Implementing Quality

Project Quality – Part 3 – Implementing Quality

by Brad Egeland

Once we have gone through the process of quality planning – as described in Part 2 of this series – we then move of to the act of implementing a quality policy for the organization.

Because planning is iterative, the quality planning sessions may need, and often require, several revisits to the quality planning processes. On longer projects, there may need to be scheduled quality planning sessions to compare the performance of the project in relation to the quality that was planned.

Creating the Quality Management Plan

One of the major outputs of quality planning is the quality management plan. This document describes how the project manager and the project team will fulfill the quality policy.

The quality management plan addresses three things about the project and the project work:

• Quality control. Work results are monitored to see if they meet relevant quality standards. If the results do not meet the quality standards, the project manager applies root cause analysis to determine the cause of the poor performance and then eliminates the cause. Quality control is inspection orientated.

• Quality assurance. The overall performance is evaluated to ensure the project meets the relevant quality standards. Quality assurance maps to an organization’s quality policy and is typically a managerial process. Quality assurance is generally considered the work of applying the quality plan.

• Quality improvement. The project performance is measured and evaluated, and corrective actions are applied to improve the product and the project. The improvements can be large or small depending on the condition and the quality philosophy of the performing organization.

Identifying the Operational Definitions

Operational definitions, also known as metrics, are the quantifiable terms and values to measure a process, activity, or work result. An example of an operational definition could be an expected value for the required torque to tighten a bolt on a piece of equipment. By testing and measuring the torque, the operational definition would prove or disprove the quality of the product. Other examples can include hours of labor to complete a work package, required safety measures, cost per unit, and so on.

Operational definitions are clear, concise measurements. Designating that 95% of all customer service calls should be answered by a live person within 30 seconds is a metric. A statement that all calls should be answered in a timely manner is not.

Applying Checklists

Checklists are approaches to ensure work is completed according to the quality policy. It’s usually a list of activities that project team members or department workers will check off to ensure each task has been completed. Checklists can be quick instructions of what needs to be done to test a piece of code, create a document, or build a piece of equipment.  Or it can be questions that remind the developer to complete a task: “Did you test to verify that all output on the test report was accurate?”