ISO 21502:2020 Clause 7.11.3 Assuring quality

Project Management 12 Minutes

Quality assurance should facilitate and enable conformity to applicable performance requirements, quality processes and standards, and includes:
a) communicating the objectives and relevant standards to be used and verifying that they are used;
b) verifying conformity to the defined management approach for quality;
c) verifying that the established tools, procedures, techniques and resources are being used;
d) conforming to the planned approach to verify the output against the validated requirements and specifications, where relevant;
e) performing audits by people who are independent of the project manager and team; they can be from another part of the sponsoring or performing organization, or from the customer’s organization.
Change requests can result from quality assurance activities.

Quality assurance in project management involves the systematic activities and processes implemented to ensure that project deliverables meet established quality standards and requirements. Here’s how the project organization can assure quality:

  1. Establish Quality Standards and Criteria: The project organization should define clear quality standards and acceptance criteria for project deliverables. These standards should be aligned with stakeholder expectations, industry best practices, and any applicable regulations or standards.
  2. Implement Quality Planning: Quality planning involves developing a quality management plan that outlines how quality will be assured throughout the project lifecycle. This plan should define roles and responsibilities, quality objectives, measurement techniques, and quality control procedures.
  3. Perform Quality Audits: Quality audits involve systematically examining project processes and deliverables to ensure compliance with quality standards and requirements. Audits may be conducted by internal or external auditors and can occur at various stages of the project.
  4. Conduct Reviews and Inspections: Regular reviews and inspections of project work products can help identify defects, errors, or deviations from quality standards early in the project lifecycle. These reviews may include technical reviews, design reviews, code inspections, and walkthroughs.
  5. Implement Quality Control Processes: Quality control processes are designed to monitor and verify that project deliverables meet specified quality standards. This may involve conducting tests, inspections, and validations to identify and address defects or non-conformities.
  6. Use Quality Management Tools and Techniques: Various tools and techniques can be employed to support quality assurance efforts, such as statistical process control, quality checklists, cause-and-effect diagrams, and Pareto analysis. These tools help identify root causes of quality issues and facilitate data-driven decision-making.
  7. Provide Training and Resources: Ensuring that project team members have the necessary skills, knowledge, and resources to meet quality requirements is essential. Training programs, workshops, and access to relevant documentation and tools can support continuous improvement in quality assurance practices.
  8. Manage Change Effectively: Changes to project scope, requirements, or specifications can impact quality. Implementing a robust change management process ensures that changes are assessed, approved, and communicated effectively to minimize any adverse effects on quality.
  9. Monitor and Measure Quality Performance: Regular monitoring and measurement of quality performance indicators allow the project organization to assess the effectiveness of quality assurance activities. Key performance metrics may include defect rates, customer satisfaction scores, and adherence to quality standards.
  10. Continuous Improvement: Quality assurance is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, evaluation, and improvement. Lessons learned from previous projects, feedback from stakeholders, and results from quality audits should be used to identify opportunities for enhancing quality assurance practices.

By implementing these quality assurance measures, the project organization can systematically ensure that project deliverables meet or exceed stakeholder expectations and contribute to the overall success of the project.

Quality assurance should facilitate and enable conformity to applicable performance requirements, quality processes and standards.

quality assurance aims to ensure that the project’s processes and deliverables adhere to the relevant performance requirements, quality processes, and standards. By establishing systematic processes and conducting regular checks and audits, quality assurance helps maintain consistency, reliability, and compliance throughout the project lifecycle. This proactive approach not only helps identify and rectify deviations from requirements but also fosters a culture of quality consciousness within the project team, ultimately contributing to the successful delivery of high-quality outcomes.

Quality assurance should include communicating the objectives and relevant standards to be used and verifying that they are used.

Effective communication of quality objectives and relevant standards is a crucial aspect of quality assurance. Here’s how it should be done:

  1. Communicate Quality Objectives: Quality assurance begins with clearly defining the quality objectives for the project. These objectives should align with stakeholder expectations, project requirements, and organizational quality policies. The project manager, along with the quality assurance team, should communicate these objectives to all relevant stakeholders, including team members, suppliers, and clients.
  2. Disseminate Relevant Standards: In addition to quality objectives, it’s essential to identify and communicate the relevant quality standards and processes that will guide the project’s execution. These standards may include industry-specific regulations, organizational quality policies, and best practices. By ensuring that all stakeholders understand the standards to be followed, the project team can work towards achieving consistent quality outcomes.
  3. Provide Training and Guidance: To ensure that team members understand and adhere to the quality objectives and standards, it’s essential to provide training and guidance as needed. This may involve conducting workshops, seminars, or online training sessions to familiarize team members with quality processes, tools, and techniques. Clear documentation and guidelines should also be made available to support consistent adherence to standards.
  4. Verify Compliance: Quality assurance activities should include verifying that the established quality objectives and standards are being followed throughout the project lifecycle. This verification may involve regular reviews, audits, and inspections to assess compliance with quality processes and identify any deviations or non-conformities. By monitoring adherence to standards, the project team can take corrective actions as needed to maintain quality levels.
  5. Promote Continuous Improvement: Quality assurance should not be static but should continuously evolve to address changing project requirements and external factors. Encouraging feedback from stakeholders, conducting lessons-learned sessions, and implementing process improvements are essential aspects of promoting continuous improvement in quality assurance practices. This iterative approach helps refine processes and standards over time, leading to enhanced project performance and quality outcomes.

By effectively communicating quality objectives and standards, verifying compliance, and promoting continuous improvement, quality assurance contributes to the project’s overall success by ensuring that deliverables meet or exceed stakeholders’ expectations and industry standards.

Quality assurance should include verifying conformity to the defined management approach for quality.

Verifying conformity to the defined management approach for quality is a critical component of quality assurance. Here’s how it’s typically done:

  1. Define Management Approach for Quality: The project should establish a clear and comprehensive management approach for quality, outlining the processes, methodologies, and tools to be used to ensure quality throughout the project lifecycle. This includes defining quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement activities, as well as roles and responsibilities for quality management.
  2. Communicate the Management Approach: Once the management approach for quality is defined, it’s essential to communicate it to all project stakeholders, including team members, sponsors, and external partners. Clear communication ensures that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in implementing the quality management approach.
  3. Verify Implementation: Quality assurance activities should include verifying that the defined management approach for quality is being implemented effectively. This verification involves assessing whether the planned quality processes and activities are being followed as outlined in the quality management plan. It may include conducting reviews, audits, or assessments of project documentation, processes, and deliverables.
  4. Monitor Adherence: Continuous monitoring is essential to ensure ongoing adherence to the defined management approach for quality. This involves regularly assessing project progress against established quality metrics and performance indicators to identify any deviations or areas of concern. If deviations are detected, corrective actions should be taken promptly to realign with the defined approach.
  5. Provide Feedback and Guidance: Quality assurance efforts should include providing feedback and guidance to project teams on implementing the management approach for quality effectively. This may involve offering training, mentoring, or coaching to address any gaps or areas needing improvement. It’s essential to support teams in understanding and implementing quality processes consistently.
  6. Document Conformance: Throughout the project lifecycle, documentation should be maintained to record conformance to the defined management approach for quality. This documentation serves as evidence of compliance and provides a basis for assessing the effectiveness of quality assurance efforts. It may include audit reports, inspection findings, corrective action plans, and other relevant records.

By verifying conformity to the defined management approach for quality, quality assurance helps ensure that project activities align with established processes and standards, ultimately contributing to the delivery of high-quality outcomes and customer satisfaction.

Quality assurance should include verifying that the established tools, procedures, techniques and resources are being used.

Verifying that the established tools, procedures, techniques, and resources are being used is a fundamental aspect of quality assurance. Here’s how this verification process typically works:

  1. Establish Tools, Procedures, Techniques, and Resources: As part of quality planning, the project defines the specific tools, procedures, techniques, and resources that will be utilized to ensure quality throughout the project lifecycle. This includes selecting appropriate methodologies, software tools, testing procedures, and quality control techniques, and allocating necessary resources such as skilled personnel and equipment.
  2. Communicate and Train: Once these tools, procedures, techniques, and resources are identified, it’s crucial to communicate them to the project team and relevant stakeholders. This communication ensures that everyone understands what is expected in terms of quality management and is aware of the tools and resources available to support quality assurance activities. Additionally, training may be provided to ensure that team members are proficient in using the designated tools and following the prescribed procedures.
  3. Verification of Usage: Quality assurance involves verifying that the established tools, procedures, techniques, and resources are being utilized effectively as planned. This verification process may include periodic reviews, audits, or assessments to ensure compliance with established processes. It may also involve direct observation of team activities and interactions to confirm that the prescribed tools and procedures are being followed correctly.
  4. Assess Effectiveness: In addition to verifying usage, quality assurance aims to assess the effectiveness of the selected tools, procedures, techniques, and resources in achieving quality objectives. This assessment may involve collecting feedback from project team members, analyzing performance data, and evaluating the outcomes of quality assurance activities. If any shortcomings or inefficiencies are identified, adjustments may be made to improve the effectiveness of the quality management approach.
  5. Continuous Improvement: Quality assurance is an ongoing process that includes continuous monitoring and improvement of the tools, procedures, techniques, and resources used for quality management. This may involve identifying best practices, implementing lessons learned from previous projects, and adapting to changes in technology or industry standards to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of quality assurance efforts.

By verifying the usage of established tools, procedures, techniques, and resources, quality assurance helps ensure consistency, compliance, and effectiveness in quality management practices throughout the project lifecycle, ultimately contributing to the delivery of high-quality project outcomes.

Quality assurance should include conforming to the planned approach to verify the output against the validated requirements and specifications, where relevant.

Ensuring conformity to the planned approach to verify the output against validated requirements and specifications is a critical aspect of quality assurance. Here’s how this process typically unfolds:

  1. Planned Approach: The project establishes a planned approach to quality assurance, which includes methodologies, techniques, and procedures for verifying that project outputs meet validated requirements and specifications. This planned approach outlines the steps and criteria for conducting quality assurance activities throughout the project lifecycle.
  2. Verified Requirements and Specifications: Before quality assurance activities can commence, it’s essential to have validated requirements and specifications in place. These requirements and specifications are typically derived from stakeholder needs and expectations and undergo validation to ensure accuracy, completeness, and alignment with project objectives. Once validated, they serve as the benchmark against which project outputs are assessed during quality assurance.
  3. Conformance to Planned Approach: Quality assurance activities are carried out in accordance with the planned approach established by the project. This involves following predefined methodologies, procedures, and criteria for verifying project outputs against validated requirements and specifications. Quality assurance activities may include inspections, reviews, audits, testing, and other techniques aimed at assessing the quality and compliance of deliverables.
  4. Verification Process: During quality assurance, project outputs are systematically evaluated to determine whether they conform to validated requirements and specifications. This verification process involves comparing the actual characteristics and performance of deliverables against the established criteria and acceptance criteria defined in the requirements and specifications. Any discrepancies or non-conformities identified during verification are documented and addressed through corrective actions.
  5. Documentation and Reporting: The results of quality assurance activities, including findings from verification against requirements and specifications, are documented and reported to relevant stakeholders. This documentation provides transparency into the quality of project outputs and ensures that any deviations or issues are properly communicated and managed. It also serves as a basis for decision-making and corrective action planning.
  6. Continuous Improvement: Quality assurance is an iterative process that involves continuous monitoring, evaluation, and improvement of quality management practices. Lessons learned from quality assurance activities are used to refine the planned approach, update requirements and specifications, and enhance the overall effectiveness of quality assurance efforts.

By conforming to the planned approach for verifying project outputs against validated requirements and specifications, quality assurance helps ensure that project deliverables meet stakeholder expectations, comply with standards, and contribute to the achievement of project objectives.

Quality assurance should include performing audits by people who are independent of the project manager and team; they can be from another part of the sponsoring or performing organization, or the customer’s organization.

Involving independent auditors in quality assurance adds an extra layer of objectivity and ensures a more thorough evaluation of project processes and deliverables. Here’s how independent audits contribute to quality assurance:

  1. Objectivity: Independent auditors bring an unbiased perspective to the evaluation process. Since they are not directly involved in the day-to-day activities of the project, they can assess project performance and deliverables with a fresh outlook, free from any internal biases or preconceptions.
  2. Impartial Evaluation: Independent auditors can provide an impartial evaluation of project processes, procedures, and outcomes. Their independence from project management and execution teams enables them to assess adherence to standards, compliance with requirements, and effectiveness of controls without any conflicts of interest.
  3. Comprehensive Assessment: Independent auditors are often experienced professionals with expertise in quality management and audit practices. Their involvement ensures a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the project, including quality processes, documentation, performance metrics, and deliverable quality. They can identify areas of improvement and opportunities for enhancing overall project quality.
  4. Risk Mitigation: Independent audits help mitigate the risk of overlooking quality issues or deficiencies that may go unnoticed by project stakeholders. By conducting thorough reviews and audits, independent auditors can identify potential risks, vulnerabilities, and non-conformities early in the project lifecycle, allowing corrective actions to be taken promptly to address them.
  5. Enhanced Credibility: The involvement of independent auditors enhances the credibility and reliability of quality assurance activities. Stakeholders, including project sponsors, customers, and regulatory bodies, tend to place greater trust in audit findings and recommendations when they are conducted by independent third parties with no vested interests in the project’s outcome.
  6. Continuous Improvement: Independent audits contribute to continuous improvement efforts within the project and the organization. By identifying areas for enhancement and best practices, they facilitate learning and knowledge sharing, driving ongoing improvements in quality management processes and project outcomes.

Overall, involving independent auditors in quality assurance promotes transparency, rigour, and accountability in assessing and enhancing project quality, ultimately leading to better project outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction.

Change requests can result from quality assurance activities.

Change requests can indeed stem from quality assurance activities. Here’s how:

  1. Identification of Quality Issues: Quality assurance activities involve assessing project processes, deliverables, and outcomes against predefined quality standards and requirements. During this assessment, quality assurance teams may identify deviations, deficiencies, or non-conformities in the project’s execution or deliverables.
  2. Root Cause Analysis: Upon identifying quality issues, quality assurance teams often conduct root cause analysis to determine the underlying reasons for the deviations or deficiencies. This involves investigating factors such as process inefficiencies, inadequate resources, lack of adherence to standards, or errors in execution.
  3. Documentation of Findings: Quality assurance teams document their findings, including identified quality issues, root causes, and potential impacts on project objectives and deliverables. This documentation serves as evidence of non-conformities and provides a basis for further analysis and decision-making.
  4. Impact Assessment: Once quality issues are identified and documented, the next step is to assess their impact on project scope, schedule, cost, and overall quality objectives. This involves evaluating the severity of the issues and determining their implications for project outcomes and stakeholder expectations.
  5. Change Request Initiation: If quality issues are deemed significant and cannot be resolved through existing project processes or corrective actions, quality assurance teams may initiate change requests. These change requests propose modifications to project plans, processes, resources, or deliverables to address the identified quality issues and prevent their recurrence.
  6. Change Request Review and Approval: Change requests resulting from quality assurance activities undergo the same review and approval process as other types of change requests within the project. Project stakeholders, including the project sponsor, change control board, or relevant authorities, assess the proposed changes’ necessity, feasibility, and potential impacts before approving or rejecting them.
  7. Implementation of Approved Changes: Upon approval, changes proposed in response to quality issues are implemented according to the project’s change management procedures. This may involve updating project plans, revising quality assurance processes, allocating additional resources, or modifying deliverables to ensure compliance with quality standards and requirements.
  8. Monitoring and Verification: After implementing approved changes, quality assurance teams continue to monitor project processes and deliverables to verify the effectiveness of the corrective actions taken. They assess whether the changes have addressed the identified quality issues and improved overall project quality.

By integrating quality assurance activities with change management processes, projects can effectively identify, address, and mitigate quality issues, ultimately enhancing project outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction.

Published by Pretesh Biswas

Pretesh Biswas has wealth of qualifications and experience in providing results-oriented solutions for your system development, training or auditing needs. He has helped dozens of organizations in implementing effective management systems to a number of standards. He provide a unique blend of specialized knowledge, experience, tools and interactive skills to help you develop systems that not only get certified, but also contribute to the bottom line. He has taught literally hundreds of students over the past 5 years. He has experience in training at hundreds of organizations in several industry sectors. His training is unique in that which can be customized as to your management system and activities and deliver them at your facility. This greatly accelerates the learning curve and application of the knowledge acquired. He is now ex-Certification body lead auditor now working as consultancy auditor. He has performed hundreds of audits in several industry sectors. As consultancy auditor, he not just report findings, but provide value-added service in recommending appropriate solutions. Experience Consultancy: He has helped over 100 clients in a wide variety of industries achieve ISO 9001,14001,27001,20000, OHSAS 18001 and TS 16949 certification. Industries include automotive, metal stamping and screw machine, fabrication, machining, assembly, Forging electrostatic and chrome plating, heat-treating, coatings, glass, plastic and rubber products, electrical and electronic equipment, assemblies & components, batteries, computer hardware and software, printing, placement and Security help, warehousing and distribution, repair facilities, consumer credit counseling agencies, banks, call centers, etc. Training: He has delivered public and on-site quality management training to over 1000 students. Courses include ISO/TS -RAB approved Lead Auditor, Internal Auditing, Implementation, Documentation, as well as customized ISO/TS courses, PPAP, FMEA, APQP and Control Plans. Auditing: He has conducted over 100 third party registration and surveillance audits and dozens of gap, internal and pre-assessment audits to ISO/QS/TS Standards, in the manufacturing and service sectors. Other services: He has provided business planning, restructuring, asset management, systems and process streamlining services to a variety of manufacturing and service clients such as printing, plastics, automotive, transportation and custom brokerage, warehousing and distribution, electrical and electronics, trading, equipment leasing, etc. Education & professional certification: Pretesh Biswas has held IRCA certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001,14001 and 27001. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a MBA in Systems and Marketing. Prior to becoming a business consultant 6 years ago, he has worked in several portfolios such as Marketing, operations, production, Quality and customer care. He is also certified in Six Sigma Black belt .

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