How can you perform quality assurance and quality control activities during the project life cycle?

1 Quality assurance vs quality control

Quality assurance (QA) is the process of planning, designing, and implementing the activities that will ensure the quality of your project outputs and processes. It is proactive, preventive, and focused on improving the quality system. Quality control (QC) is the process of inspecting, testing, and verifying the quality of your project outputs and processes. It is reactive, corrective, and focused on identifying and fixing the quality problems. QA and QC are complementary and should be performed together to achieve the best results.

2 Quality assurance and quality control in initiation

During the initiation phase, you should perform quality assurance and quality control activities to define the quality standards, requirements, and expectations for your project. This involves conducting a stakeholder analysis, a risk analysis, and a scope definition. You should also develop a quality management plan that outlines the quality objectives, criteria, methods, roles, responsibilities, and tools for your project. The quality management plan should be aligned with the project charter, the business case, and the organizational policies and procedures.

3 Quality assurance and quality control in planning

During the planning phase, you should perform quality assurance and quality control activities to refine and validate the quality standards, requirements, and expectations for your project. This involves conducting a detailed analysis of the project scope, schedule, budget, resources, and risks. You should also develop a quality assurance plan that describes how you will implement the quality management plan and ensure compliance with the quality standards and requirements. The quality assurance plan should include the quality audits, reviews, checklists, and metrics that you will use to monitor and improve the quality system.

4 Quality assurance and quality control in execution

During the execution phase, you should perform quality assurance and quality control activities to deliver the project outputs and processes according to the quality standards, requirements, and expectations. This involves executing the quality assurance plan and conducting the quality audits, reviews, checklists, and metrics to ensure the quality system is functioning properly. You should also execute the quality control plan and performing the quality inspections, tests, and verifications to ensure the quality outputs are meeting the quality criteria. You should document and report the quality results, issues, and actions.

5 Quality assurance and quality control in monitoring and controlling

During the monitoring and controlling phase, you should perform quality assurance and quality control activities to measure and evaluate the project performance and quality. This involves collecting and analyzing the quality data, metrics, and feedback from the quality audits, reviews, inspections, tests, and verifications. You should also identify and implement the quality improvements, changes, and corrections based on the quality results, issues, and actions. You should communicate and update the quality status, progress, and outcomes to the stakeholders and customers.

6 Quality assurance and quality control in closing

During the closing phase, you should perform quality assurance and quality control activities to finalize and validate the project outputs and processes. This involves conducting a final quality audit, review, inspection, test, and verification to confirm that the project outputs and processes have met the quality standards, requirements, and expectations. You should also document and archive the quality records, lessons learned, and best practices for future reference and improvement. You should also obtain the formal acceptance and approval of the project outputs and processes from the stakeholders and customers.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?