Paul Newton

Managing Project
Quality
Project Skills
 

PAUL NEWTON

MANAGING PROJECT
QUALITY
PROJECT SKILLS

2
Managing Project Quality: Project Skills
1st edition
© 2016 Paul Newton & [Link]
ISBN 978-87-403-1273-7

3
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Contents

CONTENTS
Preface 6

1 Introduction 7

2 Managing Project Quality 13

3 Quality Management Techniques 19

4 Project Management & ISO Quality Management 27

5 Quality Assurance 31

6 Quality Control 36

7 Testing Project Deliverables 40

8 Quality Audits 46

9 Post Implementation Audits 52

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Summary

Summary 56

Other Free Resources 57

References 58

5
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Preface

PREFACE
This eBook describes the process managing project quality. Every organization has its own
predefined quality policies, and it is the responsibility of the project manager to translate
these processes into project activities.

You will learn:

• Why quality management is treated as a distinct area.

• How to identify quality requirements and set standards.
• How to perform quality assurance.
• How to monitor and control quality.
• How to tell when a project is out of control.
• How to plan for the testing and auditing of project quality.

6
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION
There is an old saying that goes “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.”
That is certainly the case when undertaking any kind of a project within your organization.
There is little point to taking on a new project, only to complete it to a low standard of
quality that will not reflect well on you or your organization.

Quality should
always be decide
rather than by those
by end user
doing the actual
work

In order to have pride in what you have accomplished, and for it to benefit the organization
in the long run, the quality needs to be up to the standards of everything else that you do.

Project quality management is the process of establishing a level of expected quality at the
start of a project, and then maintaining that quality throughout until the project has been
completed. There are several areas that are often at the root of poor quality and are shown
in the diagram below.

Poor quality can occur because:

Insufficient Not asking all Lack of

details requested user groups for understanding of
from users input requirements

Requirements
Quality needs Quality
were
changed during requirements
understood, but
the project were exceeded
not achieved

7
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

It might be easiest to think of this concept in terms of an example – such as a new product
that you organization is trying to produce. Rather than simply aiming to produce a product
that can accomplish a given task, you may set out to create a product that can accomplish
that task while also meeting various other measures of quality. Things like durability, materials
used, methods of construction, and more can all be ways that the quality is measured.

Organizations who are serious about not only present profits but also future growth take
quality control very seriously. Everything that goes onto market representing your brand
name is going to be seen as a reflection of the company as a whole. Even one or two sub-
standard products can harm the reputation of an otherwise outstanding brand name.

There are three stages a project manager must go through to manage project quality properly
as shown in the diagram.

Plan & Define

Quality

Managing
Undertake Quality
Project
Assurance
Quality

Control Quality

Planning Quality Management

Before the project gets underway, it is best to analyze the level of quality that you intend
to put into a given product. It isn’t good enough just to say that you wish to make the
product to ‘as high of a standard as possible’. Quality is forever linked to cost, and so you
must take your project budget into consideration as part of this planning process. Certainly
you would use the best possible materials available if you can afford them, but the product
must be cost-effective to be of any use to the organization.

The process of planning quality can be complex because it has to balance the interests of
overall quality with the reality of a budget and is an essential part of project communication
throughout the project life cycle.

8
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

The Plan for Managing Quality

Decides what quality Acts as a Engages key

means for project & Communication stakeholders in
deliverables tool managing project quality

One of the important parts of this stage of the process is outlining exactly how quality is
going to be measured during the project.

1) Are there certain tests that can be done along the way?
2) What are industry standards for this kind of product, and how are you intending
to compare to them?

Being specific with what exactly will define quality for your project goes a long way toward
making the next steps in project quality management easier and more effective.

Performing Quality Assurance

The Plan for Managing Quality
Now that your quality plan is in place, the next step is outlining how you are successfully
going to meet that plan and put it into action. The methods that you intend to use during
the project itselfwhat
Decides to align with theActs
needquality as a
quality goals that have been outlined
Engages keypreviously.
means for project & Communication stakeholders in
deliverables tool managing project quality

The Plan for Managing Quality

Decides what quality Acts as a Engages key

means for project & Communication stakeholders in
deliverables tool managing project quality

Toward this end, experience can be greatly beneficial to understanding what kind of processes
lead to quality results. If you have people within your organization who have done this kind
of work before and can offer direction in terms of quality assurance, it is greatly important
to use that knowledge to your advantage.

The Plan for Managing

9
Quality
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

You don’t want to be making quality assurance adjustments ‘on the fly’. Every bit of time
that is put into a project is directly associated with a cost, so wasting time is only going to
increase the overall expense of the project in the end.

Identifies where
best practices
are implemented
Identifies where
Assures the
they are not
project sponsor
being used

Quality
Audit

Helps project Shares best

team implement practices proven
them in similar projects

Rather than having to scramble mid-project to make quality adjustments, putting a structured,
independent review as part of your project quality assurance is essential. These quality audits
will determine the ‘fit’ of project activities to the policies of project and its organization.

Controlling Quality
This is what happens once the project is underway. All of the great planning that has already
been done won’t do you any good if it isn’t adhered to closely along the way. Quality
control might be the most important piece of the whole project quality management puzzle
because correcting any problems as soon as possible will save you wasted time and money
down the line.

10
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

Statistical Quality Tools

Sampling e.g. Flowcharts,
Scatter diagrams,
Histograms
Methods for Managing
Quality Control
Approved
Change
Inspection Requests
Review

Testing is probably going to be the biggest piece of quality control for most organizations.
There are a variety of tools and techniques that can be used to monitor and control quality
of work packages and activities throughout the project. This includes such tools as:

• Prioritization matrices
• PDPC
• Tree diagrams
• Interrelationship digraphs
• Affinity diagrams
• Matrix diagrams
• Activity Network Diagrams

If you are developing a new product that you intend to take to market at the completion
of the project, it should be tested throughout to make sure it is tracking properly with the
guidelines that you have set up. If the tests of the product aren’t meeting your expectations,
you will know that something needs to be fixed or improved in order to improve quality.

In many ways, the longevity of your organization may be determined by how well you handle
project quality management for each new initiative that is undertaken. Organizations that
routinely produce low-quality goods are rarely in business for long, even if they are trying
to compete at a low price point.

11
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Introduction

Quality Project
Management Management
recognizes recognizes

the importance of-

Customer Satisfaction,
Prevention Over Inspection,
Continuous Improvement,
Management Responsibility

Quality wins out in the end more often than not, so project quality management is a piece
of the puzzle that shouldn’t be left out. Like all other pieces of project management, it starts
will thorough preparation before the project is even underway.

Laying out the quality expectations for the project, as well as the methods that should allow
those expectations to be met, is one of the first priorities of any new project. The plan for
quality must be in line with the budget for the project, plus the skills and equipment are in
place to make it happen, good quality control should be the only thing standing between
you and a satisfactory result.

12
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

2 MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY

Quality management includes the processes and activities of the performing organization
that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy
the needs for which it was undertaken.

It implements the quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous
process improvement activities conducted throughout, as appropriate. Quality management,
like every other aspect of the project management, should be proactive. Limiting the quality
management to detecting defects is reactive. You should plan the quality and prepare an
environment that does not create defects, instead of finding and repairing defects.

Many people who are new to project management find it strange that quality is treated as
a separate area. Surely, quality should be present in every aspect of the project. This way
of thinking begs the question, why is quality treated as something that can be managed
separately? To answer this, we need to define exactly what we mean by ‘quality’ and who
gets to decide what this definition is.

Quality should rather than by those

always be decide by doing the actual
end user work

In some situations a quality standard might be obvious, for example a computer system
used by customer service staff must be able to deal with peak loads. In this case, a quality
standard could specify that when one hundred staff are inputting data at the same time,
the system response time must still be less than two seconds.

However quality is not always quite so easy to define; consider the design of the computer
interface to capture customer data.

The software engineer responsible for the design might consider conformance to industry
standards to be a sign of quality.
The user might consider it more important that the design matches the interfaces that they
already use.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

In this example, it is more important that the users will be able to work more efficiently
than that the design conforms to some theoretical external standard. In fact, it should
always be the end user who decides what counts as quality rather than the people doing
the work. Although this can be complicated when a project has a number of users who
have different priorities.

In the example we have been using, it may be important for customer service staff who deal
with billing to see a summary of the past two years of payment history on the ‘home’ screen
whereas staff who deal with complaints might prefer to see the complaint history. Focusing
too much on one group of users may compromise the others and leave them dissatisfied.
This illustrates one reason why a system to manage quality is required.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

Six reasons why poor quality can occur

Details requested from users was insufficient

Not all user groups were asked

Requirements were not understood

Requirements were understood, but not achieved

Quality needs changed during the project

Quality requirements were exceeded

There are six possible reasons why quality standards might not be met despite everyone on
the project team doing their best to deliver the project as specified.

1. The users were not asked to specify their requirements in sufficient detail
2. Not all of the user groups were asked
3. The requirements were not understood
4. They were understood but could not be achieved
5. The quality requirements changed during the project
6. The quality requirements were exceeded

The first five points are easily understandable, but the last one needs some explanation. If
quality requirements have been exceeded then someone somewhere has done more work
than has been planned for in that part of the project.

This work needs to be paid for, in either time or money and this has not been budgeted
for. Because there is a lag when comparing actual progress against planned progress and for
money actually spent against the budget, this is not usually obvious at the time.

The result of exceeding the quality plan is that sooner or later either more money needs to
found or the scope of the project needs to be reduced. Neither of these things is acceptable.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

The purpose of quality management is to make sure that the project meets the needs for
which it was created. To do this it needs to take account of the reasons above why it might
not. It needs to ensure that:

1. Users are asked to specify their requirements in sufficient detail

2. Requirements are fully documented
3. All stakeholders agree to them
4. There is a recognized process to deal with any changes
5. There is a process for monitoring and controlling quality

Modern quality management complements project management and both disciplines

recognize the importance of:

Quality
Management
Project
Management

recognize
the
importance
of

Customer Satisfaction,
Prevention Over Inspection,
Continuous Improvement,
Management Responsibility

Customer Satisfaction
This involves understanding, evaluating, defining, and managing expectations so
that customer requirements are met. This requires a combination of conformance to
requirements, to ensure the project produces what it was created to produce, and fitness
for use (the product or service must satisfy real needs).

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

Prevention Over Inspection

One of the fundamental tenets of modern quality management states that quality is
planned, designed, and built in rather than inspected in. The cost of preventing mistakes
is generally much less than the cost of correcting them when they are found by inspection.

Continuous Improvement
The plan-do-check-act cycle is the basis for quality improvement. This is described in
detail in the ‘Project Management Processes’ eBook, which can be downloaded free from
this website.

Management Responsibility
Success requires the participation of all members of the project team, but remains the
responsibility of management to provide the resources needed to succeed.

You will need to decide what quality means for this particular project and its deliverables.
This information makes up the quality plan, which is part of the project plan. Planning
for quality is no different from planning for any other task.

decides
Engage key
what quality Acts as
Quality stakeholders
means for Communica-
Mgmt Plan in quality
project & tion tool
mgmt process
deliverables

It aims to produce a description of what the quality requirements are and how they are
going to be achieved. As well as providing a definition of quality the quality plan also acts
as a communication tool to engage key stakeholders in the quality management process. You
can check out the complete range of project management eBooks free from our website.

A quality plan can be as simple or as detailed as warranted by the project. The plan below
is short and simple but it makes it clear to everyone on the project what is expected in
terms of quality. In practice, quality planning is inseparable from general planning because
quality criteria are required as part of the product descriptions. That is, they need to be
thought about when a deliverable is being specified rather than ‘added on’ afterwards.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Managing Project Quality

Imagine a project to produce a brochure for a new Smartphone. One of the selling points of
this new Smartphone model is that it is extremely rugged. The photographs in the brochure
need to show the phone being used in various outdoor environments like construction sites
and oil rigs. The quality criteria for these photographs might specify that the phone must
be clearly identifiable in each photo with the brand name visible.

In another project, one of the final deliverables is a hand held device for scanning barcodes.
Quality criteria for this physical product would include things like operational distances
from the object being scanned, light levels, acceptable error rates, etc.

Quantifiable
terms
Quality used to define
Product
Criteria Characterisitics in
Measureable
terms

Quality criteria should always be used to define the characteristics of a product in terms
that are quantifiable and measurable. The criteria effectively define ‘quality’ and are used as
a benchmark against which to measure the finished product.

They should be detailed in the related product description and should be established by
considering what the important characteristics of a product are in satisfying the need that
it addresses. The quality criteria of a project should always be stated objectively, subjective
statements like ‘quick response’ or ‘maintainable’ are unsatisfactory because they can’t
be measured.

Key Points
• The purpose of quality management is to make sure that the project meets the
needs for which it was created.
• Modern quality management complements project management and both disciplines
recognize the importance of customer satisfaction and prevention over inspection.
• Customer satisfaction involves understanding, evaluating, defining, and managing
expectations so that customer requirements are met.
• Prevention over inspection means that quality is planned, designed, and built in
rather than inspected in, because the cost of preventing mistakes is generally much
less than the cost of correcting them.
• You will need to decide what quality means for your particular project and document
this in a quality plan, which is part of the project plan.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

3 QUALITY MANAGEMENT
TECHNIQUES
There are several techniques that can be used in the quality planning process but it is very
unlikely that any individual project manager would be expected to be skilled in using all
of them.

Tools for Cost-

Cost of
Managing Benefits
Quality
Quality Analysis

Basic
Design of
Quality Benchmarking
Experiments
Tools

Additional
Statistical
Quality Planning Meetings
Sampling
Tools

A better approach would be to have an appreciation of what each one involves and then to
select those that best suit the project and delegate the work to project team members who
have expertise in that technique.

A cost-benefit analysis is by far the most important decision making tool and involves nothing
more than common sense and judgment based on experience. All quality management
activities have a related cost and that cost must be justified in terms of benefit to the project
sponsor and the organization as a whole.

No activities should be performed that would equal or cost more than the expected benefits.
It should show that the level of quality is viable from a cost perspective and justify its
inclusion in the quality plan.

The cost of quality includes all costs incurred over the life of the product and looks at the
costs of conformance to quality standards and the costs of nonconformance.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

Cost of Non-
Cost of Conformance
conformance

Preventions Costs (build

internal Failure Costs
a quality product)
(failures found by the
Training
project)
Document processes
Rework
Equipment
Scrap
Time to do it right

Appraisal Costs (assess External Failure Costs

the quality) (failures customer found)
Testing Laibilities
Destructive testing loss Warranty work
Inspections Lost business

$’s spent during the $’s spent during & after

project to AVOID FAILURES project DUE TO FAILURES

For example, the proposed quality standard for the production of a metal pressing might
mandate a tolerance of 1mm. In other words the finished part can be up to 1mm bigger
or smaller than the specification.

The costs of conformance include both the prevention and appraisal costs incurred in
conforming to this standard (Training, equipment, additional time, testing and inspections).

The costs of nonconformance include internal and external costs that would be incurred
if this quality standard were not achieved. These would include the costs of reworking or
scrapping the failed parts (internal cost) and the costs associated with sending out parts
that were unacceptable to the customer.

Project decisions can impact operational costs of quality as a result of product returns,
warranty claims, and recall campaigns. Therefore, due to the temporary nature of a project,
the sponsoring organization may choose to invest in product quality improvement, especially
defect prevention and appraisal, to reduce the external cost of quality.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

Most of the techniques described here are based on statistical analysis and are most appropriate
where the project deliverables are products that can be measured in some way. For example,
If parts are being produced on a production line then it will be straightforward to measure
dimensions, tolerances, failure rates, etc. However, many project deliverables are not like
this and it is not possible to collect this type of data.

For example, anything that provides a user ‘experience’ can be difficult to measure in this way.

The best approach is to be aware of what tools and techniques exist and to select those
that are appropriate for the project you are working on. It may even be possible to adapt
some of them in order to provide useful data about quality even if you are not making a
product that can easily be measured.

1. Cause and Effect Diagrams

Also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams, they illustrate how various factors
might be linked to potential problems or effects. Factors are usually grouped into major
categories as shown:

• People – Anyone involved with the process

• Methods – How the process is performed including: policies, procedures, rules,
regulations and laws
• Machines – Any equipment, computers, tools, etc. required to accomplish the job
• Materials – Raw materials, parts, pens, paper, etc. used to produce the final product
• Measurements – Data generated from the process that is used to evaluate it’s quality
• Environment – The conditions, such as location, time, temperature, and culture in
which the process operates

This is not a statistical technique and is therefore applicable to almost all types of project.
It does have its critics precisely because is not quantitative and requires a lot of subjective
analysis and judgment.

It’s strengths are that it can help you to make sense of a situation where there are a lot of
variables that are interacting with each other, none of which are quantifiable. It is also a
powerful visual tool when you are trying to explain your analysis to others.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

2. Flowcharts
This is a graphical representation of a process showing the relationships among process steps.
There are many styles, but all process flowcharts show: activities, decision points, and the
order of processing.
Flowcharting can help the project team anticipate quality problems that might occur and
this awareness can result in the development of test procedures or approaches for dealing
with them.

A
C
BEGIN D H I END
B
G

E F

A flowchart is common type of chart that represents an algorithm or process, showing the
steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting them with arrows.

There are many different types of flowcharts, and each type has its own repertoire of boxes
and notational conventions. The two most common types of boxes in a flowchart are:

• A processing step (usually called an activity) that is denoted as a rectangular box, and
• A decision, which is usually denoted as a diamond.

Flowcharts are used in designing and documenting complex processes. Like other types of
diagram, they help visualize what is going on and thereby help the viewer to understand a
process, and perhaps also find flaws, bottlenecks, and other less-obvious features within it.

3. Checksheets
These are also known as tally sheets and may be used as a checklist when gathering data.
They are used to organize facts in a manner that will facilitate the effective collection of
useful data about a potential quality problem and are especially useful for gathering attributes
data while performing inspections to identify defects.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

4. Pareto Diagram
This is a special type of histogram where the values being plotted are arranged in descending
order. The graph is accompanied by a line graph that shows the cumulative totals of each
category.

• Left vertical axis shows the frequency of occurrence, cost or other important unit
of measure.
• Right vertical axis is the cumulative percentage of the total.

In quality control, the Pareto chart often represents the most common sources of defects, the
highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer complaints, etc.

Late Arrivals by Reported Cause

100%

150 90

80

70

100 60

50

40

50 30

20

10

0 0
Traffic Chil care Public Weather Overslept Emergency
transportation

The Pareto chart was developed to illustrate the 80–20 Rule, which states that 80 percent
of the problems stem from 20 percent of the various causes.

23
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

5. Histogram
This is a vertical bar chart showing how often a particular variable state occurred, with
the height of each column representing the relative frequency. Histograms are useful when
presenting project data to stakeholders as they can give a clear indication of which problems
are the most important to tackle.

6. Control Charts
These answer the question: ‘Is this process variance within acceptable limits?’ The pattern of
data points on a control chart may reveal random fluctuating values, sudden process jumps,
or a gradual trend in increased variation. By monitoring the output of a process over time,
a control chart can help assess whether the application of process changes resulted in the
desired improvements.

When a process is within acceptable limits it is in control and does not need to be adjusted.
Conversely, when a process is outside acceptable limits, the process should be adjusted.
Seven consecutive points above or below the central line indicate a process that is out of
control. The upper control limit and lower control limit are usually set at (plus or minus)
three Sigma, where one Sigma is one standard deviation.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

Although used most frequently to track repetitive activities required for producing manufactured
lots, control charts may also be used to monitor cost and schedule variances, volume, and
frequency of scope changes, or other management results to help determine if the project
management processes are in control.

7. Scatter Diagram
These use Cartesian coordinates to display values for two variables for a set of data. The data
is displayed as a collection of points, each having the value of one variable determining the
position on the horizontal axis and the value of the other variable determining the position
on the vertical axis. A scatter diagram can suggest various kinds of correlations between
variables with a certain confidence level. Correlations may be:

A) Positive (rising) – If the pattern of dots slopes from lower left to upper right, it suggests
a positive correlation.
B) Negative (falling) – If the pattern of dots slopes from upper left to lower right, it
suggests a negative correlation.
C) Null (uncorrelated).

A line of best fit can be drawn in order to study the correlation between the variables. One
of the most powerful aspects of a scatter diagram is its ability to show nonlinear relationships
between variables.

8. Benchmarking
Benchmarking is simply a quality standard reference that is used for the current project. This
may be a benchmark used within the performing organization, or one that is used across
a specific industry. It involves comparing actual or planned project practices to those of
comparable projects to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide
a basis for measuring performance.

The value of using this technique is to compare the current project’s quality standards with
those of other similar projects.

9. Quality Meetings
Meetings involve people who are responsible for quality management including the project
manager, the project sponsor, selected project team members, selected stakeholders, anyone
with responsibility for any of the quality management processes, and others as needed.
Collective decision-making is very important area of project management that can make
or break this part of the project.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Management Techniques

Almost all of the processes that for part of project time management will involve meetings
between the project manager, the team and other stakeholders in order to make decisions
about the activity definitions and associated estimates. How well these meetings are conducted
will have a major impact on how smoothly the project runs.

If you feel as though your project meetings could be improved then you can download the
‘Meeting Skills’ eBooks from this website. These free eBooks cover all aspects of meetings
including how to set an agenda that will ensure that the meeting achieves it’s aims and how
to chair a meeting so that it is as productive as possible.

Key Points
• A project manager should have an appreciation of what quality techniques are
available so that they are able to select those that best suit the project.
• Implementation of the technique can then be delegated to project team members
who have the relevant expertise in that technique.
• These techniques include: cause and effect diagrams, flowcharts, check sheets, Pareto
diagrams, and scatter diagrams.

26
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Project Management & ISO Quality Management

4 PROJECT MANAGEMENT & ISO

QUALITY MANAGEMENT
The ISO approach to quality management emphasizes the following concepts:

Concepts of ISO Quality Management

Customer Satisfaction

Prevention over Inspection

Continuous Improvement

Management Responsibility

Cost of Quality

Customer Satisfaction
Quality means delivering the product so that its requirements meet the customer’s expectations.
However, this does not mean gold plating, or adding requirements that the customer did
not request.

Prevention over Inspection

Inspection can reduce the probability of defects, but prevention through planning, designing,
and building in quality can reduce that probability of defects for a lot less cost than through
the inspection process.

Continuous Improvement
The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, which is the basis of the concept of continuous improvement,
is derived from a business process model developed by Walter A. Shewhart and popularized
by W. Edward Deming. This iterative four-step management method is used for the control
and continuous improvement of processes and products.

27
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Project Management & ISO Quality Management

Deming Cycle
(P-D-C-A)

Act Plan

Check Do

Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and the Japanese Toyota Way are
modern quality improvement initiatives that improve the quality of project management
while improving the quality of the final deliverables. The steps in each successive PDCA
cycle are:

Plan – Understand the existing situation and then establish the objectives and processes
necessary to deliver results in accordance with the target or goals.

Do – Implement the plan. That is, execute the planned process.

Check – Study the actual results of the previous phase and compare them against the
expected targets or goals to discover any differences. Look for deviation from the plan
in implementation and also look for the appropriateness and completeness of the plan
to enable the execution. Convert the collected data into a form that can be used in the
next step.

Act – Where there are significant differences between actual and planned results request
corrective actions. Analyze the differences to determine their root causes. Determine where
to apply changes that will include improvement of the process or product.

Management Responsibility
Rather than thinking that quality is what job operators do on the factory floor, the modern
concept of quality improvement initiatives mentioned in the last paragraph require the
approval and active participation of management.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Project Management & ISO Quality Management

Cost of Quality
This is the cost of implementing quality standards. For example, if the defect is caught before
the product gets shipped to the customer, this is an internal cost of nonconformance, and
involves scrapping the part or reworking it so that it is in conformance with the quality
standards.

However, if the inspection process does not catch the defect, and it goes out to the customer,
then the costs could be in terms of the claims the customer makes for replacement or repair
under warranty. The cost could potentially involve legal liability, if the customer or a third
party is injured.

Management Principles of ISO 9001

Customer Focus

Leadership
Involvement of People
Process Approach
System Approach to Management
Continual Improvement
Factual Approach to Decision Making
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

The International Standard for Quality management (ISO 9001) adopts a number of
management principles that can be used to guide organizations towards improved quality.

The principles include:

Customer focus – Since the organizations depend on their customers, they should understand
future needs as well as current ones. They also need to meet customer requirements and
try to exceed their expectations where possible.
An organization attains customer focus when all people in the organization know what
customer requirements must be met to ensure that both the internal and external customers
are satisfied.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Project Management & ISO Quality Management

Leadership – Leaders of an organization establish unity of purpose and direction of it.

They should go for creation and maintenance of such an internal environment, in which
people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s quality objective.

Process approach – The desired result can be achieved when activities and related resources
are managed as processes.

System approach to management – Identifying, understanding and managing all interrelated

processes as a system that contributes to an organization’s effectiveness and efficiency
in achieving its quality objectives. Quality control involves checking transformed and
transforming resources in all stages of production process.

Continual improvement – One of the permanent quality objectives of an organization

should be the continual improvement of its overall performance.

Factual approach to decision making – Effective decisions are always based on the data
analysis and information.

Mutually beneficial supplier relationships – Since an organization and its suppliers are
interdependent, a mutually beneficial relationship between them increases the ability of
both parties to add value.

Key Points
• The ISO approach to quality management emphasizes: customer satisfaction,
prevention over inspection, continuous improvement, management responsibility
and the cost of quality.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Project Management & ISO Quality Management

5 QUALITY ASSURANCE
There is a lot of confusion about quality assurance and quality control. The difference is
that quality assurance is part of the executing process and is concerned with making sure
that the quality objectives are met. It is focused on process improvement.

Quality Project Focus is on process

Assurance Execution improvement

Purpose is to
Monitoring
Quality check and test that
&
quality
Control Controlling
requirements are
of Project
met

Quality control, on the other hand, is part of the monitoring and controlling process and is
concerned with checking (by means of measuring and testing) that the quality requirements
are being met. This process also provides an umbrella for continuous process improvement,
which is an iterative means for improving the quality of all processes so as to reduce waste
and eliminate activities that do not add value.

Quality management tools and quality audits can be used to perform quality assurance.
Quality management tools include:

Affinity diagrams
The affinity diagram is similar to mind-mapping techniques in that they are used to generate
ideas that can be linked to form organized patterns of thought about a problem. Using the
affinity diagram to give structure to the decomposition of scope may enhance the creation
of the work breakdown structure (WBS).

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Assurance

Process decision program charts (PDPC)

These charts are used to understand a goal in relation to the steps for getting to the goal. The
PDPC is useful as a method for contingency planning because it aids teams in anticipating
intermediate steps that could derail achievement of the goal.

Additional Quality Control Tools

Prioritization Tree Affinity

PHPC
matrices diagrams diagrams

Interrelationship Matrix Activity Network

digraphs diagrams diagrams

Interrelationship digraphs
The interrelationship digraphs provide a process for creative problem solving in moderately
complex scenarios that possess intertwined logical relationships for up to 50 relevant items.
The interrelationship digraph may be developed from data generated in other tools such as
the affinity diagram, the tree diagram, or the fishbone diagram.

Tree diagrams
Tree or systematic diagrams may be used to represent decomposition hierarchies such as the:

• WBS (work breakdown structure),

• RBS (risk breakdown structure), &
• OBS (organizational breakdown structure).

In project management, tree diagrams are useful in visualizing the parent-to-child relationships
in any decomposition hierarchy that uses a systematic set of rules that define a nesting
relationship. Tree diagrams can be depicted horizontally (such as a risk breakdown structure)
or vertically (such as a team hierarchy or organizational breakdown structure OBS).

Because tree diagrams permit the creation of nested branches that terminate into a single
decision point, they are useful as decision trees for establishing an expected value for a
limited number of dependent relationships that have been diagramed systematically.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Assurance

Prioritization matrices
These are used to identify the key issues and the suitable alternatives to be prioritized as
a set of decisions for implementation. Criteria are prioritized and weighted before being
applied to all available alternatives to obtain a mathematical score that ranks the options.

Activity network diagrams

In the past activity network diagrams have been known as ‘arrow diagrams’. They include
both the AOA (Activity on Arrow) and, most commonly used, AON (Activity on Node)
formats of a network diagram.

Activity Network Diagrams

used with project

scheduling methodologies
e.g.

PERT CPM PDM

Activity network diagrams are used with project scheduling methodologies such as program
evaluation and review technique (PERT), critical path method (CPM), and precedence
diagramming method (PDM).

Matrix diagrams
A quality management and control tool used to perform data analysis within the organizational
structure created in the matrix. The matrix diagram seeks to show the strength of relationships
between factors, causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form
the matrix.

A quality audit consists of structured, independent review to determine whether project

activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures. The
words ‘independent’ and ‘audit’ are open to interpretation depending on the requirements
of the particular project.

33
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Assurance

Quality Audit

Identifies where best practices are

implemented

Identifies where they are not being

used

Shares best pratices proven in

similar projects

Helps project team implement them

Assures the prokect sponsor

34
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Assurance

There is no need to use external auditors or to make the process particularly formal or
bureaucratic provided that the information fed back from the process is credible to both
the project team (who are doing the work) and the sponsor (who is paying for it). The
audit should:

1) Identify where the best practices being implemented

2) Identify where they are not being used
3) Share best practices proven in similar projects
4) Help the project team to implement them
5) Assure the project sponsor that work is being done in line with accepted best practices

This process should result in a reduced cost of quality and an increase in sponsor or customer
acceptance of the project’s product. Quality audits can be carried out whenever necessary
for either the whole project or a part of it.

Key Points
• Quality assurance is part of the executing process and is concerned with making
sure that the quality objectives are met.
• Quality management tools include: affinity diagrams, process decision program
charts, interrelationship digraphs, tree diagrams, prioritisation matrices, activity
network diagrams, and matrix diagrams.

35
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Control

6 QUALITY CONTROL
Quality control attempts to answer two questions: Firstly, is the project meeting its quality
requirements and if not, how can this be addressed?

The project management team should have a working knowledge of statistical quality control,
especially sampling and probability, to help evaluate quality control outputs.

Project Management Team needs:

to evaluate
a working Statistical Quality Control - quality control
knowledge of Sampling & Probability outputs

Before looking at the process in detail, make sure you are familiar with the following terms:

• Prevention – keeping errors out of the process

• Inspection – keeping errors out of the hands of the customer
• Attribute sampling – the result either conforms or does not conform
• Variables sampling – the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the
degree of conformity
• Tolerances – specified range of acceptable results
• Control limits – thresholds, which indicate whether the process is out of control
• Grade – is a category assigned to products or services having the same functional
use but different technical characteristics. While a quality level that fails to meet
quality requirements is always a problem, low grade may not be.

For example, a software product can be of high quality (no obvious defects, readable manual)
and low grade (a limited number of features).

36
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Control

The project manager and the project management team are responsible for managing the
tradeoffs involved to deliver the required levels of both quality and grade.

• Precision – means the values of repeated measurements are clustered and have
little scatter.
• Accuracy – the measured value is very close to the true value.

The overall project plan contains the quality plan, which describes how quality control will
be performed within the project. There are seven basic quality tools that can be used as well
as statistical sampling, inspection, and reviewing approved change requests.

Statistical Flowcharts,
Sampling Histograms

Pareto, Scatter ,
Quality Tools Cause & Effect
Methods for diagrams,
Managing
Quality Control Inspection
Checksheets,
Control charts

Approved Change
Requests Review

1. Cause and Effect Diagrams

These type of diagrams show how different factors may be linked to potential effects or
problems. They can be referred to as fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams. This type of diagram
can be used on all project types because it is not based on any statistical technique. It is
therefore limited if your project needs quantitative assessment because it relies on subjective
judgment and analysis.

It is useful in situations that have numerous interacting variables that can make sense out
of this complexity of interactions, none of which are quantifiable. A benefit of this tool
is that it is extremely useful when needing to communicate the results of your analysis
to other members of the project.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Control

2. Flowcharts
The benefit of flowcharts when explaining your analysis to others is that it is easy to
identify the decision points, activities, and the order of processing. It will be show in a
graphical form that easily illustrates the relationships among process steps.

3. Checksheets
These are exceptionally useful to a project manager when gathering data as they provide
a checklist to follow. They can often be referred to as tally sheets.

4. Histogram
This is bar chart that shows its data in a vertical format rather than a horizontal format.
The height of each bar depicts the relative frequency of a specific variable in a situation that
occurred. This type of tool is especially helpful when needing to indicate to stakeholders,
which of the project problems need to be tackled first and why.

5. Pareto Diagram
Another specialist form of a histogram is the Pareto diagram which has an additional
line graph to demonstrate the cumulative totals of each category. This type of histogram
shows the plotted values in a descending order.

6. Control Charts
By using a control chart it is easy to show the pattern of data points in such a way that it
shows where there are sudden jumps in the process, random fluctuating values occurred
or that there is trend of gradual variations. This tool is useful in long-term monitoring
as it reveals if and when, the application of process changes resulted in the required
improvements.

7. Scatter Diagram
Display the data as a collection of points using Cartesian coordinates to display values
for two variables for a set of data. Each point has a horizontal axis value of one variable
and another variable to determine its position on the vertical axis.

8. Statistical Sampling
Statistical Sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection.
Sample frequency and sizes should be determined so the cost of quality will include the
number of tests, expected scrap, etc. In some application areas it may be necessary for the
project management team to be familiar with a variety of sampling techniques in order
to chose the most appropriate one.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Control

9. Product Inspection
Product Inspection is the examination of a product to determine whether it conforms
to documented standards. The results of an inspection generally include measurements
and may be conducted at any level. For example, the results of a single activity can be
inspected, or the final product of the project can be inspected. Inspections may be called
reviews, peer reviews, audits, or walkthroughs.

All approved change requests should be reviewed to verify that they were implemented as
approved.

Key Points
• Quality control is part of the monitoring and controlling process and is concerned
with checking (by means of measuring and testing) that the quality requirements
are being met.
• Quality management tools include: affinity diagrams, process decision program
charts, interrelationship digraphs, tree diagrams, prioritisation matrices, activity
network diagrams, and matrix diagrams.

39
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

7 TESTING PROJECT DELIVERABLES

Experienced project managers ensure that testing is present throughout their project and not
just at the implementation stage. They will carefully plan that sufficient funds and resources
are available so that the testing can be thorough.

This has two implications, first in making sure that the project performs the task or function
asked of it and secondly that accurate and complete documentation is produced for the end
user. If the project deliverable is a physical product then the testing regime will usually be
quite straightforward and involve a predetermined set of measurements that are compared
to the original specification.

If the deliverable is a piece of complex software then testing and the associated rework can
account for up to 50% of the total project budget. This is because it can be as difficult to test
a system as it is to build one, something that non-IT specialists find difficult to understand.
This figure may seem to be unreasonably high but large software projects do have a history
of going significantly over budget and analysis of why this happens will usually show that
the management underestimated the cost of integration, testing and rework.

The complexity of software testing also has implications for the project manager in terms
of who is tasked with doing it. There is a strong argument for having a dedicated test team
rather than allowing software developers to test their own work. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, few people who are good at development are good at testing because the skill sets
required are quite different.

Secondly, when developers are under pressure to deliver more work packages, the first
thing to be sacrificed is likely to be thorough testing of those they have already completed.

You can prevent most software testing problems by:

1) Creating a specialist test team.

2) Designing the software for ‘testability’.
3) Making testing an integral part of software development.
4) Ensuring requirement traceability to and from tests.
5) Automating as much of the testing process as possible.
6) Integrating testing with the change management processes.

40
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

As the requirements for software to work across multiple platforms increases, you should
expect software testing to become even more complicated and expensive. This means that
manual testing by the developers themselves is becoming less viable and the need to create
specialist test teams with their own personnel, budget and dedicated software is growing.

Testing More than 1

within a Focuses on the Person to
Details Perform a Test
Project

Testing is all about looking at the details of how each work package performs individually
and as part of the whole product. It is also important to make sure that it works as required
so that the end users can perform their tasks as stated in the original project business case. A
significant part of any testing activities is the data that is used to check that the anticipated
outcome of any task asked of the product or service is exactly as specified.

Many organizations have over the years created a bank of ‘customer or end user’ data that
is specifically kept for the purposes of testing. This enables the project team to test work
packages at any stage of the life cycle with data specifically designed for that purpose without
compromising ‘real’ customer data or confidentiality. At some point in the project plan ‘real
or live’ data will have to be used in the final stage of project testing to ensure that it meets
all the standards as defined in the quality management plan.

41
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

Project
Team
Testers

End Users

Testing
Requires
1st Test Data

Data

2nd Live Data

It is important that each item to be verified is tested several times and by different individuals.
If resources and budget allow it is often beneficial to have someone outside of those who
produced actively test it because they will bring a fresh set of eyes to it and may reveal
nuances that could be over looked by someone familiar with the work package. A critical
aspect of testing is the writing of test cases or test sets that test the functionality of each
work page in terms of the:

1) Number of ways the data is presented, including the way it can be output.
2) Boundaries/Areas where two independent systems communicate.
3) Processes that copy or transfer data.
4) Additional programs or third party providers needed to perform task.
5) Organization’s most critical processes.

check against
Test Leads responsible for
scope

Test Co-ordinators responsible for reports & plans

conducting
Test Analyst responsible for
tests

42
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

Another significant benefit of well-performed testing is the ability to use the findings of
this process within your communications plan to maintain the support and manage the
expectation of the project sponsor and the stakeholders.

There are certain actions you can take to ensure that your testing process and procedures
are effective and efficient.

Create an Independent testing team. Each member has a clearly defined role and
responsibility within the testing process. Some of the typical testing roles are shown in
the diagram above.

Produce regular testing reports that are included in the project test calendar. This enables
stakeholders and other key personnel to be kept informed of any issues or risks that occur
and provides an opportunity to show how they were or will be resolved.

Write detailed test cases and test sets to ensure that there is a seamless flow of data between
the necessary third party suppliers and the organization. This may have to take into account
the different time zones where the project testing is for a global organization.

Design tests that assess how well the project performs under a variety of situations
and workloads e.g. can efficiency requirements still be meet at peak times and on the
busiest days?

In some more complex projects it will be necessary to create ‘super users’, these are individuals
who have a high-level of expertise in a specific area of the organizations operation and will
be able to test the project from an end-to-end perspective. They perform a valuable role in
any testing team because they bring knowledge of how data needs to flow and be processed
within the organization. Super users will also be able to offer valuable insights into how best
to meet the training needs of the end users and may advise that key trainers act as testers
to help them develop practical training programs.

Projects often fail because insufficient funds or resources are not available at the time testing
should be being performed. This results in the testing function of the project becoming
squeezed in an attempt to bring costs and the project schedule back into line with the plans.
When testing is pushed into a time allocation that is too small the end user will be given
a product or service that is filled with bugs and requests re-work will be a constant drain
on an organizations resources.

43
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

Lack of Time

Insufficient
Budget

Poor Quality
Control

Common Reasons why

Testing is Compromised

Testing is a significant part of the quality management plan and the roles and responsibilities
of the team within the organization assigned this task will be defined. It will also define
how to report the testing activities and how often they will be produced in accordance
to the project testing schedule. The contents of each project testing report are shown in
the diagram.

44
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Testing Project Deliverables

Compares
Details the
them to the
periods testing
testing
activities
schedule

Reports on
Highlights any the status of
discrepancies the testing
resources

The testing report will be a vital communication tool in the project execution and monitoring
phase. The test cases and sets bring the project’s aim into the forefront of the testing teams
mindset and they will quickly be able to assess which areas of the project plan are contentious
or require closer attention.

In terms of organizations being able to learn from previous projects and avoid making similar
mistakes the testing report is an excellent library of testing discussions, responsibilities,
agreements and sign-off’s. It is also a significant tool in offering evidence and justification
for change requests to the project scope.

Key Points
• Testing will be an ongoing activity throughout the project.
• The time and money required should be allocated at the planning stage.
• Testing and the associated rework can account for up to 50% of the total budget
of a software project.
• The move to mobile and multiple platforms is increasing the cost of software testing.
• Testing results can be used within the communications plan to keep stakeholders
informed of progress.
• Test data must be as realistic as possible without breaching customer confidentiality.
• Testing reports are important documents that can help future projects to learn from
previous ones and avoid making similar mistakes.

45
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

8 QUALITY AUDITS
The rationale behind project audits is to assess whether the chosen methodology provides
the project manager with all the procedures and processes that will ensure project success.
The audit report will identify the major concerns of the project stakeholders, its sponsor
and its team members and then present recommendations of how flaws, issues and concerns
could be overcome to keep the project on track.

Uncovering project concerns, challenges and issues is one of the most critical tasks a
project manager has to perform. This audit report is one of the key documents that you
can use when making such decisions and is a document that can, and should, be produced
throughout the entirety of your project. This report is most frequently used in industry
sectors where legislative compliance is extensive and in those where heavy penalties are used
to ensure project completion is on-time. The project audit is a flexible tool and our audit
report template can be easily adapted to suit your project environment.

Quality Audit ensures:

Identification of where best pratices are implemented

Areas NOT using best pratices are identified

Best pratices proven in similar project are shared

Helps project team implement them

Sponsor is reassured project progress is inline with the plan

At any point in time a project manager needs to be able to provide evidence and reasoning
to his or her stakeholders as to how well the project is performing according to it’s various
management plans. Acquiring such data is difficult and often involves sifting through
thousands of communications to find out the true circumstances of your project.

46
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

Budget Functional
Requirements Management

Audits provide
Project Managers
with an assessment of
their:

Project Charter Project Structure

There are many instance where a project can be progressing smoothly right up until the
moment that a cost, quality, contract, resource or schedule issue becomes apparent. The key
to project success is identifying such issues well before they become obvious because once
this happen it is virtually impossible to meet the original requirements.

Good project managers ensure that they constantly receive pertinent data on the ‘true’ state
of their project. It is only through sound project ‘knowledge’ that a project manager can
retain the right level of control over his or her project. The project audit and its associated
report provide the evidence that forms the basis of such knowledge on a project.

The audit on project progress is especially useful for individuals who are new to project
management or those who find themselves performing the role without any training or coaching.
It is an effective technique for the individual to learn how to adapt methodologies to suit
the unique project environment. This report also enables him or her to identify their own
development and training needs so that they can be come more effective project managers.

Project audits also enables organizations to assess how well their project management procedures
work in practice. An audit can indicate where lack of training, poor governance and guidelines
can be the cause of poor project performance or management. Many corporations who
make extensive use of project and matrix management may wish to develop the auditing
skills internally, but medium or small organizations may prefer to use external agencies.

47
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

Benefits of Benefits of
Internal Audits External Audits

Training meets exact Independent

needs assessment

Personalize auditing Procedures reviewed

procedure against industry norm

Review & improve

Ability to coach team
management

Whichever style of audit your organization prefers it will shown them at that point in
time how well managed the project is in relation to its plan and the likelihood of success.
The importance of project audits has a direct correlation to the level of compliance your
industry sector requires any project to meet and the level of risk associated with it. For
many organizations the project audit has three functions, to assess the quality of: project
procedures, project purchases & tendering, and third-party management.

The overall benefit of these audits is the ability to avoid mistakes that would otherwise have
gone undetected until the point where they become grave or catastrophic. They are often
conducted midway through a project and then repeated in its final phase so that the project
manager, its sponsor and the project team can easily identify what has gone well and where
improvements need to be devised to keep the project on schedule and within budget.

The success of the project audit relies heavily on the professionalism and expertise of the
auditor so as project manager you need to feel confident that your auditor has the necessary
skills or support to perform the role effectively. You must also ensure that the project auditor
and his or her team have appropriate and timely access to all the facilities, individuals and
documentation they need to perform the audit.

It is essential that audit resources, roles and responsibilities are clearly identified so that the
audit team and everyone involved in the project clearly understand their remit and co-operate
throughout the project audits. These details need to be referenced in the resource, budget
and schedule management plans, as well as the organizational breakdown structure (OBS).

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

Most project audits follow four simple steps. First the ‘success criteria’ of the project must
be established. The individual, responsible for the auditing process, interviews the sponsor
and project manager to define such criteria that meet the project and their own needs.

Using the success criteria a questionnaire is developed that will be used in all audit interviews.
It is often more effective to have these interviews conducted by an individual outside the
project environment. Experience has shown that respondents will be more open and blunt
than they would be with a member of the project conducting the interview.

Project Define Create Develop

Conduct
Audit 'Success' Audit
Research
Audit
Stages Criteria Interview Report

Once all the interviews have been completed it is the responsibility or the person in charge
of the audit to oversee the compilation of the research findings into the audit report. This
report is then circulated to the project sponsor, manager and key stakeholders to assess what
impact it has on the project plan. The benefits organizations can achieve are:

1) Project members can ‘vent’ their emotions and thoughts in a safe and controlled
manner.
2) Lesson learnt can be incorporated into organizational procedural documents.
3) Protection of project investors funds by minimizing re-work and scope creep.

Part of the audit procedure includes the design of a questionnaire that will be answered by
core members of the project team and selected stakeholders. Its purpose is to tease from
the recipients the issues, problems, challenges and successes that the project is facing as
it progresses.

Audit
Questions
Successes
tease out
Project

Challenges
Issues

Problems

49
MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

The questions used need to ensure that they draw objective answers from these individuals
and not emotive ones. This can be achieved by using a variety of questioning styles the use
of ‘open questions’ is often favored because it provides the recipient with the opportunity
to explain the reasoning behind their answer.

Many project auditors distribute their questionnaires prior to audit interview. This allows
individuals time to think about the questions asked and to present an objective and well
thought out response. In some circumstances they may be able to provide evidence to
support their answer. The questionnaire is extremely useful in auditing large multi-site
projects situations because it allows a wider and more diverse number of respondents to be
included with the interviews being conducted by conference calls.

Historic &
Project Phase
Current Data

Project Objective &

Initiation Charter
Project
Project Plan,
Audit Planning deliverables, scope,
reviews schedule & budget

Create project team

Execution & set control
measures

Define project
Monitor & Control measures &
performance

Sign off,
Closure documentation &
lessons learnt

Once all the questionnaires and interviews have been completed they are statistically analyzed
and detailed in the audit report. Part of the project auditor’s role is to present practical
solutions to the main concerns that are highlighted in the report.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Quality Audits

This will often follow each of the project phases and assess specific items relevant to that phase
as shown in the diagram above. The report will outline the lesson’s learnt at each phase and
recommend ways in which project performance within the organization can be improved.
This may require an organization to develop strategies that encourage project management.

Key Points
• Uncovering project concerns, challenges and issues is one of the most critical tasks
a project manager has to perform.
• Project audits enable organizations to assess how well their project management
procedures work in practice.
• An audit is a four-stage process that involves: defining success criteria, creating an
interview format, conducting the research and then writing a report.
• The audit report will identify the major concerns of the project stakeholders and
present recommendations to address them.
• The audit can be done by the organisation’s own staff or by a specialist company.
• The benefits of a project audit include: project team members can give an honest
account of their experience, lesson learnt can be incorporated into procedural
documents, and project investors can be reassured that the project is on-track.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Post Implementation Audits

9 POST IMPLEMENTATION AUDITS

One of the most important audits for highlighting improvements to an organization is
the post implementation audit. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked due to it being at the
end of the project when people are keen to move onto new projects, or return to their
previous role.

It is slightly different to ‘lesson’s learnt’ because it looks at how project objectives and activity
attainment compares to what was written in the overall project plan and its functional
area plans e.g. cost, scope, quality etc. The diagram below shows the key questions a post
implementation audit is designed to answer.

Post Implementation Audit

outlines if:

Project Objective attained

Completed on time & to scope

Within budget

Customer expectations met

Business invest achieved

Methodology met project needs

For many organizations it enables them to review their approach and expertise in identifying
and managing risks so that they are better able to develop contingency plans. For more
complex projects the findings of the audit report will cover such issues as managing change,
improving contract management and development of effective working relationships, which
is especially important in organizations using matrix management.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Post Implementation Audits

In the circumstances where a project has a significant compliance and regulatory content
any project audit will need to demonstrate independent validation has been conducted on
the required project management plans. This is often referred to as CSV (Computer Systems
Validation) and is a vital facet of this type of project’s success. Identifying a project that
requires CSV is relatively straight-forward because such words as those listed below will be
common in the specification and other project documentation.

1) Compliance
2) Regulatory requirement
3) Comply to standard / legislation ‘XXX’
4) Validate system

If your project has one or more of these terms then you will need to plan for validation
in the project plan and those of its functional management areas. Each project requiring a
validation will have its own set of requirements that go further that the usual quality assurance
because the system must match the exact end user needs otherwise it will not be useable.

The comprehensive testing that CSV requires is a critical part of validation. This is needed
to guarantee that the proper business practices are followed and to make certain that
compliance and/or legislative requirements are met. It also ensures that the costs of such
procedures are minimized.

Computer System Validation (CSV)

Ensures proper business pratices are followed

Compliance / Legislative requirements are met

Makes certain that procedural costs are minimized

This sort of requirement is on the increase because more and more IT systems are essential
to the business processes and the implications of it not working correctly could be disastrous,
even ruinous for the organization. Without using CSV user acceptance becomes a long and
drawn out, costly process. The documentation that the CSV procedure creates provides the
end user the evidence they require to show the project has been subjected to the highest
level of quality assurance.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Post Implementation Audits

Correcting errors once the project has been handed over is extremely expensive and CSV is
designed to catch such errors early on in the project cycle. This means that the composition
of the validation team must include several experts – e.g. developers, suppliers, project
members, quality, operations, legislation experts – to ensure it is effective in its role.

A Project Validation
Team creates its own:

Methodology Policy

Guidelines Documents

Management Installation
Plan Protocols

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Post Implementation Audits

With such a diverse group an organization must allow for the cost of training the validation
team to guarantee they understand their role and how to execute it. They are several issues
this specialist team need to address to ensure the project’s success. They are to create a:

1) Validation methodology
2) Validation policy
3) Validation guidelines and required documentation
4) Validation management plan
5) Installation protocols

The use of validated projects will only increase as the need to projects products and services
to meet strict regulatory and compliance standards becomes as essential part of organizations
responding to the changes in their environment and marketplace.

Key Points
• The post implementation audit enables the management team to review their
approach and expertise in identifying and managing risks so that they are better
able to develop contingency plans.
• It is often overlooked because people are keen to move onto new projects, or return
to their previous role.
• The findings of the audit report will cover such issues as managing change, improving
contract management and the development of effective working relationships.

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Summary

SUMMARY
Project management is a complex activity that requires a structure, procedures and processes
that are appropriate to your project. This will enable you to manage the inevitable changes
that occur throughout a project’s lifespan in a professional manner to ensure success. Each
project function describes the expertise, skills and tools needed for your project.

So much work is now run as projects and so few people have the necessary skills to manage
them properly that there is a huge demand for good project managers and that demand is
increasing all the time.

The other project management skills eBooks available from Free Management eBooks provide
you with an opportunity to read a more in-depth description of each functional area.

• Principles of Project Management

• Project Management Processes
• Managing a Project Team
• Managing the Project Scope
• Managing the Project Schedule
• Managing the Project Budget
• Managing Project Risk

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY Other Free Resources

OTHER FREE RESOURCES

The Free Management eBooks website offers you over 500 free resources for your own
professional development. Our eBooks, Checklists, and Templates are designed to help you
with the management issues you face every day.

They can be downloaded in PDF, Kindle, ePub, or Doc formats for use on your iPhone,
iPad, laptop or desktop.

eBooks – Our free management eBooks cover everything from accounting principles to
business strategy. Each one has been written to provide you with the practical skills you
need to succeed as a management professional.

Templates – Most of the day-to-day management tasks you need to do have already been
done by others many times in the past. Our management templates will save you from
wasting your valuable time re-inventing the wheel.

Checklists – When you are working under pressure or doing a task for the first time, it is
easy to overlook something or forget to ask a key question. These management checklists
will help you to break down complex management tasks into small controllable steps.

FME Update– Subscribe to our free regular updates and stay in touch with the latest
professional development resources we add every month.

Social Media – Share our free management resources with your friends and colleagues by
following us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and RSS.

Visit [Link]

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MANAGING PROJECT QUALITY References

REFERENCES
Billingham, V. (2008), Project Management: How to Plan and Deliver a Successful Project
(Studymates), 3rd edn, The Project Management Excellence Centre Inc.

Kerzner, H. (2009), Project Management – A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and

Controlling, 10th edn, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Knapp, B.W. (2010) Essential Project Management Templates, The Project Management
Excellence Centre Inc.

Larson, E.W. and Gray, C.F. (2010), Project Management: The Managerial Process, 5th edn,
McGraw-Hill Higher Ed.

Lock, D. (2007), The Essential Project Management, 3rd edn, Gower Publishing Ltd.

Lock, D. (2007). Project Management, 9th edn, MPG Books Ltd.

Maylor, H. (2010), Project Management (with MS Project CD-Rom). 4th edn, Prentice Hill,
Financial Times.

Newton, R. (2007), Project Management Step by Step – How to Plan and Manage a Highly
Successful Project, Pearson Business.

Nokes S. and Kelly, S. (2007), The Definitive Guide to Project Management, 2nd edn, Prentice
Hill, Financial Times.

Project Management Institute Global Standard (2008), A Guide to the Project Management
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 4th edn, Project Management Institute.

Shenhar, A.J. and Dvir, D. (2007), Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach
to Successful Growth and Innovation, Pearson Business.

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