A) Checklist for Quality Planning

Getting Started in Quality Planning

• Pick the right project (not too large, not too small or insignificant) for quality improvement
• Develop a quality management plan.
• Define a quality policy. Establish quality goals and timeline when the goals can be achieved. Be as specific as possible. Examples:
  • Reduce defects by 30%
  • Reduce customer complaints by 30%
  • Cut down cycle time by 50%
  • Good example of a balanced policy: “We will build good ships here, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always good ships”. (From a naval shipyard in UK in late 1800s)
• Determine who is in charge and who is responsible for quality.

Identify Customers

• Identify all relevant customers by analyzing contracts (external customer who is paying for it), project organization (internal customers who are stake holders), and the intended product use (the end-user who will be using the product).
• Prioritize customers. Not all customers are equally important. Compare customers against each other to develop better understanding. For example, customer A may be more important than customer B, less important than customer C or equal to customer D. You could rank customers in terms on a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being crucial).

Establish Requirements

• Identify requirements of all relevant customers.
• Prioritize requirements from each customer’s point of view.
• Prepare customer-weighted prioritization.
• Define explicit, measurable specifications for each requirement. For example, how will you know if a specific requirement has been satisfied?

B) IT Specific Quality Checklist

Break the Projects into Phases/Stages (Macro Analysis)

• For Software Development Projects: Breakdown the overall development process into phases (e.g., life cycle phases such as requirements, design, etc.). A typical software life cycle is shown above.
• For IT Service Projects: Breakdown the service into stages (e.g., initiation stage, problem definition stage, solution development stage, solution delivery stage, post-delivery stage, etc)
• Make sure that the work between the stages flows smoothly without any delays and wastage of resources. For example, the transition between design and development/implementation should wait for 2 months for a programmer to be assigned.
• Make sure that the results produced by each stage/phase are of high quality (e.g. no defects, no reworks, etc.). This means that the results produced by ALL phases/stages are of high quality and not just the final code that is delivered to the user.
• Use project management tools and diagramming techniques such as PERT/CPM and others to properly manage the project.
• Make sure that each stage/phase considers processes, technologies and people issues.

Develop Detailed Work Steps from the Phases/Stages of work (Micro Analysis)

This activity refines the phases/stages identified previously by using the following steps:

• Breakdown each stage/phase into very detailed “work-steps” (5 or more steps per phase). Work steps usually include a list of supplies (e.g., technologies) for a particular job, plus detailed guidance on how to do the work (e.g., best practices in software development).
• Make sure that the work steps and instructions include mundane, day-to-day jobs that must be done correctly, in a certain order, and without mistakes. ensure that the work steps conform to the company policies and procedures. Use your written work steps to train software developers, supervisors and managers. Use the work steps also for testing and for internal audits.
• The main idea is to use your work steps for breaking down jobs and making improvements.In short, use your work instructions to make sure the work that must be done, gets done right.

Refine Macro/Micro Analysis based on Frameworks

• Refine the work steps (the process) by using Lean approach (i.e., no waste no-where) . Thus Lean can be used for process improvement.
• Define the results produced (no defects, no rework, do it once and do it right) by using the Six Sigma approach. Thus Sigma can be used for end-product/service improvement.
• Use the CMMI approach to start at the right level and then go to higher levels gradually. It is a good idea to start with CMMI Level 2 and then go higher. Basically, CMMI levels can be used for “continuous improvement”.
• Make sure that a right balance of processes, people and technologies exists throughout (too much technology and no attention to processes and people is not good).
• Familiarize yourself with the available frameworks. Exhibit 1 shows some key resources to get started.

C) Quality Assurance Checklist

Identify QA Activities

• Define activities that will ensure project performance conforms to requirements. These activities are the main responsibilities of the QA group. The activities may be actually performed as part of the Work Project activities (e.g., project/service phases/stages, work steps, etc.) but are still the responsibility of the QA group.
• Develop metrics for each activity, i.e. number of defects, number of calls handled in an hour, etc.

Assemble a QA Plan

• Assemble quality assurance activities into a quality assurance plan.
• Include what, when, and who.
• Include processes, technologies and people in the activities

Example of a QA activity: 

• Requirement: “answer 99% of hotline calls within one ring”
• Assurance activity: Determine percentage of calls answered on one ring during a 48 hour period
• Metric: percentage of calls answered in one ring

Sample quality assurance plan:

A QA plan documents all QA activities so that they can be managed and improved continuously. The following table could be used for a QA plan.

D) Quality Controls Checklist

• Monitor and measure project performance.
• Compare results to specifications.
• Take action based on results.
• Adopt a continuous quality improvement model, i.e., institutionalize the lessons learned and use them over and over again.

The following (plan, do, check and act) circle represents continuous quality improvement.