Text version scenario

There is a struggle sometimes to meet customer deadlines and make sure that we are providing the best product for them. This can happen sometimes when estimating costs.

In an estimate, for example, a team used a price point for a lesser quality component simply because the information was easily available and the estimate needed to be done in a very short time frame. Saving on the time and effort to research the higher quality component enabled them to deliver the estimate on time, which was important to the customer. They were aware that the lower quality component would not be in the best interest of the customer - but they did not act on it. This might lead to problems for our customer later.

Should quality and the customer’s best interest be compromised to meet a deadline?

Discussion question

• Have you experienced a situation where quality was compromised in order to meet a deadline?
• How did you approach it?
• What did you learn from it?

Things to consider

We can learn from these situations. They can help us apply foresight when truly living our values. We can consider the following actions:

• Create relationships of mutual respect with our customers that enable us to be able to discuss time vs quality issues with them openly.
• Display courage in expressing the right thing rather than saying yes to team members and the customer without thinking through ethics and quality.
• Explore new and innovative ways to address quality issues while keeping to time commitments.

For guidelines on this topic read our Code of Conduct chapter on Relationship with business partners.