During their February 2010 earnings call, Toyota estimated it will have to spend $1.12 billion on warranty expenses and will lose as much as $895 million in lost sales over the recall. On top of that, it is bracing for a U.S. Congressional hearing about massive vehicle recalls i

This news should be used as a wakeup call to remind all of us how important it is to consider quality at all phases of the lifecycle. It highlights what quality issues can cost a company and what it can do to a firm’s reputation; just look how quickly a reputation built on quality over decades can be diminished.

In the software development business you are only as good as your last release. In addition to executing against a strong quality assurance process, managing perception is critical to ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining and generating new business. You can have ten solid production releases and people will only remember that your last release needed an emergency release or hot-fix to deal with a software defect and that cost the firm N number of dollars in profit and or lost revenue.

Quality is what differentiates good software delivery teams from great delivery teams.

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