---
title: "Make Implicit Quality Perspectives Explicit"
source: "https://virtualddd.com/heuristics/make-implicit-quality-perspectives-explicit/"
authors: ["Anne-Marie Charrett"]
tags: ["quality", "sociotechnical systems", "cognitive bias", "psychological safety", "conflict management"]
type: "guiding heuristics"
question: "How do we align teams who have different, unstated assumptions about what quality means?"
submitter: "Anne-Marie Charrett"
---

# Make Implicit Quality Perspectives Explicit

Acknowledge that different functions perceive quality differently: product values ‘building the right thing’, engineering values ‘building the thing right’, and operations values ‘supporting the thing well’. Make these perspectives explicit through a formal discussion or a social contract. This prevents misalignment and fosters a holistic view of quality.

## Example

We held a workshop with product, engineering, and support to create a social contract. This document explicitly defines our shared quality goals, balancing feature discovery with implementation correctness and operational stability.