Purpose:
Provide staff and management with objective insight into processes and associated work products.
Objective:
Establishes organizational expectations for objectively evaluating whether processes and associated work products adhere to applicable process descriptions, standards, and procedures; and ensuring that no non-compliances are addressed.
Also, establishes organizational expectations for process and product quality assurance being in place for all projects. Process and product quality assurance must possess sufficient independence from project management to provide objectivity in identifying and reporting noncompliance issues.
Description:
The Process and Product Quality Assurance process involves the following activities:
- Objectively evaluating performed processes and work products against applicable process descriptions, standards, and procedures
- Identifying and documenting noncompliance issues
- Providing feedback to project staff and managers on the results of quality assurance activities
- Ensuring that noncompliance issues are addressed
The Process and Product Quality Assurance process area supports the delivery of high-quality products by providing project staff and managers at all levels with appropriate visibility into, and feedback on, processes and associated work products throughout the life of the project.
The practices in the Process and Product Quality Assurance process ensure that planned processes are implemented, while the practices in the Verification process area ensure that specified requirements are satisfied. These two process areas can on occasion address the same work product but from different perspectives. Projects should take advantage of the overlap to minimize duplication of effort while taking care to maintain separate perspectives.
Objectivity in process and product quality assurance evaluations is critical to the success of the project. Objectivity is achieved by both independence and the use of criteria. A combination of methods providing evaluations against criteria by those who do not produce the work product is often used. Less formal methods can be used to provide broad day-to-day coverage. More formal methods can be used periodically to assure objectivity.
Entrance Criteria:
- Evaluation Tools
- Noncompliance Tracing Tools
Exit Criteria:
- Noncompliance Reports
- Evaluation Logs and Reports
Process and Procedures:
Tailoring Guidelines:
Organizations may choose to purchase a process and product quality assurance process and procedures rather than develop them. Using the Causal Analysis and Resolution process, they can tailor the process to fit their organization.
Process Verification Record(s):
- Status Reports of Corrective Actions
- Stored By: [PMO Director]
- Cost of Quality Reports for the Project
- Stored By: [PMO Director]
Measure(s):
- Variance of objective process evaluations planned and performed
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- Variance of objective work product evaluations planned and performed
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- Schedule for objective evaluations
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References:
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Here are the training modules for Process and Product Quality Assurance:
Create These Seven Elements of a Quality Management Plan
The Quality Management Plan describes how you will ensure the client’s quality requirements are achieved. It is the place to describe the processes and activities that will be put into place to ensure that quality deliverables are produced. The Quality Management Plan also helps you understand when deliverables are complete and correct.
The quality requirements are unknown when the Quality Management Plan is created. Still, it would be best if you described the processes and techniques you will use to uncover the quality requirements and verify that the requirements are met. The information in the Quality Management Plan includes:
- Roles and responsibilities. Describe the different quality-related roles on the project. The project manager has overall responsibility, but you may have other roles assisting. These could include quality auditors, third-party testing specialists, inspectors, etc.
- Completeness and correctness criteria. The completeness and correctness criteria aim to work with the customer upfront to define what it means for a deliverable to be considered complete and correct. Then, when you meet those terms, you expect the customer to be satisfied. In other words, there should be no surprises.
- Quality requirements process. Describe the process you will use to uncover and validate the customer’s expectations for quality. This is generally going to be a part of the requirements-gathering process.
- Quality assurance activities. Quality assurance activities focus on the processes used to build the solution. They can be validated by a functional manager, business sponsor, or a third-party reviewer. It would help if you described this project’s major quality assurance activities and techniques.
- Quality control activities. Quality control activities are performed continually throughout a project to verify that project deliverables are acceptable. It would help if you described the major quality control activities and techniques that will be used on this project.
- Quality standards. List any quality standards that the company or organization has previously defined that this project will follow.
Quality tools. List any quality-related tools that your project will utilize.
The Quality Management Plan is where you think beforehand about how you will understand the customers’ expectations for quality and how you will deliver to that expectations. Once the project starts, this Plan guides how you will manage quality throughout the project.
