Europe, and the need for ISO certification, provided the trigger to the quality movement in India. But the real impetus came after Motorola’s software center at Bangalore became the world’s second CMM Level 5 unit in 1994 (the first was at NASA)
Even for those familiar with India’s software industry, this is a startling number.
There are 80 software centers on the planet that are assessed at CMM Level 5.
Of all those centers, 60 are in India.
CMM is the classic Capability Maturity Model from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Level 5 is the highest level on the maturity scale.
India’s software industry isn’t surprised: Indian organizations have led the world in quality certification for years. The world’s first PCMM (People-CMM) Level 5 organization is also in India.
And so are all five of the world’s PCMM Level 5 organizations in India. In fact, of the world’s nine CMMI assessments at all levels, eight are in India. (The only non-Indian CMMI-assessed organization is Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems.)
"India is making progress on both Software CMM and People CMM faster than any other nation in the world. The pinnacle will be reached when Americans seek visas so they can learn and work in India," says Bill Curtis, former director of SEI’s process program, author, CMM, and chief architect, PCMM.
In business process management, India already has the largest number of COPC-certified contact centers outside the US and Canada—in under three years of its launch. This is apart from the 200-plus software and BPO (business process outsourcing) companies that are ISO certified.
A Six Sigma wave is now sweeping India’s services community. The quality journey continues. Investments in improvements continue to be made, processes continue to be improved. Senior management really seems to have bought it.
Take a look at the numbers again, and then take a look around. Outside the "First World offices" of the Indian software and BPO firms is a huge and crowded Third World country with all its challenges and limitations. You’d immediately sense and experience the issues and problems of a developing economy.
And yet, surrounded by the sea of "non quality" there are these hundreds of world-class organizations in the software, systems engineering and the BPO space, epitomizing excellence. These are routinely visited by foreign delegations and even country leaders; these are the temples, the Taj Mahals of modern India, proud showpieces for a not-so-otherwise proud population.
These organizations are doing cutting edge work at amazingly low costs.
Inside India’s quality paradox
The paradox is evident once again. As a nation and society, India has amongst the world’s most chaotic environments.
Foreign visitors wonder there aren’t more road accidents. And that people are able to keep body and soul together. The community is largely passionate, volatile, energetic and willing to break rules—some to survive, others to get ahead. All break rules, all the time.
Social and cultural factors: At home, however, these individuals respect tradition and their elders, follow strict family norms, have a deeply inculcated sense of value for education and exhibit a relatively egoless state (within a family, or team), meeting commitments, believing in "duty", and not worrying about the goal or the endgame too much.
Software organizations and customer service agents fortunately and surprisingly seem to emulate the Indian "family values", rather than the society at large. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the Indian manufacturing sectors or other parts of the economy in general, though things are changing there, especially in the automotive sector.
Says Judy Bamberger, co-author of CMM: "While India’s success can be attributed to the value of cost, the more important factors are the spirit of the Indian people (passion, worth, love, wisdom, bringing heart to the workplace, and openness) as also their problem-solving skills and flat organization structures."
Economic factors: The biggest driver for the Indian quality movement, as is the case anywhere for anything, is simple economics. Senior management understood early on the huge return on investments from creating a process-based organization, from investing in standards, in going in for certifications. It made eminent business sense to engage consultants, to provide adequate confidence to customers through certifications, to enhance the ability to deliver and get repeat business.
Early role models
The trigger to the quality movement was the notion that exports to Europe were unthinkable without an ISO certification. The real impetus came after Motorola’s software center at Bangalore became the world’s second CMM Level 5 unit in 1994 (the first was at NASA). The industry was inspired, the press flocked, the confidence built up and the learning was shared and disseminated.
In BPO, GE was the anchor, pioneering the concept of ‘back office to the world’. Its spectacular success (over $300 million savings annually) made corporations worldwide sit up and take notice. India itself woke up to its latent potential—a large number of educated, English-speaking and misemployed graduates obsessed with continuous improvement. Leaders (with over 5,000 agents) and startups alike are rapidly feeding their appetite for advanced tools like Six Sigma, enabling their workforce to cut across hierarchies. This has created an industry that, like GE, strives to live the ‘Six Sigma way’ every day.
Competence and culture of senior management: Most people believe that it is the large army of English-speaking technical manpower that has been largely responsible for India’s success. Actually, it’s the quality of senior management that has been instrumental. As Curtis notes: "India’s greatest competitive advantage is not merely the large number of talented developers, but even more the large number of senior executives who understand how and why to run a high maturity organization."
Organizational factors and best practices: Recent practices have vastly enhanced people competencies: commitment to training (especially induction-level training); placing star performers in the quality function; rotating and bringing in line managers to head quality; open knowledge sharing at the community level (through improvement networks and conferences) and rapid infusion of practices from the MNC parent.
The paradox and the future
While organizations continue to be and create newer "islands of excellence", is the heady growth and revenues of the software and BPO sectors sustainable? Can the environment at large be transformed to provide the high-quality infrastructure required for these organizations to thrive and compete in global markets? Can the highly competent workforce be effective in stark contrasts? Can India become to services what China is to manufacturing? Can it sustain growth and margins when Indians are famous for complacence? Will we be victims of our own success, with backlashes everywhere?
My personal belief, as was 10 years ago, is that it’s only the beginning. India’s paradoxes can and should be leveraged for its success and not be its weakness. But as Phil Crosby said: "Quality is free, but it is not a gift." Success in the next phase is possible but will not be easy. To be successful, India will need to move from manufacturing excellence to applied research.
From being service providers to owners of products and IP. From quality to design and innovation. The next revolution must begin.
Many believe that an army of English-speaking technical manpower was responsible for India’s success. Actually, it was the quality of senior management that was instrumental, senior executives who could run a high maturity organization
In the process, India is rapidly growing into being the custodian of the world’s knowledge. Every business is fast becoming a software or knowledge-intensive business, and software is but proceduralized knowledge. Therefore, IT was India’s only entry ticket into all other businesses of the world. The next phase will see the "India Inside" every knowledge and service-based system. Business pressure and opportunity are forcing firms to fuse knowledge to do new things in ways not done before—which means innovation. With momentum, this could become a routine.
