Quality Assurance And Management In Project Delivery Essay.

1 What criteria can be used to determine quality requirements?
2 Who or what are project stakeholders?
3 Explain stakeholder expectations in relation to project quality management.
4 What are the quality management processes?    
5 What are project deliverables?    
6 Explain the relationship between quality criteria and project deliverables.    
7 What information might be necessary to interpret a quality policy or procedure?    
8 What is quality planning?    
9 Who is responsible for the quality of the project deliverables?
10 Explain why quality is prevention-driven.
11 How would you describe design of experiments?
12 What are the main areas that quality management should focus on?

Quality Assurance

1. There are certain criteria that are generally evaluated while determining the quality requirements of a particular project. The major four criteria that are generally evaluated for determining the quality requirements of a particular project includes the proper identification of the requirements, analysis of the condition, analysis of the system specific criterion of the project and the measurement threshold of the project.  The quality measure is an important factor of the measurement threshold that determines the quality of the project.
2. Project stakeholders can be described as entities that have an interest or share in a particular project. A project stakeholder can be a person inside or outside the organization such as the project sponsors or the target customers. The project stakeholders might have a positive or negative influence on successful project completion. The project stakeholders are generally interested with the financial results of the project.
3. Quality management is an integral part of the project as it ensures that the expectations of the stakeholders are met in the project. The expectation of the stakeholders in relation to the quality management of the project is that the project will be delivered in within the set schedule only after ensuring proper quality testing of the project. Quality assurance is the major factor is project success as it indicates the measures that have been taken in order to ensure that the project has been delivered successfully.
4. The process of quality management indicates the set of procedures that are needed to be followed in order to ensure that the deliverables identified for the project fit for the purpose. The quality management process are undertaken to measure the quality if the actual deliverable of the project. The process of quality management focuses on the needs of the customer and the approach taken in order to implement the project.
5. The deliverables of a particular project refers to the tangible and the intangible good, service or product that are produced as a result of a project undertaken to deliver according to the needs of the customer. Deliverables are provided upon the completion of the project or a project stage. The deliverables of the project are generally derived from the requirements of a particular project. Project deliverable is an integral and most significant part of a particular project.
6. There is a significant link between the quality criteria and the deliverables of the project. The quality criteria ensure that the project requirements are defined in a particular manner, which facilitates the objective and validation of the project.  The deliverables of the project should address the quality issues and the set quality requirements of the project. It ensures that the project deliverables meet the panned quality standards of the project. However, the quality of a deliverable is important to consider in the project.
7. The information that might be necessary to interpret a particular quality, policy and procedure associated with a project is having the proper idea of the project requirements identified in the initial project stages. Furthermore, the knowledge about process of project implementation and use of a proper project management approach is necessary to understand whether a particular project is following the quality needs in its implementation.
8. Quality planning is determined as the process of specifying the quality standards, practices, resources and the specifications associated with a project. Quality planning identifies the quality standards that are relevant to the project and it determines the process of implementing the project according to the quality of the project.
9. Determining and analyzing the quality of the project deliverables is the responsibility of the project manager. The project manager has the overall responsibility of quality management of the project. Apart from this, the quality of the project deliverable will be a responsibility of the project team as well.
10. The quality assurance utilizes the elements that are defined in the quality planning and is needed to meet the demands of the customer. The quality assurance is the process of utilizing all the elements defined in the quality planning method and it is prevention driven method as it ensures that the project is continuously improved while implementation.
11. The design of experiments can be defined as the systematic method of determining the relationship between the different factors that affects the process of output of a project. The design of experiments is needed to manage the process of the input in optimizing the input of the project. The design of experiments aims at the determination of the relationship between the different factors affecting the output.
12. The main areas in which the quality management should focus on include-
13. Understanding the main project deliverables.
14. Planning, scoping, implementing and monitoring the quality of the project
15. Setting up standards for ensuring the quality control of the project
16.   Planning the proper project supervision of the project
17. Testing the project quality at the end of each milestone
18. Focusing on the customers’ requirements while developing the quality management plan for the project.

Quality assurance is generally defined as the maintenance of the desired level of the quality, service and product by ensuring proper project delivery and supervision in every project stages. It is generally defined as the way of preventing the defects or mistakes in an ongoing product. It avoids the general project problem and the risks that are identified in the project. It focuses on the systemic process of identifying whether a particular project is meeting its specified requirements.

1. Quality assurance is conducted as a part of project management as it ensures whether a project meets its expected specification and the requirements of the customers. Understanding and fulfilling the requirements and specification of the customer is an important consideration in successful delivery of a project. Quality assurance is an integral part of project management since its deals with the delivery of a defect free product and the process of project management architects the same.
2. One of the main processes that can be included in the quality management of a product includes regular supervision of the project progress. As a methodology for ensuring proper project and quality management as quality management plan is developed at the initiation stage of the project. The quality control manager assigned for the project is responsible for ensuring proper quality test after the successful completion of each project deliverable.
3. The basic tools and methodologies that are used in ensuring the quality control of a particular project are as follows-
4. Development of the cause and effect diagram for identifying the possible cause of the effect or a problem that a project might face while it implementation.
5. Development of check sheet for analyzing the collected data associated with the problems identified and the quality control issues associated with the project.
6. Control chart is another major tools that develops certain graphs for analyzing the quality control requirements identified for the project.
7.  Use of histograms is common as well.
8. Pareto diagram are used to understand the quality requirements of the project

Apart from this, the use of flow chart in understanding the quality and project deliverables is common as well.

5. Cause and effect analysis are often used in the project in understanding the production flaws associated with a project. Apart from this, the root cause analysis is also used in investigation of the patterns of the negative effects and finding the hidden flaws associated with a system. Fishbone diagram is used in understanding the manufacturing problems associated with the project. Use of these tools helps in identification of the production faults, which is necessary in rectifying the problems associated with the implementation of the project.
6. Quality audit is defined as a systemic examination of the quality of a system and is generally carried out by the internal and external quality auditor of the audit team associated with the project. Quality audit is generally performed at a predefined time interval that ensures that the project manager and the project team have successfully defined the internal system monitoring process and procedures of a project.  Quality audit in a project is essential in order to deliver a project of proper quality. Quality audits are therefore an essential management tool of the project.
7. Corporate knowledge base has an important function in storing and retrieving the essential information associated with an organization. Knowledge base is generally defined as a centralized repository for collection and storage of information. Knowledge base is a machine readable and therefore it becomes easier to store and process the information stored in the knowledge base. The knowledge base is often used for managing, storing and sharing of the stored data.  
8. The documents that might be generated as a result of the quality assurance activities include the quality management plan document, inspection test plan document and the inspection results. These documents are analyzed in order to ensure that the project quality is maintained while implementation of a project. The project quality manager is responsible for analyzing the test results for ensuring successful project delivery.
9. Quality assurance has a significant impact on the project management plan. This is because the project plan needs to be developed considering the quality management plans. The project plan should incorporate and allocate proper time for ensuring the quality testing for the different project deliverables associated with a project.
10. The Quality assurance output can be accessed by the project manager and the project stakeholders. The quality assurance ensures that the processes of the project are effectively used in producing the quality deliverables of the project. Therefore, project manager or the program manager is essentially responsible for analyzing the quality output for a project.
11. Lesson learned and post implementation reviews of a particular project generally occur after completion of the project. This phase is important in order to understand the project successes, deliverables and the achievements of the project. Therefore, it is generally the last critical step of a project life cycle. This project phase is very important as it analyzes whether the project is successfully executed or not.

1. It is important to collect and preserve the lesson learned documents as it is important for the project managers to learn from the previous projects and the mistakes faced in the previous projects. This document provides an insight of the obstacles that a project manager faced while implementing a particular project. This will further help in developing the risk mitigation approaches for the previously faced risk while project implementation.
2. Issues and responses of the project are reported after analyzing a particular problems associated with a project. An issue management plan is developed in the project planning phase and the project supervisor is responsible for reporting the issues and the response associated with a project.
3. Post implementation review is generally conducted after the completion of the project. The purpose of post implementation review is to evaluated whether the project objectives are met while implementing the project. It also analyses how project was run and whether the organization will get a possible benefit of the project.
4. The lesson learned exercise is generally conducted by having a discussion about the project progress and the project implementation procedure with the project manager and the project team. It discusses the success factors, intended outcomes of the project and the recommendations for dealing with the similar project problems in future.  The lesson learned is further documented for the use of project managers in successive project implementation.
5. Stakeholder’s need can be assess by conducting a proper meeting with stakeholders associated with the project. This includes analyzing and identifying the project needs and requirements. A stakeholder analysis is performed for understanding the interests and impact of the different stakeholders identified for the project. While analyzing the impact of the stakeholders’ in a project, it is easier to understand the need of the stakeholders associated with a particular project. Conducting a research of the issues and impact of the stakeholders in a particular project is another important consideration of accessing the stakeholders’ needs associated with a project.

Quality audit is process of strategic and systemic analysis of the quality of a system. A quality audit process generally consists of four stages, namely planning, fieldwork, audit report and follow up review. It deals with the onsite verification of a project or a product in its development phase. The objective of the quality review process is to ensure that the standard quality of a project is maintained in its implementation.

The methods of conducting continuous improvement are as follows-

1. Measuring the project progress

2.Managing the different activities of the project

3. Defining a measurable objective and monitoring project progress
4. Evaluation of the monitoring reports
5.  Proposing a improvement method
6. Enforcing the proposed method

The four project specification documents where quality can be defined are as follows-

1. project plan
2. project quality plan
3. SRS document
4. Project audit report

The information that should be documented in defining the quality management plan is as follows-

1. Acceptable quality of the project defined by the customer
2.  work processes to be performed in quality testing
3. Appropriate quality testing plan
4. Quality standards and tools

Quality standards can be defined as the detailed requirements, specifications and guidelines for meeting the characteristics of a project so that it meets its pre specified quality standards. In project lifecycle, the quality checking is generally done after the completion of the project. The quality standards define and establish a framework that a project must follow in ensuring a successful project delivery. Therefore, quality standard plays a integral role in managing the quality of the project.

There are three components of quality management plan, which are represented in a table below-

Objects of quality review	Quality measure	Quality evaluation methods
Project deliverables	Deliverable quality standards Completeness and correctness criteria	Quality control activities
Project processes	Process quality standards Stakeholder expectations	Quality assurance activities

The process of successful implementation of the project includes proper quality review of the project.

Project deliverable	Deliverable quality standards/ completeness and correctness criteria	Quality control activity	Frequency/ interval
Developing of the curriculum for a 420 hours course of officers training	The completeness criteria includes completion of the project in 420 hours	Proper supervision of the project progress	In every 10 hours
Production of the teaching and support materials for 14 units	The materials are aligned with the training objectives	Quality testing and analysis of the materials contents	Once
Development of an assessment tool	The assessment tool identifies the limitations of the project	The assessment tool is tested before use	Once in the entire project life cycle
Developing a strategy for facilitating the course evaluation, reviewing and maintenance of the project.	The strategy facilitates the evaluation, review and maintenance of the project.	Project manager is responsible for cross checking the effectiveness of the strategy	After completion of each phase

Process quality standards

The process quality standard used for determining the work processes and project progress includes evaluation of the project deliverables and ensuring the deliverables are met after completion of each phase.

Stakeholder expectations

The stakeholders expectation associated with this project include successful implementation of the project in 420 hours. Since the purpose of the project is to develop a curriculum, teaching materials and assessment tools for authorized officers training program, the stakeholders’ expectation is linear with the purpose of the project.

Quality Audits

Quality control and quality assurance activities

The quality control activities include checking of the proper project progress and ensuring a quality test after successful completion of each project deliverable.

The quality assurance activities include the analyzing the results of quality test and rectifying the mistakes if applicable.

Project process	Process quality standards/ stakeholder expectations	Quality assurance activity	Frequency/ interval
Design and development of the program to train the authorized officers	Successful training in customers relations and communication skills	The project progress is evaluated	After every phase
Request for tender	Analyzing and identifying the best tender	The tenders are properly analyzed	Once in the project life cycle.

Quality team roles and Responsibilities

Project team role	Assigned resource	Quality control and quality assurance responsibilities
Project Supervision	The project supervisor	The regular project progress is collected and analyzed as a part of quality control.
Successful project implementation	The project manager	Use of a proper project implementation approach for ensuring successful project completion

Tool name	Tool purpose/ use
Cause and effect diagram	Helps in evaluating the cause and effect and the reasons behind the event or the problem associated with the project.
Flow Chart	Use in identifying and analyzing the different project requirements and the path to be followed for project implementation.
Control Charts	It is used to analyze the controls to be enforced for ensuring proper project progress

Quality control and assurance problem reporting plan

Quality Control Log

Exception ID Number	Review Date	Deliverable Reviewed	Findings	Resolution	Resolution Date
1	20.02.18	Review of 420 hour course	The course time might need revision	The requirements are re evaluated	22.02.18
2	20.02.18	Review of the materials developed	The teaching materials needs revision	The identified problems are rectified	1.03.18

Quality Assurance Log

Exception ID Number	Review Date	Process Reviewed	Findings	Resolution	Resolution Date
8	15.03.18	The quality of the course	Improvement needed	Instructions circulated in the project team	20.03.18
9	15.03.18	The process of reviewing the project strategies	Improvement needed	The project strategy is reviewed	20.03.18

Exception ID number	Review date	Deliverable reviewed	Findings	Resolution	Resolution date
5	17.03.18	The first training course	The mode of training delivery is to be enhanced	The training delivery method is enhanced	25.03.18
6	18.03.18	The training material circulated	No such changes required	No resolution needed	NA.

The lists of questions that are needed to be asked for determining the quality assurance are as follows-

1. How high is the quality of the software?
2. Does the quality of the software align with the requirements identified for the project?
3. Does the project plan consist of scope for quality testing?
4. Does the project stages undergo quality check?
5. Is the result of quality check positive?
6. How can the quality of the product be further improved?
7. What are the procedures of monitoring the project quality?
8. What is the highest quality of work and its elements?
9. What recommendations and resolutions are further needed for rectifying the project quality?  

The checklist for quality management of a product or a project is as follows-

Quality Management Checklist

Has the quality standard according to the customer defined?

Have the quality metrics been identified?

Have the identified standards been communicated among the team members?

Has the quality of the project been accessed?

Is the data being analyzed on regular basis?

Are the results being regularly reviewed?

Is the resolution for a particular problem properly enforced?

Does the project posses a continuation plan?

The organization which manufactures left hand widgets is moving to a new premise. The current as well as the premises have the facilities of receiving the raw materials and manufacturing the left hand widgets and storing the completed left hand widgets. The completed products are shipped to the whole seller, trade, retail customers, office facilities and the retail outlet. The report identifies the project stakeholders, segment and interest of the stakeholders, strategies for ensuring the effective engagement of the stakeholders.

The stakeholders identified for the organization are as follows-

• The project Manager
• The Company
• Customers
• The project team
• Retail Outlets owners
• Resource Manager
• Staffs and Workers

These are the major stakeholders associated with the company. The segment and the interest of the stakeholders are analyzed in the following section.

The stakeholders associated with the project and their interest in the project is represented in the following table-

Stakeholders	Power	Class	Interest	Impact
The project Manager	Medium	Monitor	High	Medium
The Company	High	Keep informed	High	High
Customers	High	Keep Satisfied	Medium	High
The project team	Low	Manage closely	High	Medium
Retail Outlets owners	Medium	Manage Closely	High	Medium
Resource Manager	Medium	Manage closely	High	Low
Staffs and Workers	High	Manage Closely	Low	Low

The above table represents the power, class, interest and the impact of each stakeholder with the business or the company. A stakeholder management plan has been developed as a part of every project implementation in order to keep the identified stakeholders engaged with the project. The strategies identified for an effective management of the stakeholders of each group is analyzed in the following section. This analysis incorporates the process by which the stakeholders will be kept informed about the project progress. The detailed strategies for ensuring effective engagement of the stakeholders groups are as follows.

The different approach that will be used for ensuring effective management of the stakeholders are as follows-

1. Partnership approach for sharing the accountability and the responsibility
2. Participation approach for keeping the team engaged with the task and the project deliverable
3. Consultation approach for understanding the responsibility of and influence of each stakeholder associated with the project.
4. Push communication for one way engagement for the organization to broadcast the information to the target stakeholders.

The stakeholders identified and the strategies that can be applied on the stakeholders associated with the project is represented in the table format-

Stakeholders	Strategies
The project Manager	Participation
The Company	Partnership
Customers	Consultations
The project team	Participations
Retail Outlets owners	Push Communication
Resource Manager	Consultations
Staffs and Workers	participations

Proper Communication is major need for ensuring and managing the project or a business. The strategies for ensuring the effective communication of the stakeholders are discussed in the following section.

Communication plays and important roles in ensuring success in a particular program, project or a business. A communication management plan ensures a proper information flow of among the staffs and workers of the organization. Communication management is a process of systematic management of implementing, monitoring and revision of all the communication channels within the organization. Having a proper communication channel is an essential part of the project management approach. The different strategies for ensuring for effective communication with the stakeholders are as follows-

1. Setting up of a proper communication plan is a foremost strategy for ensuring an effective communication among the stakeholders associated with the business.
2. Regular meetings should be set up with the stakeholders in order to keep them informed with the progress and important consideration of the project.
3. Each stakeholder is allocated a proper communication channel for ensuring that the stakeholders are remaining engaged with the project.
4. The project manager should remain inclusive and should involve all the stakeholders associated with the business in meetings
5.  The communication channel and the communication process should be transparent, clear and concise so that every stakeholder should have a proper knowledge about the business and the project processes.
6. Use of online collaboration tools for streamlining the different business needs and facilitating the process of team members and the stakeholders of the project.
7. Communication with the project stakeholders should be made a priority in every business. This is essential to keep the stakeholders engaged with the project. Having a proper communication ensures that the stakeholders have a proper knowledge about the current requirements of the business.
8. The communication channel needs to be switched up in regular interval in order to update the communication channel for the stakeholders if necessary.
9. Keeping up to with the updates is another major requirement and strategies for ensuring a proper communication in a project.

Continuous Improvement Methods

Ensuring effective communication is important part of the stakeholders’ management. Proper communication is an essential part of the project or a business management. Since the organization deals with the manufacturing and selling of the left hand widgets it is essential to understand the stakeholders and the requirements of the customers. Communication plays a major role in understanding the market needs and the market value of a project. Customers are the main stakeholders associated with the organization. Understanding the needs of the customer is very essential for developing a proper marketing strategy for a project. The stakeholders should be kept informed about the different business requirements and the progress in the business. The use of proper communication plan ensures proper stakeholders engagement with the project. Since the organization is moving on to a new premise, it is essential for the business to develop a proper communication plan in order to manage the business processes in a more effective way.

The purpose of a communication management plan is to identify and define the communication requirements of the project. The communication requirements of all the stakeholders are analyzed before the moving on to the new premise so that it becomes easier to manage the information flow in the new premise as well.

It is the responsibility of a project manager to manage and lead any ongoing process or project in a company. The project manager is responsible successfully initiate, plan, design and executing a project. Project manager is responsible for monitoring and maintenance of the project as well after its completion. Therefore, it is a crucial task and the project manager needs to understand the impact of the different processes in the business. Risk identification is a major activity and process associated with a project. A project manager needs to posses the required skills to understand and identify the different risks associated with the organization or a project. The project manager is responsible for delivering a successful project and it therefore involves a lot of strategic plan and management. Interpersonal skill of proper planning is therefore a necessary consideration for proper management of a project. Furthermore, a project manager is responsible for leading a team and therefore, the behavior of the project manager further determines how the project team will perform in certain situation.

Similarly, interpersonal skills of a project manager helps in managing the other stakeholders associated with this particular business. One of the critical aspects of stakeholders’ management is developing and maintaining the relationship among each stakeholder. Successful stakeholder management helps in preventing the scope creep in the project and further helps in eliminating certain risks associated with the project. Proper stakeholder management provides a positive influence on the different projects associated with the organization.

Defining Quality Standards

One of the key principles of stakeholders’ management is having a proper communication. Without having this interpersonal skill, it is very difficult for the project manager to engage the stakeholders in proper communication. Furthermore, consulting the stakeholders in every stage of the project is essential for understanding the requirements of the stakeholders. Interpersonal behavior plays a major role in this process and therefore, it is one of the essential skills that the project manager should posses.

In order to keep the stakeholders engaged with the project, it is essential to plan the project in such a way that the requirements of the stakeholders are met with the implementation of each project stage. Proper engagement of the stakeholders is essential and encouraged in the project. Therefore an experienced project manager is more likely to implement a project in a more structured way in comparison to an inexperienced project manager.

Project manager is further responsible for monitoring a project as it is one of the integral requirements of the stakeholders. Monitoring the overall progress of a project and use of the project resources needs to be perfect, for which the project manager needs to be skilled enough to understand the progress graph of the project. Therefore, it can be concluded that knowledge, ability to communicate, close observation and leadership are the major interpersonal skills that a project manager requires for keeping the stakeholders engaged with the project or a business.

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