project team

2.6 Evaluate the importance of the project leader quality assuring the work of the project team

Quality Assurance (QA) is often a formal process within service contracts and projects. It can be taken to mean the maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production. There has been a significant amount of research and study allocated to understanding more about the role of QA across the past several decades and such research tended to originate from major defence and aviation engineering projects whereby the cost of any failure could be human lives. QA has evolved to become the sub-discipline within Project Management that deals with compliance and conformity with agreed service levels as well as legal and technical requirements that could be stipulated by governments for within that sector. Many QA standards are so important that they have become refined and absorbed into expected rules and guidance codified by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). According to W. Edwards Deming, prominent business modelling expert, QA is a strict and formal discipline within any business to ensure the highest levels of professionalism and customer satisfaction (W. Edwards Deming: 2012).

According to ISO 8402:1996, i.e. Quality Management and Quality Assurance Vocabulary standard states that Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or a service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.

According to ISO 9000:2000, i.e. the set of International Quality Standards and Guidelines for Quality Management Systems states that Quality is the degree to which a set of existing characteristics fulfil requirements.

Simply put, you can say that “quality is about meeting the customers’ requirements” and the deliverable being fit for use. When a product meets or exceeds customers’ requirements and needs one can say that the product is of high quality. Conversely, if it is not meeting its stated requirements the product

is said to be of low quality. A very solid example of a business Quality Assurance process has been kindly provided online by the automotive firm, Magna Tyres:

Figure 1: Quality Assurance Process, continuous improvement model:

Source: https://magnatyres.com/quality-management-and-control/

QA therefore assures the quality of the product meaning that this process ensures that the product generated from the process is defect free and conforms to all stated customer requirements and supplier service level agreements. It is said to be a process-based approach whose primary objective is to prevent defects in deliverables at the planning stage to avoid rework, which increases process costs (W. Edwards Deming: 2012). Quality Assurance can also be viewed upon as a proactive process and it places great importance upon planning, documentation, and guidelines finalisation (sign-off) that will be needed to assure the quality. This process begins at the very start of the project to compare the product’s requirements and expectations. Once all requirements and expectations are recognised, a plan is developed to meet these requirements and expectations.

Tools used in the Quality Assurance Process

There are fundamentally three tools utilized in quality management – process analysis, quality audit and quality management and control tools. In process analysis, one analyses the process to spot any enhancements, find the root cause of any problem that comes up, and recognise any non-value added activities. (Such activities are therefore viewed as meaningless and require abandoning by strict Project Managers.)

In Quality Audit, a panel of external experts come and review the process and procedures. If they discover any discrepancies, they will recommend corrective action or an enhancement in the process. It is an excellent tool to ensure the best practice and approved procedures are being followed.

Many Project consultants will seek to get an overview of their QA processes by designing a visual diagram such as a QA wheel (see below).

Figure 2: Quality Assurance Wheel:

Source: Zarantech

Differences between Quality Control and Quality Assurance

• Quality Assurance stresses on defect prevention and Quality Control focuses on defect identification. • In quality Assurance, one checks if the plan was efficient enough to avoid any forecasted defect. In Quality Control one attempts to find defects and correct them while creating the product. • Quality Assurance is a proactive process whereas Quality Control is a reactive process. • Quality Assurance is a process-based approach whereas Quality Control is a product-based approach. • Quality Assurance includes processes managing quality, and Quality

Control is used to validate the product quality. • Quality Audit is an example of Quality Assurance. Inspection and testing are great examples of the Quality Control process.

According to W. Edwards Deming and strategy author, Professor Richard Rumelt (2012), the following are some clear benefits of these processes:

• High quality output = more customers • High quality products engender pride and workplace fulfilment. QA and

QC, thus, promote high levels of confidence and a motivated team • Provides customer satisfaction, which positively impacts your consultancy brand and helps individuals and organisations to grow their business • Minimises waste • Increase the efficiency of operations, sometimes by a large factor • Less rework and after-sale support are needed. This will save a lot of time and money

Figure 3: QA v QC comparison chart:

Source: https://www.sam-solutions.com/blog/quality-assurance-vs-qualitycontrol-the-difference-and-comparison/

According to consultancy SaM solutions, Quality Assurance and Quality Control are closely intertwined and their objective is also the same, which is to deliver a defect-free product. Both processes are therefore core components of any quality management plan and working together, enhance each other. Failing to implement either of them will lead to failure of quality management in the consultant’s project.

Quality Assurance is thus one of the prime growth areas in the Project Management space and one of the most rapidly progressing areas in software creation.

QA Activities: Planning, Auditing and Analysing Project Quality

Quality Assurance activities are those tasks the quality team execute to review the quality requirements, audit the results of control measurements and analyse quality performance in order to make sure that correct and consistently highquality standards and procedures are appropriately applied within the project. But what are the steps to help a QA team progress to achieving quality outcomes. Below is an excellent diagram that enables us to visualise the role and objective of the QA team:

Figure 4: Quality Assurance staircase

Source: TMM1 Framework 1 cited at Zarantech.com

Provided below are the three key activities of Quality Assurance:

Develop a Quality Assurance Plan

First steps first, any consultant should familiarise themselves with the QA processes and steps and work out how they apply to their specific task and environment. Collect the relevant project standard information and define compliance criteria such as how to make a Quality Assurance plan. The first Quality Assurance activity must include planning the overall process for assuring quality. Its purpose is to formulate a Quality Assurance plan template which is a highly efficient tool to assure quality in a project and identify/monitor problems and challenges that may arise during project execution. The quality team is required to utilise such a plan to do the rest of the Quality Assurance activities, such as Audit and Analysis.

The essential core steps in creating a Quality Assurance plan template are sequential and begin with setting up goals of project assurance as to why the project would need Quality Assurance. The next step would be to designate responsibilities to QA team members, then decide the hierarchy of management such as who will carry out the Quality Assurance activities. Recognise a set of measurements and metrics to be used to measure quality levels and performance which involves ALSO checking whether the project itself is performed under appropriate quality levels.

Reflective Exercise:

In your private notebook. Imagine a major workbased project. It could be from your own work or an imagined or real external case study. Design and devise a Quality Assurance plan for a major project of transformational change. Moreover, how would you – as lead consultant, reporting in to the Chief Operating Officer – ensure that your project was itself conforming to the highest standards of Project Management?

Further Reading:

ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems – Vocabulary. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/29280.html

W. Edwards Deming (2012) The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. London: McGraw-Hill Education

George, M. and Maxey, G (2004) The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed: A Quick Reference Guide to 70 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed. London: McGraw-Hill Education

References:

ISO 8402: 1994 Quality Management and Quality Assurance – Vocabulary. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/20115.html. ISO 8402:1996 Quality Management and Quality Assurance, followed but is not accessible from ISO online:

ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems – Vocabulary. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/29280.html

Magenta Tyres (2020) Quality Management and Control: Premium Quality. Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://magnatyres.com/quality-management-andcontrol/

Zarantech.com (2019) What is Quality Assurance in Project Management? Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.zarantech.com/blog/quality-assuranceproject-management/

SaM Solutions (2020) Quality Control vs. Quality Assurance (Difference and Comparison). Accessed on 20/1/2020 at: https://www.samsolutions.com/blog/quality-assurance-vs-quality-control-the-difference-andcomparison/

Rumelt, R. (2012) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. London: Profile Books