Clone of Project Quality Planning

Welcome to Project Quality Planning.

This is the first topic of our Leading Quality Assurance module.

The learning outcome of this module is to evaluate and apply quality assurance processes to residential construction work programmes.  

Module 8 Introduction from Will

Ultimately, the responsibility of ensuring quality compliance at the project level and executive management at the organisational level sits on the project manager. However, you may be tasked with locating and interpreting quality policies and procedures as part of your project role. Therefore, it is crucial that you are aware of this aspect.

Once you have accessed and sourced the relevant policy and procedures that apply to the project you are undertaking, all activities and decisions regarding quality management planning must be consistent with those policies and procedures. All members of the project team must take personal responsibility for complying with them.

The quality management, quality assurance, and quality control activities to be embedded in the project plan and processes must be aligned with the policies and procedures. 

Policies and procedures that must be adhered to include:

• legislative requirements, for example, environmental or work health and safety legislation
• relevant industry standards, professional standards, and codes of practice 
• organisational policies, processes and procedures, company production standards and/or specific management directives
• your organisation’s key performance indicators (KPIs) 

Each task in a project will not only need to satisfy the established quality criteria but also comply with the relevant policies and procedures. Depending on the task, several types of quality policies and procedures could apply, such as the following.

Sources of Policy and Procedures

To find the appropriate quality policies and procedures that apply to a specific project, consider the following sources. 

ISO standards in Standards New Zealand

Standards New Zealand is an independent business unit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Standards are developed in partnership with Standards Australia by working with the government, various industries, and the community. These define internationally recognised and adapted standards for product and service quality.

Local Government Legislation

These are the directives proposed by legislative bodies.

Conditions of permits, contracts, etc

These are the accompanying agreements from your project’s permits and contracts. The policy and procedure to be observed may not be explicitly laid out in these documents, but these serve as a further guide in defining what must be done and how to go about your current project.

Industry codes of practice

These are the sets of rules and measures that are put in place to regulate industry conduct and are applied to its workers and their relationship with their clients. The codes of practice serve both to support legislative requirements relevant to the industry and to improve the industry standards. 

Technical specifications and plans supplied by your client

Your client’s technical specifications and plans must serve as standards by which the project processes must be carried out to deliver the desired outcome.

Your own organisation’s policies and procedures

The existing policies and procedures in your organisation define how quality management and other project-related tasks and activities are to be done. These policies and procedures will heavily influence how different processes in maintaining project quality will be implemented.

Your client’s corporate policies and procedures

As policies and procedures may vary from one organisation to another, it is essential to consider your client’s corporate policies and procedures in order to ensure that the processes and projects you are undertaking comply with their policies and procedures.

The ISO 10006 standard provides guidelines for quality management in projects. It covers the following main areas:

• quality management systems in projects
• management responsibility
• resource management
• product realisation
• measurement, analysis, and improvement

Other specific guidelines may be embedded in your organisational policies and procedures and in the specific project documentation (e.g. quality management plan).

It is the primary responsibility of your project manager to develop the overall project plan, which includes the quality management plan. The project quality requirements and project deliverables quality criteria you contributed to developing are integrated into the quality management plan that will define the quality standards and guidelines that the project processes must comply with.

As a member of a project team, regardless of your role, you will no doubt be required to contribute to the development of the quality management plan. As discussed earlier, you may have contributed to determining the quality requirements and developing the quality criteria as part of a team process, or as an allocated task according to your role or area of expertise

You may also have contributed by researching and identifying the organisational policies and procedures, legal requirements, and required industry standards that apply to the project. Once the quality standards and requirements, and applicable policies and procedures are defined, they must be documented in the quality management plan and embedded into the project processes.

Quality management plan

All the quality standards and guidelines you have learned to develop and identify thus far must be laid out in your project’s quality management plan to ensure that these quality requirements are being met. The developed quality requirements, criteria, and standards must be documented in the quality management plan. More specifically, your project’s quality management plan should include the following:

• quality objectives and definitions 
• quality criteria that must be met 
• quality standards that must be achieved 
• policies and procedures that must be complied with 
• any legislation that must be complied with 
• levels of performance required 
• quality management tools and methodologies 
• quality assurance processes 
• quality control processes 
• authorisations and responsibilities (including the identification of experts to conduct audits/check quality throughout the project) 
• change request processes that could impact the quality 
• continuous improvement mechanisms 
• tools, procedures, and techniques to be used

Most organisations will have a standard approved format for developing the project plans. You might contribute to preparing the documents in several ways, depending on the project tasks that have been assigned to you. A common practice is to divide up the plan and assign various tasks to the members of the team. You might have individual responsibility for certain aspects or work in pairs or groups to complete each section. The process will involve collating the quality requirements established earlier and copying them into the project plan template.

The project quality management processes and procedures are carried out according to this plan.

Below is a sample Quality Management Plan template from Prince2™.

Once the project plan is complete, it is sent for approval and sign-off by higher management and, in some cases, by the sponsor or client.

Developing quality requirements in project processes

As shown in the Quality Management Plan template in the previous section, standards for the processes of planning, quality assurance and quality control must be specified. Those criteria and standards will serve as the benchmark of performing the different activities involved in that process. 

Below is a table of the commonly performed activities each of the three processes in quality management, and sample quality requirements for each.

Remember that the quality requirements in project plan and processes that you contribute to identifying must be specific and relevant to the project.

Have you ever bought a product and thought that its quality is top-notch? You may have felt that it was worth the money you spent on it. The same goes for business ventures. It is not enough to establish the business. You should strive the achieve top quality and maintain it.

Quality assurance (QA) refers to the prevention of mistakes or defects in a product or service. Both consumers and PCBUs want quality assurance. Consumers want quality assurance because they want to get their money’s worth. People do not want to spend money on defective things. This may cause them to go to other manufacturers or service provides in the industry.

On the other hand, PCBUs want the quality assurance to ensure that they can compete in the market. Releasing a defective product will give the business a bad name. This may result in losses or expenses (e.g. dealing with lawsuits due to faulty products).

Several factors may affect quality assurance. These include:

• complexity of the product or service
• processes that the product or service undergoes
• complexity or level of precision required in the processes.

Nature of Quality Assurance

Quality assurance (QA) is the process of preventing defects or mistakes in a service or product. The key term here is the process. This process ensures that the product or service meets the specified requirements.

QA helps improve customer confidence and boost the business’s reputation in the industry. How? Companies that have excellent QA processes can ensure providing quality products or services. Their products and services meet the requirements and expectations of customers. This, in turn, makes customers happy and loyal to the business.

The following are principle in QA.

Fit for purpose

This means that the product or service produced matches its purpose. The product or service should meet the demands or requirements of the consumer. For example, a bulb should provide ample light to illuminate a room. If it is too dim or burns out after a few uses, it fails the QA.

Right first time

This principle focuses on developing a defect-free product upon creation. This principle is also known as the zero-defect approach. This approach lessens time and money spent correcting defects on the product. This does not necessarily mean a perfect production process. Instead, this points out that all processes should be done right the first time and every time.

Customer focus

Customer focus is the process of identifying and meeting your customer’s wants and needs. When applied as part of Quality Assurance, the customer is the priority and seeking their feedback to ensure you are providing the highest quality to exceed their expectations.

Leadership

Leadership is pivotal in developing, guiding and driving the business to maintain the Quality Assurance System. A strong leader directs by example and ensures all aspects of the Quality Assurance system are being met for the business.

Approaches for Quality Assurance

There are several approaches for QA. These include the plan-do-check-act and product test life cycles.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is a continuous loop for the improvement of QA. It is simple and systematic, leading many businesses to adopt this approach for their QA. See the following explanations of each step of the PDCA cycle.

Plan

Objectives and processes for manufacturing a product or providing services should be clear. A clear objective and process can help in distinguishing a good product from a poor one.

Do

Work on the processes established. The processes may change as you work on the product. Testing of the product also occurs here.

Check

Observe how the process goes. Check if it aligns with the objective and if it follows the established processes.

Act

Personnel called testers should check if the processes need improvement. They will also recommend and implement necessary actions to improve the process.

Another approach for QA is the Product Test Life Cycle (PTLC). This approach is commonly used in software and computer applications. It focuses on meeting the requirements while ensuring the reliability and utility of the product.

Analyse the requirement

At this stage, you will identify the requirements set for the product. This also includes identifying the risks and opportunities for the product. If the requirements are precise, then it will be easier to meet them.

Plan the test

Plan your tests according to the requirements that you would like to meet. Take into consideration the risks that you have identified in the first step. Ensure that you have plans to mitigate or eliminate the threat.

Develop the test

At this stage, you will develop the tests that you have planned. You can set scenarios or daily use testing for the products. For example, a recipe for a brew of coffee should have a consistent taste. Thus, the test should involve preparing and tasting the coffee several times.

Prepare the test

Prepare the personnel and materials for the testing. The required personnel for testing should know of the process involved in the testing and the desired outcome of the testing. Ensure briefing the personnel about the importance of the tests.

Conduct the test

Execute the test that you have planned and designed with the team. Ensure proper documentation of all steps associated with the tests. Doing so will help you check if you have met the requirements or desired outcomes. The documentation can also tell you if you need to improve the processes.

Review and conclusion

At this stage, you will analyse the testing you conducted. This stage is where you will also use the documentation the most. It is important to have tangible metrics for the review. These will help you take the appropriate steps for improvement.

Methods for Quality Assurance

There are many ways to achieve quality assurance. But the following three are among the most notable ones on the long list of methods:⁴

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process that involves measuring the performance of your business against a competitor in the same market. This will give you a better understanding of your business performance and potential.

Kaizen

This is also known as continuous improvement. This principle focuses on improving the process little by little—members of the business or organisation practising Kaizen work collaboratively.

ISO Accreditation/ISO 9000 and ISO 9001

The ISO or International Organization for Standardisation develops the international standards for organisations. ISO accreditation ensures that a business's products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality.

ISO 9000:2015 describes the fundamental concepts and principles of quality management which are universally applicable to the following:

• organisations seeking sustained success through the implementation of a quality management system.
• customers seeking confidence in an organisation's ability to consistently provide products and services conforming to their requirements.
• organisations seeking confidence in their supply chain that their product and service requirements will be met.
• organisations and interested parties seeking to improve communication through a common understanding of the vocabulary used in quality management.⁵

You may have heard of ISO 9001, which is the standard for quality management. ISO itself does not certify organisations for their standards. Instead, external bodies conduct quality assurance and management reviews based on ISO 9001.

Many organisations aim to get the certification for the following reasons.

• ISO 9001 standard gets reviewed and updated every five years. Thus, ensuring that quality management processes are relevant and up to date
• ISO 9001 is globally recognised, which can help boost an organisation's credibility
• ISO 9001's quality management principles are tested and proven in the industry.

As stated earlier, QA boosts the confidence of the customer and the business’s reputation. Thus, each company should develop its QA processes. There are three steps in developing a process.

Develop business goals and objectives related to quality

Define what quality is. Base your definition on the requirements or expectations of the customer. As for the objectives, ensure that it aligns with your business goals and objectives. The alignment ensures that your QA processes are still on track to achieve your goals.

Identify roles and responsibilities of personnel

Ensure that the roles and responsibilities of involved personnel are clear. Clarity on these aspects ensures a smooth process and avoids redundancy in QA. The personnel you will assign should also have the necessary skill set for the tasks. Remember, you want to ensure quality. Therefore, you should delegate the correct personnel for the task.

Develop the QA process and policies and procedures

Developing quality assurance policy and procedures as a method ensures the business complies with regulatory policies for quality and assures that the steps and actions to take following the procedures are the same for everyone in the business. This is why choosing the appropriate personnel is vital in Step 2. They ensure that the processes are correct and you are using the right tools or metrics. The following graphic some essential things you need to consider when developing your QA process.

Evaluating and Reviewing Quality Assurance Processes

QA processes should strive for continuous improvement. Improvements can help streamline the process and make it more efficient. Thus, it is crucial to evaluate and review your QA processes. Evaluation allows you to check how the performance of your QA processes. On the other hand, review involves studying the results and making decisions based on them. These two should come hand-in-hand when improving the QA process. To improve your QA process, you can implement the following steps.

Review industry and legal standards

These are important to ensure you are avoiding compliance risks while ensuring quality. Remember, different laws apply to various business operations. These legislations have different compliance requirements for business operations. The following list is examples of legislation that you can associate with your QA processes.

Analyse the results of your QA

Evaluate the results of your processes. Ensure to check the metrics when evaluating your QA processes. It would be best to check your company's business culture as well. This culture refers to a set of practices, values, and expectations in your business. Put it simply, it is the culmination of traits observed in your company. Ensure to include this in your review. Doing so will help you cultivate a strong culture of QA in your operations.

After that, proceed to the review. Identify which processes require changes or improvements and what you can retain.

Adapt as necessary

You must take this step if you find inconsistencies or errors in the previous step. This allows you to improve and make the process more efficient. Implement the changes needed and test them again. You can repeat this step until you can no longer find inconsistencies or gaps in the processes.

Communicate the results with the team

After finalising the process, ensure to communicate it with the team. This will help them apply the QA process when developing the product. Failure to do so will result in poor quality of products due to outdated QA processes.