How to Create a Quality Assurance Plan
The project team works together in developing a quality assurance plan, designed to document the processes and procedures for assuring quality throughout the course of project development and implementation. A quality assurance plan comprises a list of attested actions developed to ascertain client satisfaction with products and services resulting from a project. The quality assurance plan has four distinct executions: Planning, Action, Verify and Execute. The quality assurance plan delineates objectives, purposes and obligations, coordination with other business planning, and defining activities and the timelines. The fundamental purpose is to aid project managers in the effective management of a project.
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Instructions
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Define quality objectives. The type of project does not matter, as all projects demand clear quality objectives. You will need to determine client requirements as a starting point and then plan and define your quality objectives from there. Objectives need to represent specificity, be measurable, realistic, and achievable, in addition to timely. For example, if customers complain of receiving defective products, you will need to determine how to reduce the number of defects to reflect customer expectations. Consider how many defects are acceptable during a production run, and how you can reduce the defects to that number in the short-term and beat the number over the long-term.
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Determine roles and responsibilities once you have clearly outlined quality control objectives. You will need to assign each team member with activities to carry out the required activities to accomplish those objectives. Each team member should own the tasks assigned and with that ownership, take responsibility for both the success and failures, Clearly designate roles and define those roles with action plans.
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Verify your course of action by getting on the same page with other business plans. No plan develops in isolation. Input from other departments will help assure the objectives set forth are achievable and the project in question presents the best, most cost-effective solution. Make sure you align your goals with all other business plans to assure continuity of operations.
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Articulate all tasks and affix them to a timeline for completion. Assure each task directly relates to accomplishing a pre-determined objective. Develop a timeline and plot the tasks for completion along that timeline, affixing a deadline for completion of each task and ultimately the project. Execute the plan to completion.
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Review and asses your quality control plan on an annual basis, soliciting advice from clients and data of improvements from previous quarterly statements.
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Tips & Warnings
The key to developing a sustainable quality assurance plan involves team cohesiveness and accurate communicative dialogues with all departments and team members.
The quality assurance plan must be realistic, yet comprehensive in nature to achieve quality control standards require by clients. If you fail to understand your customer's expectations, your quality assurance plan will fail short, effecting sales, revenue, customer service and ultimately profitability.
References
Resources
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