What Is Quality?

Customer quality (which is extrinsic or external) delivers value in the short term. Technical quality (which is intrinsic or internal) enables continuous delivery of value over time. Poor quality work results in unreliable products, but more critically, it results in products that are far less responsive to future customer needs. There are software companies beginning to build new business models (see the Hyper-development and Release section in Chapter 8, “Advanced Release Planning”) around truly understanding extrinsic and intrinsic quality.

How many people go to work each Monday morning determined to perform poor quality work?