System Quality Management Using Balanced Scorecard

The role of IT departments in organizations has changed considerably in recent years. This is mainly due to the need to develop competitive advantages to a business to remain a market leadership. Systems, being part of this technology, have become the core of many critical business processes, and this in turn has fostered the growth of systems development companies. However, in order for client organizations and developers alike to compete effectively in a global market, they need to apply a quality approach to these products. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience gained from using the Balanced Scorecard to implement a quality strategy in systems development organizations in Venezuela. The research model utilized was Action–Research and the evaluation method was “Quantitative Case Studies,” obtained by applying the DESMET method. As a result of this experience, a process was implemented to create a Balanced Scorecard geared to the integration of Systemic Quality, as well as a Strategic Map for implementation in systems development organizations The processes followed to create the Balanced Scorecard and Strategic Map proposed were evaluated within a Venezuelan organization using systems dynamics. This reduced the space-time variables necessary in a real evaluation and provided us with sufficient knowledge to refine the process.