I’m Dawn Keller and I manage the Quality Assurance department at Minitab. Did you ever launch our software and wonder, “Wow, who created such a high-quality and feature-rich application within a release cycle that meets or exceeds my expectations?” Now you know!

Well…okay, so I can’t really take the credit for our products. But I am proud to say that I support the people who work tirelessly to do just that.

Unlike many folks in software development, I’m not a software engineer by training. My background is in quality and reliability engineering. I spent more than a decade in the manufacturing...

I spend a majority of my time entrenched in statistics. Using statistics. Studying statistics. Developing and testing statistical software. Statistics guide many of my decisions at work and in life. That’s the world of an engineer.

For this reason, you can imagine my surprise when my husband called me at work on a bright, sunny June day in 2009 to tell me that our 4-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. That, to me, seemed completely improbable. We live in a development in suburbia.  Our children don’t play deep in the woods. We don’t hike in the woods. In accordance with the...

As I sat down to examine Cost of Quality (COQ) at Minitab, I flashed back to my CQE exam almost 20 years ago. I can still vividly remember staring down at a particularly difficult Cost of Quality question and wondering why I didn’t just follow my 4th-grade career assessment and become a novelist.  

Mental note: a study of the correlation between 4th grade career assessments and actual career paths would make for an interesting blog post.

I briefly considered fleeing the building, buying a bottle of absinthe and channeling Hemingway.  But then I remembered that, even with absinthe, I was no...

Like most families, the Kellers have a host of holiday traditions that make this time of year special. There's the annual trek to get our family Christmas tree. Christmas decorating that is sure to include some inflatable eyesore. Family holiday movie nights. Christmas plays. Our visit with Santa (followed by the endless threats to have him withhold a gift of our choosing). Impromptu parties with family and friends. It’s pure magic. I really do love the holidays.

Sadly, all of these joys are quickly followed by the worst holiday tradition ever: the dreaded Keller Family Financial Review. My...

I’m a quality engineer, so it probably goes without saying that I like gathering and analyzing data. Minitab and I spend a significant amount of time together. Some might say that our relationship is unhealthy—perhaps even co-dependent. But Minitab and I have been together for almost 20 years. That’s a long time for any relationship, especially one between a software application and an engineer.

It’s that 20-year bond that makes it very difficult for me to acknowledge when I can’t gather data for a particular attribute of quality. Sometimes it’s not an option. Sometimes it’s just not the best...

I love product development and quality engineering. There are days when I can’t believe that I actually get paid to do this. Between you and me, I’d do this work for a lot less money.  In fact, even on the days that I hate the particular circumstances of my job, I still love my job. If that makes any sense.

So, when I set out to write this post, my intent was to include a fun and entertaining analysis (performed in Minitab, of course) of the statistics supporting engineering as a great career choice. I thought for sure there would be overwhelming research to suggest that I wasn’t crazy, and...

I remember a time in my career when I mistakenly thought I knew statistics—really knew statistics. It was before I met Yanling Zuo, Michelle Paret, Eduardo Santiago and a whole host of other Minitab statistical experts. I was a Quality Engineer and I’d been applying statistics for years. I assumed that the ability to design and run an experiment meant that I understood DOE. I assumed that years of process control meant that I understood control charting. I assumed that I’d use this knowledge to jump on the “fast track” to technical stardom.

It does not, and I did not.

I, in fact, knew a lot...

I am 100% certain that, on the day they asked me to manage at Minitab, they did not tell me I would have to do so much process work. They didn’t clearly articulate that, as a manager, I’d spend a considerable part of my time discussing how we develop software rather than actually developing software. Perhaps I should have known. A better engineer probably would have known. But, me? Nope, I didn’t see it coming.

Dave Nelson (the head of product development at Minitab) may have told me that I wouldn’t have as much time to test  things myself, because managing does take a considerable amount of...

My 6-year-old came home from school one day very excited to let me know that Maggie’s mommy was a doctor and she helped sick people get better. Seems Maggie's mommy was a “community hero.”

My unspoken response: “Not Maggie’s mommy again.” 

You see, in preschool, Maggie’s mommy remembered to send not one, but two rocks on “paint a rock” day.  I, sadly, forgot to send even a single rock. My daughter, without a rock, had to paint her clenched fist.

But I digress. Maggie’s mommy was, in fact, a wonderful doctor and very dear friend.  My spoken response was, “You are so right — we are so lucky to have...

Balancing Cost, Quality and Delivery

Let's talk about risk-based testing. I should start by saying that this is a sensitive subject. It’s why a career in quality is not for the faint of heart. The fact is that cost, quality and delivery are at constant odds in every industry, including software. Quality professionals play a key role in this balancing act. And, whenever things become "unbalanced," we quality professionals are often the bad guy—or at least we feel that way.

For a long time, I felt sorry for myself. Why couldn’t people understand how difficult my job was? Fighting so hard each...

When I get to apply tools like the P’ Chart, I get a thrill. What can I say? I’m a huge fan of Minitab® Statistical Software. I won’t claim to be its biggest fan, but let’s just say I’m definitely up there. Probably in the top 50; definitely the top 100.

Admittedly, I’m biased. I have a pretty good gig here. But my history with Minitab started more than a decade before I came to work here. As a quality engineer who spent a lot of time analyzing data, I was a die-hard Minitab user.