Consulting Opportunity $16\mathrm{.}1$

Consulting Opportunity $16\mathrm{.}1,$ page $478$ of Kendall & Kendall

Read the below story and consider the questions at the end. Submit your well thought out and carefully considered answers here. Length of your answers is less important than the quality of your answers.

The Quality of MIS is Not Strained

$$Merle$,$ come here and take a look at these end$-$of$-$the$-$week reports,$$ Portia pleads. As one of the managers on the six$-$person IS task force$/$quality assurance committee, Portia has been examining for her marketing department the system output that has been produced by the prototype. The systems analysis team has asked her to review the output.

Merle Chant walks over to Portia$$s desk and takes a look at the prospectus she$$s holding. $$Why$,$ what$$s wrong?$$ he asks. $$It looks okay to me$.$ I think you$$re taking this task force deal too much to heart. We$$re supposed to get our other work done as well, you know.$$ Merle turns to leave and returns to his desk slightly perturbed at being interrupted.

$$Merle$,$ have a little mercy. It is really silly to put up with these reports the way they are. I can$$t find anything I need, and then I$$m supposed to tell everyone else in the department what part of the report to read. I, for one, am disappointed. This report is slipshod. It doesn$$t make any sense to me$.$ It$$s a rehash of the output we$$re getting now. Actually, it looks worse. I am going to bring this up at the next task force meeting,$$ Portia proclaims insistently.

Merle turns to face her, saying, $$Quality is their responsibility, Portia. If the system isn$$t giving us good reports, they$$ll fix it when it$$s all together. All you$$re doing is making waves. You$$re acting as if they actually value our input. I wouldn$$t give them the time of day, let alone do their work for them. They$$re so smart, let them figure out what we need.$$

Portia looks at Merle blankly, then starts getting a little angry. $$We$$ve been on the task force for four weeks,$$ she says. $$You$$ve sat in on four meetings. We$$re the ones who know the business. The whole idea of TQM is to tell them what we need, what we$$re satisfied with. If we don$$t tell them what we need, then we can$$t complain. I$$m bringing it up the next time we meet.$$

How effective do you think Merle will be in communicating his standards of quality to the systems analysis team and members of the IS task force? Respond in a paragraph. If systems analysts are able to perceive Merle$$s unwillingness to work with the task force on developing quality standards, what would you say to convince him of the importance of user involvement in TQM$?$ Make a list of arguments supporting the use of TQM$.$ How can the systems analysis team respond to the concerns Portia is bringing up$?$ In a paragraph, devise a response.