Proactive Project Quality Management

Many organizations mistakenly think managing project quality (PQM) means creating and enforcing “traffic cop” compliance with well-intentioned but often onerous procedural busywork. Many also equate QA with tail-end quality control (QC) testing, catching errors right before they go out the door when they are most expensive and risky to fix. Effective organizations realize PQM/QA can and should do far more, contributing positively to assure that the project process in fact better produces high quality in the first place, as well as catching and preventing errors early, which is the secret to delivering quicker and cheaper. It’s not easy though—up to two-thirds of classic QA groups fail. Drawing upon concepts that influenced the totally-revised IEEE Std. 730 for Software Quality Assurance, this interactive workshop explains the six functions PQM/QA should perform that provide far greater value, analyzes why such groups so frequently have failed especially in IS, and presents practical approaches for successfully using PQM/QA effectively to produce high quality systems. Concepts emphasize software quality but apply to all types of projects. Exercises reinforce learning.