The project quality management plan documents the information needed to effectively manage project quality from project planning to delivery. It defines the project’s quality policies, procedures, criteria, and areas of application, as well as roles, responsibilities, and authorities.
The quality management plan of an innovative product is usually composed of the following elements and groups, with the ultimate goal of the teams being the creation of a high-quality product that meets the legal and regulatory framework of the relevant market and ensures easy and convenient handling of the product by all groups of users. The product must possess and exceed the characteristics of the products of the specific type and provide the possibility of long-term use exceeding the legally regulated requirements for identical products – a minimum of 5 years.
Quality control
Quality control is an internal company unit whose responsibility is to ensure strict compliance with the quality of the necessary components for the creation of the product. Members of all teams involved in the implementation of the project participate in quality control. Reference: “Quality documentation management”, https://bvop.org/learn/quality-documentation-management/
The participants in this unit are clearly defined and announced in a place generally accessible to all participants in the project. The information is contained on the company’s server in a directory — and is presented in tabular form. All project participants are listed with their names, titles, project responsibilities, and contact details.
The hierarchical structure of the project is also provided in tabular information in scenarios of the need for escalation or interaction with other departments. Quality control members perform an inspection at all stages of the production process – before, during, and after the completion of each stage of the production process. Reference: “Quality management objectives in project execution“, https://securityinformationeventmanagement.com/quality-management-objectives-in-project-execution/
Quality control is performed by each employee of the quality control team responsible for the specific department to which the product relates.
When a machine control board is supplied by an external supplier, an initial inspection is carried out by a member of the Supply Chain team. The employee checks the compliance of the part requested by the company, then enters an item into the internal ERP system, and the part is entered into the warehouse.
After the creation of the management software and the integration with the control module by the Programmers, the quality manager of the Programming department performs a check for the correct operation of the software in a test environment. The verification checks for the correct functioning of the software to the hardware.
The main purpose of testing is to find software bugs so that defects can be detected and corrected. Testing cannot determine that a product functions correctly under all conditions, only that it does not function correctly under certain conditions. The scope of software testing includes examining code, as well as the execution of that code in various environments and conditions, as well as examining aspects of the code: does it do what it is supposed to do, and does it do what it is supposed to do? Reference: “Quality management plan example template for a technology”, https://medfd.org/quality-management-plan-example-template/
Software developers cannot test everything, but they can use combinatorial test designs to identify the minimum number of tests necessary to obtain the desired coverage. The combinatorial test design allows for greater test coverage with fewer tests. Whether they’re looking for speed or test depth, they can use combinatorial test design methods to build structured variation into their test cases.
For each process, it is mandatory to apply output testing to ensure that the final product meets the defined functional requirements. It is also mandatory to maintain documentation of the final test report and test method. See more: “Applying control in project management”, https://60yearsnato.info/applying-control-in-project-management/
Quality discrepancy
When a quality discrepancy is detected, the head of each department is responsible for providing feedback to the relevant department and is obliged to inform his immediate supervisor immediately. The line manager, depending on the degree of non-compliance, may escalate the problem to a higher level. If the non-conformity can easily be eliminated by corrective action, then it is necessary to enter the problem and the corresponding correction in the documentation of the project work department and indicate in the general table of the departments in the project the possible delay and the time required accordingly for correction.
Corrective actions
Errors related to compilation errors, runtime errors, and bugs may occur during the development of the product software. All of them are caused by the fault of the creators of the respective program, but sometimes they are the result of the fact that some other program does not work as it should or software and hardware are incompatible.
In the specifics of the various error occurrences, a plan has been drawn up to minimize and troubleshoot related miscompilation, misexecution, and bugs.
For the project, mandatory information is provided with the requirement for the programming language of the software, and in the event of errors during testing, it is relied on, apart from the expertise of the developer, and a specialized system – a debugger, helping to quickly eliminate errors.
When a defect in the software or a non-conformity is established, documentation is drawn up – a finding protocol, with a description of the problem in the implementation of the set production requirements, as well as the potential impact of the problem on third parties. This information is contained in the Nonconformance Register and should contain:
- The date the non-conformity/observation was established.
- In which document it is recorded or who informs a discrepancy/observation?
- Describes the identified nonconformity/observation
The line manager checks analyze and assigns corrective/preventive action. The immediate supervisor sets a deadline and a person responsible for implementation. The quality manager of the unit’s department or the line manager evaluates the performance.
The quality manager of the unit or the direct manager closes the problem after a positive assessment.
Quality manager
The project manager is responsible for the implementation during its various phases and works with pre-specified team managers. Team managers maintain daily contact with the QA officers assigned to these teams. More on the topic: “Quality control and quality assurance in Project Management and Agile practices”, https://scrumtime.org/quality-control-and-quality-assurance-project-management-agile-practices/ Quality control staff work in the relevant executive teams and monitor the quality and timely performance of tasks. In the event of a discrepancy, Quality Control notifies his direct supervisor, who necessarily informs the Project Manager of the situation. After analyzing the situation, the Project Manager can escalate the problem to a higher level.