.

Name : Roll No:

IM KASHIPUR
Indian Institute of Management Kashipur
Master of Business Administration Programme

END EXAM QUESTION PAPER

Course Name (credit): QMSS

Term: IV
Duration of the Exam: 2 hour
Closed/0pen Book: Closed
Use of Notes/Book (Yes/No): No
Laptop is allowed or restricted: No
or restricted:
reading materials on the Internet is permitted
If Laptop is allowed, Accessing other
Use of Calculator (Yes/No): -yes

Total Marks: 30
compulsory_
Instructions for students (if any):Allquestions are

following questions.
Read the case carefully and answer the
go about
quality management challenges faced by ECL? How can ECL management
aWhat are the problems? (3}
systematically addressing these
patterns to them? Which
customer complaints and are there any frequency
) What are the
complaints do you think ECL needs to address on a priority? {6}
categories of customer
control as portrayed by Aslam? What is your assessmet?
process under
c) Is the system testing 4.1808) (6}
cases/two hours and standarddeviation =
(Mean -82.34 test
of failure? Apply
system testing, what do you think is the likely root cause
d) If there is any issue in hsnione
some QCtools forthe purpose. {2}
to blame for underproductivity? What can be the visual aid
S ctoe o significant cause
e Is network laterncy arelationship between two variables? {4)
for understanding the 210
network response time (milliseconds) should be betweendata
the
Industry standards show that capability. The average and standard deviation values for the
process
to 220. Comment on the Cona

in Exhibit 4 are 221.76 and 7.63 respectively.{2}

recommend to Karamath? (3}
action that you would
g) What is the next course of
model, how can the service be categorized? (2} dv-ranfocto y
h)According to the Kano
accreditation help improve the service? (2)
i)How can quality

mer
Maceral

meamsemnt
menod
 MANAGEMENT
IMB INDIAN INSTITUTE OF
BANGALORE

IMB833

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND RELIABILITY IN

EXCEED:
SOLUTIONS
DELIVERY OF SOFTWARE

SIVAKUMARS AND B MAHADEVAN

Mahadevan,
& Decision Sciences at llM, Tiruchirappalli and B.
Sivakumar S, Assistant Professor of Operations Management Communications LLC
prepared this case for classroom discussion. Exceed
Professor of Production & Operations Management, preparation of
Management Bangalore in connection with the
cooperated and provided information to the Indian Institute of was sought
publication by a Exceed Communications designate. No funding
this case and it was reviewed and approved before was also developed from available
the development of this case. This case
or received from Exceed Communications LLC for data, or to show
not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary
and permitted sources of information. This case is
effective or inefficient handling of decision or business processes.

publication may be reproduced or

Copyriaht 2021 by the Indian Institute of Man agement Bangolore. No part of the
recording, or otherwise (including internet) -
transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
Bangalore.
without the permission of Indian Institute of Management
uur from Jun 2023 tc Dec 202
.hor er for se cly in Prof Kurai Gargu'y's Quaity anagerment & Sx Sgma- Term-iV-2022-24 a: tnd an Institute of Management - Kas
 Exceed: Improving Productivity and Reliability in Delivery of Software Solutions taftatag

Karamathullah (Karamath henceforth), Managing

It was a chilly Monday morning on February 6, 2017. Mohamed development center in Bangalore. He
Director, Exceed Communications LLC (ECL) was on a visit to their offshore
industrial suburbs of Bangalore, India. ECL
was immersed in thoughts as he walked into his office in the buzzing
maintenance of integrated hardware and software
was always proud of its track record in development and
in line with their commitments.
solutions and associated services. ECL was known for its reliable deliveries
began the workday by checking his e
However, recently, one customer account had been bothering Karamath. He day by
reports sent on the previous
mails, a routine he diligently followed. He glanced through the weekly status
one of his client managers caught his
engagement manager. The e-mail on an escalation alert from
his client
attention. It was yet again the same customer account.

a software package being developed for that

The latest complaint was about the slow progress of system testing of
during the ongoing system testing phase. This
client, Furthermore, the e-mail pointed to several defects found What bothered Karamath was that the
times.
particular client was demanding and tended to jump the gun at
high compared to their other customer accounts. Was this
frequency of escalation e-mails from this customer was
pattern behind this? What could he do to improve the
latest complaint another one-off issue or was there a larger
productivity and reliability of their deliveries to this client?
COMPANY BACKGROUND

hardware and software solutions' company that provided

Exceed Communications LLC (ECL) was a specialist Asia.
clients based out of the Middle East, Africa, and South
reliable, high quality, customized business solutions to members spread between their
they had a team size of 36
The company was founded in 2013. As of January 2017, the industry analysts as one of the fastest-growing
offices in the Middle East and Bangalore. ECL was rated by Emirates. They prided themselves on a solution
company in the United Arab
hardware and software solutions' to
and technological requirements of their customers,
based approach to understand the business ambitions network and
their clients. They provided a variety of
uniquely craft a techno-business solution customized to solutions
development and maintenance services, and digital marketing
security solutions, hardware cum software product labels including 3M, Avaya,
a wide array of global
to their clients. ECL had a technological partnership with had over 30 marquee
and Xerox. As of January 2017, ECL
Bosch, Cisco, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Samsung, Schneider,
Africa, and South Asia.
clients spread across the Middle East,
ACCOUNT
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR H&K
management solutions
providing real estate and integrated business
H&K (name disguised) was a market leader in bespoke software package for
October 2015. ECL was developing a
to its clients. Its relationship with ECL began in executed on a Time and Material
of H&K. The project was being
customer relationship management of the clients The project followed a V
staffing volumes and staff productivity.
basis, where the client closely monitored both improved version of the
lifecycle (Exhibit 1). This model was an
process model in the software development user-acceptance testing. In this
requirement gathering and ended with
waterfall process model that started with requirements, higher
testing phases were developed alongside the
process model, the test cases for the various February 6, 2017 was into
current project started in August 2016 and on
level, and detail design documents. The experienced its ups and downs, but the
testing phase in the client's test environment. The project had project.
played a significant role in the progress of the
the system
had
dedication and capability of ECL team members team had made
delayed at the start due to delay in collecting business requirements, the
Although the project was environment that ECL
the development phase. However, in the extremely competitive
good the delay during quicker deliveries.
increasingly demanding higher quality and
operated in, clients such as H&K were

for the effort incurred (as

where the vendor bills the client
common billing model prevalent in proressiora' servces
Time anc Materiai is a materials used to service the
cient.
and actual cost of
recorced ir a timesheet) Page 2 of &
 Exceed: Improving Productivity and Reliability in Delivery of Software Solutions

ieo
the latest customer complaint. Aslam was the sent nis
Karamath telephoned Mohammed Aslam to discuss Dubai office. Aslam
provided to H&K and was based out of their start of
Operations, responsible for allservices complaints received from H&K since the
spreadsheet tracker that meticulously recorded all the customer not sure if there was any pattern
quickly glanced through the tabulation but was
the project (Exhibit 2). Karamath about the team working too slowIy
complaints. The customer appeared to have frequently complained excess staffing were a result
benindthe
complaint) and too many errors (quality complaint). The complaints on project personnel. However,
(productivity on the timesheet submitted by the
micromanaging the project based attention.
of the client categories of complaints required
immediate
Karamath was not sure as to which of these

PRODUCTIVITY DATA
activity that was underway.
data on the progress of system testing
Karamath had also asked Aslam to send him
cases to verify the
conformance of the developed software
execution of system test every two-hour window
The activity involved the collated the statistics of test case execution for
package to the specifications. Aslam had executed. He felt it was
Karamath quickly calculated the average of test cases
for the past 4 weeks (Exhibit 3). according to him, there
There were some days when the numbers were low, but for customer
better than the company average.complain about. When he inguired Aslam about the reasons
appeared nothing alarming to
complaints, Aslam had the following to say:
January, 17th January or
complaint was perhaps referring to testing performed on 12t discrepancies, and
The latest customer of lower productivity. These were one-off
were the days
on 1t February; those required further action.
to me, there was nothing that
everything was under control. According

But was it? wondered

Karamath.

TEAM MEETING
concerns raised by the
conference call with the entire project team to discuss the various to this
Karamath arranged a
the client engagement, development, and testing teams were invited
client. All the senior members of particularly raised the
listed the summary of the concerns reported by the lient and various
conference call. Karamath cases. The attendees came up with
of inconsistent productivity in the execution of system test
issue
explanations for this issue.

member stated:
One senior testing team
testing the identified
have to identify suitable test data for
Execution of test cases is not easy, because we test data for
scenarios. It sometimes requires a complicated SQL code to identify the relevant
test
execution. This takes a lot of time!

The head of system testing team remarked:

team will
We have an agreement that the development
We are not always operating at our full potential. deployment
of the bugs. But many days their
deploy a fresh software package before 9 AM, after fixing
impacted on account of this.
finishes only by 11 AM and our testing productivity is
slowing
complained that their computers had insufficient RAM
The other members of the system testing team access to the client's test
latency in the network forcing slow
down the testing process. There was also latency in accessing client network, but he was not
environment. Karamath had earlier heard complaints about the
explanation for low productivity.
sure whether that was the primary

Page 3 of 8

from un 2023 to
S'gra-erm-iV-2022-24 at indian 'nsttute of Management - Kasnicur
Gargu'y's Quaity Management &Sx
-oent s authorized for use cnly in Prof Kunai
Exceed: Improving Productivity and Reliability in
Delivery of Software Solutions IIMB

One of the technical experts in the team called

processes stated:
Dashrath who had a background in the automation of testing

Sir, our testing is bound to have lowproductivity as it is being done

the previous project for H&K and they are perhaps expecting the same
manually. We had test automation in
standard now. In manual testing
when we have to re-test failed test scenarios, it requires data entry once again. This
time overhead. involves a significant

Although testing automation was an expensive proposition, Karamath thought there was merit in the argument
made by Dashrath. Manual testing relied on the testing personnel to enter the test case/test data on the
software
package and verify the results against the specification. On the other hand, testing automation relied on special
software programs called test scripts for automated entry of test cases and verification of test results. However,
testing automation cannot be recommended to H&K as a solution without aproper business case on the cost
benefits involved. During the informal chat after the meeting, some members made a casual remark about the
ongoing cricket series involving India and how it could be a productivity dampener. Some members also whispered
that on the days when Aslam left office early, offshore team members tended to relax. This was for the first time
Karamath that became aware of the issues of distraction and shirking.

At the end of the meeting, Karamath was more confused than before. There seemed to be several causes to
explainlow productivity. However, he started to wonder which one needed his immediate attention.

WAY FORWARD
Karamath walked back to his cabin with mixed thoughts on proceeding further. He had asked Imran Sheik, the
statistics for the
head of the network division in their Bangalore office to provide him with network response time
(Exhibit 4). The inconsistency in
first week of the corresponding period. The report had just arrived in his mailbox
the network response times was evident.
What about the other issues such as infrastructure,
But was that the primary explanation for low productivity?
these issues needed immediate attention?
coordination, communication, and discipline then? Which among
problems so that he could recommend that to the customer?
Would testing automation solve all the productivity the challenge that lay ahead.
Karamath knew the nature of
These guestions remained unanswered and
Exceed: Improving Productivity and Reliability in Delivery of Software Solutions IMB

Exhibit 1
V-Process model for software development

Requirement User Acceptar1ce

Specifications Testing

High Level System

Design Testing

Integration
erifcatlo Detail
Design Testing

Unit
Program
Specificati on Testing

Coding

2019
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/software testing dictionary/v model.htm in May
Source: Compiled from
 Exceed: lmproving Productivity and Reliability in Delivery of Software Solutions IIMB

Exhibit 2
Customer complaints tracker
Serial # Complaint Category Date raised ProjectPhase?
feam Working Slowly (u) 10-Aug-16 Requirements
2 Too Many.Errors 19-Aug-16 Requirements
3 Communication Issue (u) 19-Aug-16 Requirements
Excess Staffing (1) 24-Aug-16 Requirements
5 Excess Staffing 26-Aug-16 Requirements
6 Too Many Errors 16-Sep-16 High-Level Design
7 Excess Staffing 22-Sep-16 High-Level Design
Excess Staffing 26-Sep-16 High-Level Design
Domain Knowledge () 12-0ct-16 High-Level Design
10 Communication lssue 12-0ct-16 High-Level Design
11|Team Working Slowly 22-0ct-16 High-Level Design
12 Team Working Slowly 26-0ct-16 Detail Design
13 feam Working Slowly 28-0ct-16 Detail Design
14 Team Working Slowly 11-Nov-16 Coding & Unit Testing
15 Team Working Slowly 16-Nov-16 Coding & Unit Testing
16 Team Working Slowly 25-Nov-16 Coding & Unit Testing
17 Excess Staffing
28-Nov-16 Coding & Unit Testing
18 Team Working Slowly 16-Dec-16 Integration Testing
19 Too Many Errors 21-Dec-16 Integration Testing
20 Team Working Slowly 25-Dec-16 Integration Testing
21 Too Many Errors 29-Dec-16 Integration Testing
22 Team Working Slowly 02-Jan-17 System Testing
23 Excess Staffing
05-Jan-17 System Testing
24 Domain Knowledge 06-Jan-17 System Testing
25Team Working `lowly 06-Jan-17 System Testing
26 Team Working Slowly 10-Jan-17 DSystem Testing
27feam Working Slowly 19-Jan-17 System Testing
28 Excess Staffing 23-Jan-17 System Testing
29 Communication Issue 23-Jan-17 System Testing
30 Too Many Errors 27-Jan-17 System Testing
31 Too Many Errors 31-Jan-17 System Testing
32 Too Many Errors 01-Feb-17 System Testing
33 Communication Issue 01-Feb-17 System Testing
34 Too Many Errors 02-Feb-17 System Testing
35 Team Working Slawly 03-Feb-17 System Testing
36 Too Many Errors 03-Feb-17
Source: Company Reccrds
System Testing

Proect phase indicates the incident phase in tnev process moce' (as exp'ained n Exhibit 1) when tne issi.e w:sraised

Page 6 of 8
 8
of
82 84
20-Jan-17 88 79 92
89 83 80 03-Feb-17 83 77 7
Page

88 79 82 83 83 90 84
19-Jan-17 86 84 85 02-Feb-17

8234
O.
86 83 85 85 82
79 85 01-Feb-17 77 77
18-Jan-17 82 8-8

IMB 79217-Jan-17
83 82 76 77 78 74 86
31-Jan-17 83 89 83

81 86
statistics16-Jan-17 82 88 81 76 82 84 85 79
27Jan-1730-Jan-17 64.7976
44.89
Solutions
execution
75 86 83 84 78 84 85 81 87 81 cases
13-Jan-17
test
Software system
case
73 86 81 79 87
74 81 72 73 83 25-Jan-17.26-Jan-17 of
of test76611-Jan-172Jan-17 execution
Delivery
System
the
88 79 83 83 82 for
in 81 83 76 84 82
duration
Reliability
C
Chast.
2-hour

and 82 87 88 78 83 86 83 78 80 83
10-Jan-17 24-Jan-17 of
window
Productivity
time

81 73 85 90 88 23-Jan-17
86 83 81 81 87 a
09-Jan-17 of
time
Improving Source:
Company
Records start
the
11:00
AM to
Exhibit
3 AM 11:00
9:00 AM 1:00
PM 3:00
PM 5:00
PM 9:00
AM 1:00
PM 3:00
PM 5:00
PM refers
Exceed: 3Time Time
Time

sun2023 to Dec 2021

,thorizen for se onty in Prof. Kuna Carguiy's Quality Maragement &Six Sigma-"erm-iV-2022-24 at Iraian institute of Managenlent - Kasripur from
 Software Solutions
Exceed: lmproving Productivity and Reliability in Delivery of

Exhibit 4
Network response time metrics
Response times
Date Time (in milliseconds)
9:00 AM 222
09-Jan-17
234
09-Jan-17 11:00 AM
1:00 PM 214
09-Jan-17
211
09-Jan-17 3:00PM
211
09-Jan-17 5:00 PM
221
10-Jan-17 9:00 AM
215
10-Jan-17 11:00 AM
210
10-Jan-17 1:00 PM
226
10-Jan-17 3:00 PM
218
10-Jan-17 5:00 PM
218
11-Jan-17 9:00 AM
11:00 AM 219
11-Jan-17
229
11-Jan-17 1:00 PM
3:00 PM 218
11-Jan-17
221
11-Jan-17 5:00 PM
235
12-Jan-17 9:00 AM
11:00 AM 222
12-Jan-17
236
12-Jan-17 1:00PM
3:00 PM 230
12-Jan-17
5:00 PM 221
12-Jan-17
9:00 AM 230
13-Jan-17
11:00 AM 215
13-Jan-17
1:00 PM 221
13-Jan-17
3:00 PM 217
13-Jan-17
5:00 PM 230
13-Jan-17

Source: Company Records

jervers of txCeed and &K clieot

travel between the ofshoe
the time taken for a recuest and response of cata packet to
Resoonse timnp is between the twCretworks
in data communication
network. it is a measure of iatency
Page 8 of 8