Quality Assurance on Projects

Certainty about your projects, transformations and system migrations

At ARC People, we understand the importance of quality assurance within projects. Your organization, like other organizations, undoubtedly has a large number of projects and system migrations. Those projects and migrations typically involve significant interests. Therefore, to ensure the success of these projects, more and more resources are deployed such as project audit / project evaluation, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). There is not always enough expertise available in-house to do this. In that case our clients choose to hire seniority on an interim basis, during the project or program.

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality Assurance (QA) is an independent, structured mechanism to assess whether the project or program is "in control" and can deliver the intended outcomes. QA does not in some cases look at (intermediate) products but primarily at the approach, governance, decision information and maturity of the project. Consider lifecycle control, scope, planning, benefits, risk and issue management, resources, suppliers, and compliance with chosen methodology (e.g. PRINCE2, MSP, PMBOK) and with internal rules.

Goals of QA

The goals of QA are to provide visibility to the steering committee and sponsors on project feasibility and control. In addition, QA makes risks, dependencies and decision dilemmas visible at an early stage. QA recommends improvement actions that really lead to decisions or adjustments and ensures that project governance, reporting and controls are effective.

Typical QA moments

Typical QA moments include project start or tranching, where a "go/no-go readiness" is performed. Major milestones or phase transitions, such as design freeze, build ready and UAT start, are also important moments for QA. In case of escalations or red status, a "turnaround" review is performed. In addition, pre-live and post-implementation moments are appropriate for an operational readiness and benefits check.

Three approaches side by side

In fact, there are three types of approaches or positioning, when it comes to project control. First, there can be an audit to a project(Internal Audit / 3rd line). This provides independent assurance on the design, existence and operation of project control.

Second, QA can be put in place, serving the steering committee (2nd line). This provides a trustworthy picture for the steering committee or program board to decide on.

Third, one can choose to set up Quality Control, serving the project manager (1st line). QC provides assurance about the quality of deliverables and day-to-day control.