Response Time Management - The Deming Way
                           Avner OTTENSOOSER
                     Peipetual Trustees Australia Lim-
ted
                          Sydney, New South Wales
                                ABSTRACT
Challenged to manage and constantly improve its dynamically changing core
systems. Perpetual Trustees Australia Limited applies Deming's Total Quality
Management methodology to its VAX-COBOL / PowerHouse for VMS environment.
The company continuously collects systems' performance data using DECtrace for
VMS. On a daily basis. Information Systems Department presents performance data
on Control Charts, a decision making tool which provides quick, objective and valid
information on when to take action on the system or when to make a change.

This paper describes Total Quality Management and how it can be applied to the
software industry. Using real life examples this paper shows why Response Time
is the parameter of critical importance  during the maintenance stage in a systems'
life cycle. It then demonstrates how to implement Response Time Management as
a chief instrument for never-ending service improvement.

              BUSINESS PROFILE
Incorporated in 1886, Perpetual Trustees Australia
Limited (PTA), acts as a custodian and manager of
investments and estates - safeguarding the assets of
nearly 20 percent of Australia's adult population.
PTA's fund management arms include pension funds,
corporate investment accounts, common funds and
personal trusts. From its Sydney headquarters and of-
fices in five of the Australian capital cities. Perpetual
Funds Management is responsible for approximately
A$2 billion and Perpetual Nominees is the custodian
for A$50 billion.
Following the appointment of a new Group General
Manager in 1989, a strategic information system plan,
aligning  itself with  management  objectives,  was
developed. At its base was management awareness that
to attract new business and serve existing clients, it
was critical for the information systems to be reliable,
precise, flexible and quickly responsive to market
requirements. As a dynamic business, PTA has both
emerging and diminishing lines of business. This
presents its Information Systems Department (ISD)
with the never ending task of tuning the systems in
accordance with the resulting demand fluctuation.

  TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A BRIEF
                   REMINDER
Management must focus on correct measurable per-
formance attributes and navigate them. Each measur-
able performance attribute has both an average and
variations around the average. The average of measur-
able performance attributes should be reduced if the
attribute is undesirable (e.g. CPU time consumed)
increased if the attribute is desirable (e.g. transaction
throughput) or meet specifications, (i.e. be as close as
possible to a pre-defined measurement).
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a methodology
aiming at  identification of  correct performance
attributes, never ending reduction of variations and the
navigation of performance attributes averages to the
desirable position. Dr. W. Edwards Deming epitomised
the TQM principals demanding the fulfilment of all or
none of the 'Fourteen Points For Management' sad the
elimination of the seven 'Deadly Diseases A nd Obsta-
cles For Quality' (See APPENDIX No. 1).
Dr. Deming arrived in Japan after World War II and
taught Japanese manufacturing managers how they
could produce goods and deliver services of the
highest quality faster and cheaper by following his
TQM methodology. In 1960, Dr. Deming was raised
to the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure by the
Emperor of Japan for his contribution to the Japanese
economy. To the Japanese manufacturers, TQM

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