Managing Project Quality

Like it or not, another role that the Project Manager must play is that of the Quality Manager. The PM may not end up as the primary individual assessing quality on the project, but quality oversight and assurance that the project meets certain quality targets is definitely within the scope of responsibility for the project manager.

Jason Charvat’s book “Project Management Nation” touches on this in a subsection called “Managing Quality.” Please read on for Mr. Charvat’s view of the PM’s role in the quality management process.

Managing Quality

For the project manager, quality management is all about ensuring that everything that is done or produced fits the purpose for which it is being done or produced. There are two main facets to quality management: (1) quality assurance (QA) and (2) quality control. In order to perform testing effectively in a software development effort, the QA manager needs to determine ways to show progression and improvement of the process and of the deliverable product. Measuring the effectiveness of testing serves the following purposes:

• Evaluates the performance of testing to uncover defects
• Quantifies the quality of the program/application process
• Provides a confidence factor to predict potential occurrences of errors once the system is released
• Provides data for potential improvement opportunities
• Justifies the expenses of the unit/resources to contribute to the end product’s usefulness

The post-implementation review process provides a structure for identifying opportunities for continual improvement. It assesses the results of a release or of an entire system. The QA manager is often responsible for developing indicators for the review. The intent is to develop a picture of what was successful in the process of development and testing and what might be improved. Indicators are agreed upon in advance during system development and are documented in a template.

Updating Project Documentation

It is important that, throughout the project’s life cycle, project managers update and distribute all new approved changes to the existing project documentation in order to reflect any changes to the project plans or schedule. A distribution list developed during the initiation phase should detail the recipients, communication methods, and number of copies required.

Conducting Quality Inspections

Project managers should obtain feedback from the project owner, stakeholders, or both to determine that their quality requirements are being met. He or she should make sure that the project team members report compliance or noncompliance to the quality plan, specifications, and procedures. Throughout the project’s life cycle, the project manager should generate reports that are related to quality issues and performance, as well as perform periodic quality audits. He or she should record lessons learned that address any quality issues or problems encountered in the project and the associated resolutions.

Quality Assurance

QA involves all planning, design, work, and procedures necessary to ensure that quality is achieved—in other words, to ensure that what is done or produced is fit for its purpose. Hence, QA can be thought of as activity that takes place before any work is done.

Quality Control

Quality control is the inspection of finished products to ensure that they meet required standards or are fit for their purpose. Where products fail, remedial action is taken. Thus, quality control is normally considered something that goes on after the work has been done. It makes no sense at all to keep on doing things wrong in the hope that mistakes will be picked up and rectified in quality control.

Closing Out the Project – Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2, we covered the first six critical questions listed below that should be addressed when closing out any project. In the finale, Part 3, we’ll cover items seven through nine highlighted in bold letters below:

• Have all the project objectives been achieved?
• Is the client satisfied with the overall project?
• Have the necessary post-project support agreements been established?
• What were the major concerns with the project?
• What are the key lessons learned from the IT project?
• What would you do differently?
• Do you feel the solution was cost effective?
• When would it be applicable to enhance or update the delivered solution?
• What is your executive leaderships view of the project outcome?

Do you feel the solution was cost effective?

Here’s your chance to analyze the solution in words in financial terms. And we’re not really talking about budget here, but that’s a big part of it. In hindsight, did the engagement:

• Utilize the best level of resource skills and thus use resources in the most cost effective-way possible.
• Should Phase A really have been implemented first as the customer required, or would it have been a more sound business decision, in your opinion, to implement Phase B first?
• Is the final solution meeting the customer’s needs in the most cost effective manner possible? Would certain enhancements or different requirements have resulted in a more cost effective solution?

The list could be long, but I think you get the picture. Ask yourself the tough questions and imagine this isn’t for the customer to see. In fact, imagine you ARE the customer on this one but also have your additional insight.

I’m not saying you can’t involve the customer on this one – you certainly can – or you can perform it separately with your team and then with the customer and compare results.

When would it be applicable to enhance or update the delivered solution?

You’ve probably had an eye to the future all along and you’ve probably already discussed some key points along the way with the customer – especially if the project was a successful one and the customer satisfaction seems high. That’s what a good project manager does.

Think about ways you can provide new and future services to this customer and certainly keep in contact with them post-implementation on future product capabilities that you feel they will want or can benefit from.

What is your executive leaderships view of the project outcome?

This one is important to your career. No question about it. How does your leadership feel about the project? This likely will come more from leadership’s discussions with the customer than from your discussions with the leadership. And it should.

If it was a visible, critical project, you know that they’ve been in communication with the client along the way and if anything has gone wrong, they’ve heard about it. They’re not as likely to hear about the successes, but if you think the project has gone well, encourage your CEO or other leadership to follow-up with the client and discuss the outcome with them.

Summary

We’ve covered what I consider to be nine key questions to review once your project has been implemented. Most are for you and your team, some should also include the customer. But be sure to perform some sort of post-implementation checklist like this. You’ll benefit from it as a project manager, your team will benefit from it in learning what went right and what went wrong, and your organization will benefit from it – especially if you can share the successes and the lessons learned with others in the organization.

If you have other key points or questions to add, please comment.

RCM Technologies, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Project Solutions Group, Inc.

As reported by Global News Wire.

PENNSAUKEN, N.J., July 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RCM Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:RCMT) announced the acquisition of Project Solutions Group, Inc. (PSG), a Marlborough, MA-based specialty provider of project portfolio management and training services for a diverse client base. PSG is a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner with multiple offices and sales locations nationwide.

PSG has an attractive range of competencies that include Enterprise Project Management, Information Worker Solutions, Portals and Collaboration, and ISV (Independent Software Vendor)/Software Solutions. PSG’s major customers include American Family Insurance, Autodesk, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Continental Airlines, Intuit, M&T Bank, Microsoft, Revlon, Toys R Us and University of Wisconsin – Madison. A newly formed Enterprise Project Management business unit, which encompasses former PSG business, will be part of RCM’s Enterprise Business Solutions group under the leadership of Dale Mansour, RCM Senior Vice President. Former PSG principals Tom Westcott, Tod Monchecourt, and Anisha Mason will manage this new unit.

The RCM Enterprise Business Solutions group’s core mission is to create value-oriented offerings that produce proprietary customized solutions and include intellectual property by bundling software, systems, tools and services into integrated and comprehensive business and technology solutions. PSG’s services fit well within RCM’s overall strategy by complementing and supplementing its existing service offerings. By acquiring PSG, RCM has strengthened the foundational technology layer of its Enterprise Business Solutions group. PSG’s solution expertise, including its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, enhances RCM’s diversified Microsoft-focused consulting and solution services.

Leon Kopyt, Chairman and CEO of RCM, commented: “We are pleased to welcome PSG into the RCM family and believe that their established Microsoft expertise will greatly contribute toward expanding our Enterprise Business Solutions offerings.”

Read more here.

Project Manager Needed

Location: Malaysia
Salary: £80000 per annum
Company: Leap 29 Ltd
Sector: Oil / Gas / Power
Job role: Civil engineer
Job type: Permanent

The client is one of the largest oil and gas production companies based in the Asian Pacific region and due to the increase development of one the key sites they are now looking to bring on board a project manager.

The appropriate candidate will be based in the region located close to Malaysia and this will be based on a rotation basis of denominations yet to be decided. A suitable candidate must be degree qualified and it would be advantageous if the candidate was a member of an engineering professional body.

The candidate must also have 10 years experience working within a project management position and this must be supported by experience of working within the oil and gas industry also. The candidate must exhibit and posses all the soft skills required of a senior program/ project manager, this included good analytical skills.

Due to the location of this project the client is only looking to bring on board a candidates that is of an Malaysian or Thai nationality and there is no room for movement on this prerequisite.
If you feel you are an eligible candidate for the above position, send a copy of your resume to the contact details below and I will be in contact in due course
Apply here.

Making lessons learned stick

Last week I looked at some of the issues with running lessons learned or post-implementation reviews and recommended that these sessions are not left to the end of the project.

It’s an expensive business, taking people out of their implementation or project roles and bringing them together for a session of navel gazing.  Working out where things went wrong is a valuable exercise, but only if the lessons are truly embedded and the changes stick so the same issues don’t come up.  Here are some tips to ensure that you really do learn from your mistakes.

• Don’t wait until the end of the project to review lessons learned.  It will be too late by then to do anything constructive with the feedback.
• Document the output of your lessons learned meeting.  Circulate it to all participants so they have a copy to refer to.
• Make a note in your diary to follow up with the individuals who took away action points, specifically if there were outstanding tasks or things identified immediately that would create improvements in the project.  It’s unlikely that you will come together in the lessons learned format again for some time, so you will have to use other methods to follow up on the actions.  Add any actions from the lessons learned session to your weekly team meeting action log, for example.
• Make another note in your diary for a month’s time, to assess whether the changes identified have really been taken onboard.  Just by writing them down and identifying them during a meeting will not make them happen, as people tend to gravitate to the easiest way of doing things, which is normally the way they have been doing things in the past.
• If you don’t see any changes, you need to turn those improvement suggestions into a proper action plan and build the tasks into the project plan.
• Encourage people to challenge behaviuor when they see something that should have changed as a result of lessons learned.
• Make it difficult for people to do things the old way.  For example, if there is a tendency to store project documents in multiple shared drives, remove access to all except the one that you want them to use.
• Don’t be afraid to make physical changes either.  If you have identified that two people should be working more closely together, swap their desks about to make it easier for them to do so.

Above all, keep referring back to the list of things that needed to be improved.  When you’ve done everything on the list it’s time for another lessons learned meeting!

Oh, and finally:  keep referring back to the list of things that you identified that you were doing well.  Don’t let these slip!  You need to keep on doing the good things as well as improving the areas of weakness.

Read more about lessons learned in this article.