QOS/BOS (Quality/Business Operating System)

First, QOS/BOS takes the framework of 'competitive strategy' meaning, the positioning of the organization to compete in providing specific services to a defined market. It assesses customer expectations and competitive benchmarking, to further establish the quantifiable levels of performance capability required to support the organization's strategic positioning. To some extent, the procedure is comparable to the "Balanced Scorecard" - but QOS/BOS goes further.

In establishing these requirements for strategic positioning, QOS/BOS takes into consideration, not only the expectations of service purchasers, but the expectations of, service users, stakeholders, employees, government and regulatory entities as well. As we'll see, QOS/BOS drives data management to the process level, building a cause and effect model for performance, both financial and non-financial.

The QOS/BOS methodology usually involves management in an analysis of processes and their impact on Key Performance Measurables. In many, if not most service organizations, processes are not well defined and are even less well understood in terms of output, their effect on performance, financial & other areas. Least recognized of all, are the internal, systemic causes of variation in process outputs.