Writing a Project Initiation Document - Quality Plan 9/13
9.0 Project Quality Plan
Not every PID includes this section. It really depends on how the Organisation you work for is geared up. However if they are heavily into following
a project management methodology such as Prince 2, then you should take it as a given that you will need to complete this section. The good news is that most of the work is done for you by the ITQA Team (IT Quality ASsurance) who actually write the Quality Plan and often you can get a PID Approved before it has even been done.
Deliverables in a Project Quality Plan
A Quality Plan details the Products which will be delivered as part of a project. For example this would be things such as:
- A Baselined Project Plan
- Business Requirements (BRS)
- Use Cases
- High Level Design (HLD)
- Software Requirements Spec (SRS)
- Test Scripts
- Test Report
- Post Development Review (PDR).
End Stage Assessments in a Project Quality Plan
The ITQA Resource allocated to your project will determine when End Stage Assessments (ESA) should take place. These are basically checkpoints during the
life of the project which ensure that a Quality product is being delivered. They usually follow the normal "breaks" in the
project lifecycle. So for example after the Requirements are complete or after Software Development is complete. These ESA's usually consist of a meeting which Workstream Lead resources on the project
attend and the various deliverables due in that phase along with the following are reviewed:
Writing a Project Initiation Document - Quality Plan Tip
Always provide input into the development of a Quality Plan because the less Products which need to be Formally Approved, and the less End Stage Assessments organised the less the overhead on your project in terms of resource time, budget and effort. Your worst nightmare as a Project Manager is to get an ITQA resource who insists on getting involved in every aspect of a project including attending team meetings to ensure you are following the correct "Process".
This simply means you have little flexibility to manage the Project and resources as you would like, whilst still being completely responsible should the
project fail to deliver.
So make the effort up front to utilise the ITQA Resource to help you deliver a quality project, and remember when it comes to the Quality Plan- Less is More!
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