Writing a Project Initiation Document - Quality Plan 9/13

01.Document Change History, Related Documents and Purpose
02.Project Scope Statement
03.Project Background
04.Project Definition
05.Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints
06.Business Case
07.Organisation and Governance
08.Communications Plan
09.Quality Plan
10.Initial Project Plan
11.Project Controls
12.Initial Risks and Issues Log
13.Initial RFC's, Open Questions, Training & Appendix
14.Getting A PID Approved

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:

• Baselined Project Plan to ensure it is up to date and on schedule
• Project Management Reports
• Project Workstream Checkpoint Reports
• Team Meeting Minutes, Actions and Agenda
• Project Risk and Issues Log

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!