Quality Planning, Quality Assurance, And Quality Management: The Quality Plan And Project Management

Quality Plan

The Quality Plan (QP) proposed incorporates the philosophy of quality derived from many quality disciplines including Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO-9000, and Six Sigma, among others. The QP is comprised of three high level processes: Quality Planning, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control. As with other aspects of our proposal, the approach inherent in these three processes is highly proactive. The QP focuses on prevention rather than inspection because we recognize that it is more costly to fix rather than to prevent errors.

Quality Planning – As a first step to developing the QP, we will undertake quality planning. Quality planning will have as its objectives the identification of quality specifications and of how to meet these specifications. To accomplish these objectives, we will analyze inputs from which to derive a quality baseline and then produce artifacts that will support the execution of the QP. We will undertake quality planning immediately after award, in concurrence with other project planning activities. Quality planning activities and milestones will be incorporated into the overall project management plan.

Inputs to quality planning will include: the scope baseline, the individual project requirements that, when taken together, constitute the full project scope; the stakeholder register which identifies those individuals who will actively contribute to the execution of the QP and who therefore need to be involved in quality planning; cost and schedule baselines which have a cascading effect on project scope; and, the risk register, which details the areas of risk that are related to quality and that may affect the planning process. Finally, we will also integrate the tenets of our quality p...

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... assist in undertaking the steps required to assess the work results’ adherence to quality standards.

We will utilize appropriate measurement approaches to undertake QC, both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative approaches will include cause and effect diagrams, flow charts, and inspections. Quantitative approaches will include charting, graphing, and sampling.

The outputs of the QC process will be quality control measurements, validates changes, and validated deliverables. We will document all measurements and relate them against threshold metrics. We will use this output to determine whether quality is met and no further intervention is required before presenting the deliverable for acceptance or if a deliverable first requires remediation. After a deliverable has been remediated, it will undergo validation to determine that it now meets quality standards.