Managing Quality Assurance

In IT Projects

John A. Luchetti, PMP

The Phantom Within:

What you will learn

6. The role of the client in producing quality outcomes

1. Why quality assurance is important to clients

2. How to manage the quality expectations and needs of clients

3. How to identify risks in current quality assurance processes

4. Effective quality assurance techniques and tools to meet client quality standards

5. When and how to develop response parameters for quality standards

A Quality Funny

Terms of Reference

Project Quality Management

Quality Planning

Quality Assurance

Quality Control

The Importance of Quality Assurance to Project Clients Corporate performance Corporate image Staff moral, retention & satisfaction Team building

Customer satisfaction

Customer service issues

Project success

Strategic Quality Management

Quality is determined/defined by customer

Quality is linked to profitability

Quality is a competitive advantage

Quality needs to be planned into the process

Quality needs commitment from all staff

How to Manage Quality Expectations and Client Needs

Understand variables that affect market expectations

Communication – quality checks/reports

Change management

Political sensitivity

Act responsibly Nurture relationships

Identifying Risks in Current QA Processes

The decision maker in the process

Testing standards, processes & quality audits Organizational standards for quality

Client quality standards Lessons learned

Dissention in the ranks (blame storming) Repeating errors

Unusually high error rates

Benefit/cost analysis Benchmarking Flow-charting Design of experiments Cost of quality Quality audits

Quality Assurance Tools & TechniquesPMBOK Quality Tools & Techniques

Other Quality Tools & Techniques

Business Requirements & Change Management Testing Effective & Timely Communication Issue & Risk Management

Business Requirements & Change Management Respect the role and responsibility of the business analyst Understand that clarification & refinement of business requirements is inevitable Understand that the needs of the User/Client may change during the project Beware The laundry list! Conflicting requirements among users

Testing Unit

System

User Acceptance

Conversion

Job Stream

Interface

Security

Recovery

Performance

RegressionModule

Stress

Testing Documentation

Test Plan Development Test Case Development Test Scenarios Development Test Matrices Internal Audit Reviews User Reviews Historical Information

Effective and Timely Communication

Who

What

When

How

Quality Issues & Risk Management

Identification

Qualification

Quantification

Prioritization

Assignment

Track to Resolution

Quality Assurance Response Parameters

Project Planning Test Plan Development Client/Customer/Sponsor/Team Interviews Historical Information Resource Acquisition

The Client’s role in Producing Quality Outcomes

Decision Maker

Quality Champion

Quality Navigator

Major partner in defining quality standards

Conclusion

Build quality into project processes and sub-processes:

ClosingProcesses

ControllingProcesses

ExecutingProcesses

InitiatingProcesses

PlanningProcesses

The Importance of Quality Assurance to Project Clients

What are the quality expectations of the client? How will I meet the clients quality needs? Have needs been prioritized and/or ranked? Do I fully understand the client’s need for quality? Have quality objectives/standards been identified?

How to Manage Quality Expectations and Client Needs

Do I understand what is driving the need? Is there a management plan in place? Is there a communication strategy in place? What political factors exist which may

create barriers or obstacles? Are the quality standards and objectives

documented and understood by client?

How to Identify Risks in Current Quality Assurance Processes

Do I know who has ultimate authority? Are all client, organizational, testing and process

standards documented and communicated to project

teams prior to project start? Do we evaluate lesson learned from previous projects What specific types of issues are occurring on project? Do we have any recurring issues/problems on projects?

Quality Assurance Tools & Techniques

What quality tools have been used

successfully in the past? How will we measure quality? What actions will be taken as a result? How will outcomes be communicated? What soft-skills can be used to meet

quality assurance objectives?

Quality Assurance Response Parameters Have ALL quality expectations, standards and measures been documented in the project plan? Will these expectations, standards and measures be met with available resources? Have all stakeholders been interviewed? Has historical information been obtained & reviewed? Does a comprehensive test strategy exist?

The Client’s role in Producing Quality Outcomes

Does the client understand his/her role? Is the client accepting of this role? Does the PM and project team understand the role of the client? What is the quality tolerance of the client? What are the expectations in regards to communication of quality outcomes?