How do you measure and improve program quality assurance (PQA) performance?

1 PQA roles and responsibilities

PQA professionals are responsible for ensuring that the program and its projects adhere to the best practices and methodologies that are in line with the program vision, goals, and objectives. They also provide guidance, support, and feedback to the program manager, project managers, and other team members to help them improve the quality of their work. Some of the common roles and responsibilities of PQA include developing and maintaining the program quality management plan and quality assurance framework, conducting quality audits, reviews, and assessments of the program and its projects, identifying and reporting quality issues, risks, and opportunities for improvement, implementing and tracking quality improvement actions and initiatives, facilitating quality assurance training, coaching, and mentoring, and communicating and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders on quality matters.

2 PQA performance measurement

In order to ensure they are providing value to the program and its stakeholders, PQA professionals must measure their performance. They must also demonstrate their contribution to the program's success and validate their resource allocation and budget. To do this, they commonly use key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that align with the program quality objectives and standards, collect and analyze quality data and information from various sources such as audits, reviews, assessments, surveys, and feedback, report and present the quality performance results and findings to the program manager, project managers, and other stakeholders, compare and benchmark the quality performance against the industry best practices and standards, and evaluate and review the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality assurance processes and activities.

3 PQA performance improvement

PQA professionals must strive to improve their performance to ensure they are meeting the expectations and requirements of the program and its stakeholders. They must also be able to adjust to the changing needs and challenges of the program environment and continually develop their skills and competencies. To do this, they can set and review quality goals and targets for the program and its projects, implement and monitor quality improvement actions and initiatives based on quality performance results and findings, seek and apply feedback and suggestions from the program manager, project managers, and other stakeholders, learn and apply best practices and lessons learned from the program and its projects, participate and engage in quality assurance training, coaching, and mentoring, and update and revise the program quality management plan and quality assurance framework.