#QUALITYtweet - A Book Review

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

I’m devoting this week’s articles to author and blogger, Tanmay Vora and his recent book #QUALITYtweet. My review of the book found below will be followed by an interview with Tanmay and at the end of the week with a guest post that looks at the intersection of quality and Reflection Leadership.

Tanmay’s book is part of the Thinkaha series of books being published by Happy About Books. Each of the books in this series were written based on the format of Twitter and contains “140 bite-sized ideas” that are all no longer than the 140 character constraint placed on Twitter communications. For the reader, the format makes for a short, easy to read collection of pithy sayings and often profound statements.

For the author, the format must require an acute attention to each idea that needs to be expressed and on this count Tanmay does not disappoint. It’s clear that he has a lot of important things to say about quality. None of the 140 entries felt like “throw aways” just to get to the quota. It was also clear that a lot of thought when into using just the right words for each entry.

Organization of the Book

The book is divided into three “chapters”: People & Quality, Process & Quality, and Management, Leadership & Quality, with the entries in each chapter relating to that specific quality topic. There is an introduction to each chapter and here is the only place in the whole book that was not constrained to the 140 character limit. At first I found this odd, but it really works well since it helps the reader focus each of the entries that follow into a coherent stream of thought.

The People & Quality chapter looks at the people aspect of quality. It focuses on how perceptions can have an impact on every thing that relates to the quality of the experience that organizations deliver to their customers. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

It is easier for you to generate quality outputs consistently if you really love what you do.

Your team is more likely to produce quality when the purposes of your product excites them.

All of the entries in the Process & Quality chapter focus on how processes can be managed effectively in order to build an organizational or team culture that is customer oriented and focused on quality. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

“Quality product” is an assessment your customers will make. Not you.

Never let your processes come in the way of solving your customer’s immediate problem.

The final chapter, Management, Leadership and Quality is the longest of three. The entries in this chapter take a look at what it takes in the way of management and leadership to sustain a culture dedicated to excellence. Two of my favorite entries from this chapter are:

You can think of quality as an initiative or as a way of doing business.

Humility to accept that something is wrong is the first step to improvement.

My Thoughts About the Book

I have to admit, when I first saw the format of the Thinkaha series of books I thought, what a cute gimmick but how meaningful and useful can a book of 140 character “sayings” really be? After reading #QUALITYtweet I’m sold. The format allows for quick and easy reading, but that should not be confused with lacking substance. I was continually surprised throughout the book when entry after entry continued to reinforce much of what I know about quality management and even gave me some new things to think about.

The beauty of the short “micro” entries is that in many cases they are designed to invoke our own thought processes about the topic instead of just instructing. The format of the book also makes it easy to go back and reread.

If all of the Thinkaha series of books are as well done as this one, I think they’ll deserve a place on my bookshelf.

Leader’s Reflection: #QUALITYtweet is a really good read for leaders who want a quick and easy read that helps them focus on creating a culture of quality within their organization.

Tanmay Vora heads Quality Assurance & Testing at Gateway Technolabs which is an offshore software service company based in Ahmedabad, India. He specializes in building independent testing teams from scratch and has experience in software development methodologies, quality management and process-improvement initiatives. He speaks and consults on software quality assurance and publishes the QAspire Blog where he writes about quality and leadership issues.

You also might be interested in:

1. #QUALITYtweet – An Interview with Tanmay Vora
2. #QUALITYtweet – An Interview with Tanmay Vora (Part II)
3. Just Ask Leadership – A Book Review
4. Intersection of Reflection Leadership and #QUALITY
5. November Leadership Development Blog Carnival