Transferring the knowledge and skills required for successful deployment of quality approaches to individuals and organizations charged with information technology objectives.

Our curriculum is made up of six interlocking series of formal courses that are complemented by a collection of informal workshops. Courses or workshops can be taken independently or together to build a tailored set of offerings. Curriculum customization is also avaliable to meet individual client needs. Our fixed fee structure makes budgeting easier because everything is included directly in our course fees.

Quality Management Series

The traditional models and approaches to quality management form the foundation for more advanced process improvement and maturity. In the headlong rush to implement more recent models such as Six Sigma and Lean, practitioners often forget that these advanced approaches have their roots in traditional TQM. This series of courses covers the foundational skills of quality culture, standards and procedures, quality control techniques, measures and metrics, and continuous improvement.

Six Sigma Series

Six Sigma quality takes the core principles of quality management into broader and deeper directions that the traditional and historical approaches to general quality management, institutionalizing the quantitative potential of TQM to implement rigorous and substantial controls. This series of courses builds on the quality management foundation, expanding into a Six Sigma improvement lifecycle or Six Sigma design lifecycle. It also covers organizational and project management capabilities that support those lifecycles.

Lean IT Series

Much of the literature on Lean Enterprise focuses on making manufacturing processes leaner. It can be challenging to apply these principles to information technology projects and organizations. This series of courses decomposes and applies the lean principles to each distinct dimension of the information technology process set, including organizations, projects, systems, and processes.

Requirements Engineering Series

The major intersection of quality and software occurs during requirements activities. This series of courses covers the elicitation and modeling of business, data, and process requirements with an emphasis on translating those requirements forward toward implementation. Note: This course series concentrates heavily on the front-end of the software lifecycle. Emphasis is placed on business and functional specification, architectural design, and testing strategies and plans. Technical aspects and nuances of building and integrating technology components is beyond the scope of this series.

Project Management Series

This series of courses builds basic project scheduling and resourcing skills necessary to run effective projects, whether they are quality-focused Six Sigma projects or more technically-focused software engineering projects. The focus is on an ability to manage a hybrid quality management and information technology project in support of an organization's process maturity goals.

Organizational Development Series

This series of courses covers the organizational skills and methods necessary to assure a successful organizational environment for implementing the skills acquired in other series within this curriculum. Beginning with organizational planning, and continuing with team and personal skills and processes, this series focuses on establishing an organizational culture and capability in which other more technical models and capabilities can be implemented.