Business
1. Leadership results
3. Customer and 6. Process
market focus management
4. Measurement, analysis,and knowledge management
Leadership performance Customer satisfaction Information security
Social responsibility Market communication Product
Innovations performance
IT Governance
Board operations
Strategic performance Process performance
Corporate security People satisfaction Project performance
Risk management 360 feedback Supplier performance
Networking capability OHS assessment Quality Assurance:
18 ISO 9001, AQAP
3325/26.3.2008/jan Environmental management

19. Results of ZEF evaluations
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3334/.20.8.2007/jan

20. Statistical inferences from ZEF evaluations
Detailed business information is obtained from ZEF raw data through statistical treatments.
All individual respondent answers to the query items in the ZEF evaluations are recorded as
separate data pieces that are then used for statistical analyses as needed:
 The basic ZEF report shows the means and standard deviations of all respondents’
answers per query items in one or two dimensions as needed.
 The result data may be normalized according Z-scored transformation that is useful to
emphasize relative differences among query items.
 Answers from respondents may be grouped in arbitrary way or presented as
individual answers.
 Results of different ZEF evaluations, e.g. of different points in time, may be compared
by using ZEF’s “comparison engine” function.
 Raw data of evaluations may be presented in the formats of Excel (.xls) or
"Concurrent Versioning System" (.cvs) in order to facilitate the use of more
sophisticated statistical tools, e.g. SPSS, for data analyses.
ZEF tool’s interactive user-interface enhances user’s deliberation when he/she is responding
to the query items and also enhances understanding the relative differences among query
items. That makes answering more motivated and justified.
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21. Results of ZEF evaluations (“3-in-1”)
Assessesment scheme “3in1”: EFQM, Malcom
Baldrige and ISO9000 combined in one scheme
Category 4: Measurement, analysis, and
knowledge management
1. We follow up fulfilment of targets and
development of performance on company and
process levels with adequate measures and
indicators.
2. We follow up effectiveness and efficiency of
our business processes.
3. We have easily available analyzed and
current information on performance of our
company and its development against targets
and other references.
4. Our real-time internal accounting operates
in advance.
5. Our employees measure, analyze and
evaluate quality of their own work in order to
make decisions and initiate improvement
actions for their work in line with our
21 company-wide plans. …
… Etc. other assessment items
3475/20.3.2008/jan

22. Example: Knowledge Work Environment, KWE (Dicole)
Dicole (Discover-Collaborate-Learn) product from Helsinki, Finland based company
Dicole Ltd ( www.dicole.com ):
 SAAS (Software as a Service) from Dicole’s server in trusted IT hosting
environments in Helsinki - No software installation needed for a particular XXX
application
 Technical support from Dicole as the need arises
 Connected via https://xxx.dicole.net by the Internet secure protocol
 Interactive social technology (Web 2.0) based on open software
 Operated directly by ourselves (not by secretaries or IT people)
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23. Collaborative knowledge work environment, “KWE”,
for a business community (Web 2.0)
Community-members’ information and profiles
(Net-working)
Common shared knowledge-base accumulated and updated
by the community-members
(Wiki)
Knowledge feeds from community-members' findings,
observations, and reflection, and comments
(Blog)
Published presentations etc.
(Media)
 Additional features or possibilities:  Links to:
• Sub-groups • Other tools (calendar, to-do list, diary, Skype,
• Tagging virtual meeting room, etc.)
• Discussion forums • Social utilites
• Aggregators (RSS feeding) • Legacy IT systems of the organization
• Mashups • Administration of the IT environment
23 • Web pages and documents
3770/15.1.2010/jan

24. New knowledge creation and distribution
by the social media tools
Sharing information
(Blogs)
Participants Collecting knowledge assets
(Wiki) New knowledge artefacts
collaborate
for creating
new knowledge
Reflecting and
contributing
(Blogs)
Feeding information
(Aggregators)
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25. KWE user-interface
Icons to individual tool-windows
Other tools, e.g.
aggregator, and
Wiki administration
On-line authorized members
Blogs
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3819/21.2.2010/jan https://verkko.dicole.net

26. Other business areas for the use of KWE
Typical cases where the KWE approach has proved useful are cases where participating
people are operating in networks and work is strongly knowledge-intensive:
 Corporate-internal expert groups
• E.g. product designers, sales people, human resource people, quality managers,
and maintenance people
 Project groups
 Process teams
 Organizations' supplier or customer networks
 Benchmarking clubs of different organizations
 Collaborating business-clusters
 Networked SME's
• E.g. small cooperating consulting or expert companies
 Educational institutes supporting learning of networked business
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27. Conclusion
A good business management (quality management, QM) may be summarized with a triple
PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach that includes:
1. Control to achieve required results
2. Continual performance improvement (Kaizen)
3. Breakthrough change management
Although different managerial practices are used in the P, D, C, and A steps they all
extensively encompass information and knowledge aspects:
– Control and continual improvement emphasize factual data and rational actions
although also certain managerial and collaborative knowledge are needed.
– Breakthrough transformations predominantly require new knowledge, learning
and creative actions.
Quality assurance (QA) consists essentially of communications between an organization and its
stakeholders based on both explicit and tacit knowledge.
For both QM and QA, we have unlimited and still much not-yet-invented possibilities to be
attained by utilizing new disruptive information acquisition and social media technologies. In
this development we are still in a beginning stage.
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28. Juhani Anttila, Independent Expert
Independent expert, Venture Knowledgist
• Expertise of more than 40 years in the field of quality
• 35 years at different quality related positions at Telecom Finland and Sonera Corporation
• Several decades’ involvement with international and national standardization of quality,
reliability, information security and telecommunications
• Many years Assembly Representative and Vice President of the European Organization
for Quality (EOQ)
• A founder and developer of the Finnish National Quality Award, Developer and assessor
of the European Quality Award
• International Academician for Quality (Member of the International Academy for Quality)
• Honorary Member of the Finnish Society for Quality
• Board member or chairman in some companies
• Expert adviser in several organizations in quality management, dependability
management, information security management, crisis management and social media
• Lecturer in some universities
• Expert in projects in some developing countries
• Contributing by writings, lectures, and speeches globally on five continents
28
3678x/3.9.2010/jan (Ref.: http://www.qualityintegration.biz/contacts.html )