Quality Management 8.2 perform quality assurance

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Quality Management 8.1 Plan quality

Quality Management 8.2 perform quality assurance

Quality Management 8.3 Perform Quality Control

Quality assurance involves auditing requirements and results from quality control measurements to ensure the project will use appropriate quality standards and processes.

Quality assurance is also the umbrella for continuous process improvement. Continuous improvement is aimed at identifying and reviewing all organizational processes so that increased efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved.

Quality assurance creates a management system for auditing quality requirements, reviewing organization process (audits) and capturing the results from quality control in the form of QC measurements. The QC feedback is used to determine whether adjustments are needed in the assurance system.

Perform Quality Assurance
Inputs	Tools	Outputs
1.       Project management plan 2.       Quality metrics 3.       work performance information 4.       Quality control measurements	1.       Plan quality and perform quality control tools and techniques 2.       Quality audits 3.       Process analysis	1.       OPA updates 2.       Change requests 3.       Project management plan updates 4.       Project document updates

Four key inputs for perform quality assurance:

1.       Project management plan: Contains the following information used in quality assurance:

·         Quality management plan (describes how quality assurance will be performed)

·         Process improvement plan (define how processes will be analyzed to improve outcomes)

2.       Quality metrics: Also known as operational definitions, metrics describe how something will be measured. Quality metrics might include failure rates and reliability. A related project performance metric might measure whether an activity is on time (A decision would have to be made as to whether on time means starting on time, finishing on time, or both).

3.       Work performance information: Actual performance outcomes collected at reporting intervals as the project progresses and include:

·         Technical performance measure

·         Status of project deliverables

·         Schedule progress

·         Costs incurred

4.       Quality control measurements: the results of quality control that are in turn fed back to Quality assurance to consider any potential changes in the organization’s quality standards and processes.

Three key tools for perform quality assurance:

1.       Plan quality and perform quality control tools and techniques: The tools for quality planning (section 8.1.2) and quality control (section 8.1.3) may also be used for quality assurance.

2.       Quality audits: structured, independent reviews to identify inefficient processes, reduce the cost of quality and increase the percentage of accepted products (preventing defects from occurring). The specific objectives of a quality audit may include:

·         Identify and share best practices

·         Identify shortcomings

·         Share the good practices from similar projects (lessons learned)

·         Proactively offer assistance to improve progresses and raise productively

·         Document the lessons learned from each audit

Audits may be scheduled or random and they be conducted by internal or external auditors.

3.       Project analysis: Identifies and implements needed improvements by using the process improvement plans mentioned earlier (8.1.3.4).

Four key outputs for perform quality assurance:

1.       Organizational process assets updates: Any updates to established quality standards.

2.       Change requests: Quality improvement includes any action to improve effectiveness. Change requests may be take corrective action, preventive action or perform defect repair. As always, change requests are processed using integrated change control (section 4.5).

3.       Project management plan updates: Portions of the project management plan that may be updated as a result of quality assurance include:

·         Quality management plan

·         Schedule management plan

·         Cost management plan

4.       Project document updates: May include the following:

·         Quality audit reports

·         Training plans

·         Process documentation

Additional information about quality assurance:

The quality assurance system should provide three things:

·         Auditing

·         Feedback

·         Correction

Quality evaluation: There are two kinds of evolution you should know about for exam. They are:

·         Formative (also called a quality audit): Done during the project for the purpose of making corrections.

·         Summative (also called quality improvement): done after the project for the purpose of documenting lessons learned.

Quality responsibility: responsibility for quality can be viewed two ways (be careful of the exact wording on this topic):

1.          Responsibility for a task: Belongs to the individual employee performing the task.

2.          Responsibility for the project: Belongs to the project manager.