Alka Jarvis’ background encompasses Software Quality, Cloud, Data Science, Customer Experience, Training and International Quality Management Standards. Currently she is with Hitachi ABB serving as the Global Software Quality and Process Improvement Officer. Prior to joining Hitachi ABB, she was with Cisco Systems for 25 years. Cisco’s first and only Distinguished Quality Engineer (Senior Director) and a Fellow of American Society of Quality (ASQ), she has worked in a variety of capacities for fortune 500 companies.
At Cisco, Alka developed Software Quality Excellence plans and encouraged grass-root efforts of proliferating best practices. She influenced senior management and engineering to support changes to the development methodology. This resulted in successful enhancement, roll out and implementation of Great Engineering Methodology (GEM) which was used by majority of the Business Units for over seven years to develop software.
Alka was instrumental in starting Cisco’s first Best Practice Center of Excellence and established “Root Cause Analysis” and “Review” methodologies. A cross functional team was led by her to create Acquisition Playbooks, which were used in effective integration of 45+ acquisitions. She was one of the pioneers to assess company-wide gaps for implementation of TL 9000 Telecommunication Standard.
A frequently invited speaker on quality assurance and technology topics at international as well as domestic events, Alka is an adjunct lecturer in the Graduate program at Santa Clara University in the computer engineering. Her expertise is reflected in the eleven books she has authored in software engineering, quality management standards, customer experience, telemetry and Cloud Operations. Two of her books were used as textbooks in three Universities for over ten years. She is also an instructor at U.C. Santa Cruz and U.C. Berkeley extensions, where she has developed curriculums for software engineering and quality management certificate programs.
Alka won Silicon Valley’s “Corporate Woman Advocate of The Year” award for her accomplishments in the software quality field and ASQ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recognized her by publishing her accomplishments in their “Who is who is Quality” article.
In her role as the Chair for USTAG 176 for 9 years representing United States, she was actively involved in the development of ISO 9001/9004 Quality Management Standards revisions of the years 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2015. She is an ISO Lead Auditor, certified by Exemplar Global of United States.
Currently she is a member of Chairman’s Strategic Advisory group for ISO QMS; the Chair for the SW Engineering Program at U.C. Santa Cruz Extension (UCSC-Ext.), and has served as the Chair for the USTAG Standards Group Council; a member of ASQ’s Learning Institute Advisory Board; the President of the Bay Area Quality Assurance Association (BAQAA); has been an Applied Total Quality Advisory Board member for University of California-Berkeley-Extension; an Advisory Board member to the Certificate Program in Continuous Improvement & Quality Management – UCSC-Ext.; Board member for Quality Assurance Institute; an Advisory Member for ASQ 2015 & 2016 International Conference on Quality Standards and Vice President of Indian Business and Professional Women.
