Creating a Strategy for Quality


As with any area of project management, you won t be successful without a plan. Quality control requires a plan, a process, and a strategy to implement and enforce it. You can attack quality enforcement many ways; the best, however, is to lead by example. You should be the focal point of quality for your team, as Figure 10-9 depicts, in all that you do. Leading by example shows your team your own level of dedication to the project and that you expect your team to follow.

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Figure 10-9: Project managers are the foundation for quality.

Revisiting the Iron Triangle

The second best method of implementing quality, regardless of the project, is a balance of time, cost, and scope. As you can see in Figure 10-10, the quality of the project is dependent on your management of the allotted time, the assigned budget, and the expected scope. Of course, there s leadership, managerial skills, and more ”but without balance, the project will fail.

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Figure 10-10: Quality can be achieved with a realistic balance of time, cost, and scope.

The one element that you should already have a strong handle on is time. Some projects will have more freedom with time than others. During the planning phase of your project, you should be able to predict what the required time is to complete the project and meet the assigned objectives. Projects that are constrained on time will, no doubt, require you and the team to work diligently and quickly to achieve the objectives. When time becomes an issue, the quality of the project will as well.

The budget for the project is approved by management and will be yours to manage ”most likely under management s watchful eye. Your planning and implementation of the plan will help determine the budget of the project. Should your plan be full of holes, underdeveloped, and not comprehensive enough to counter foreseeable problems, your budget will be blown and the quality will suffer.

Finally, the scope of the project must be protected from unnecessary change. A change control system must be in place, backed by management, and used. When the scope begins to creep, the project s time and budget must match the changes to the scope. Most often, however, when unapproved changes come into the project, quality begins to diminish because time and funds that should be allotted to complete approved project activities are spent on unapproved activities.

Progress Reports

One method to implement quality is to use progress reports. A progress report is simply a formal, informative method of summarizing the status of work completed. Typically, on longer projects, progress reports are essential for keeping a record of the work completed, and they make for handy references in the end phase of the project.

In regard to quality, the process of creating progress reports allows the project manager and the project team to ascertain where the team is on the project and the amount of work yet to do. It s a great way to visualize the progress the team has made so far and determine if the project is on track with the project vision.

Project sponsors and your project team s functional managers will typically want to see the progress reports, as it allows them to keep in tune with your ability to lead the team and manage the project. Upper management may not want to see these reports, as their time may be limited. These reports can be based on templates that allow you and the project team to quickly and accurately complete the progress report. There are four types of progress reports you ll use as a project manager:

Current Status Reports     These reports are quick news on the work completed, or not, since the last status report. For example, you may determine that status reports should be completed every two weeks. Within each two-week window are tasks that must be completed. This report will focus on the scheduled tasks and their status over the last two weeks.

If scheduled tasks were not completed, the report should clearly state why the work has lagged behind and what solution is offered to get the work back on schedule. Distribute this report to the project team and the project sponsor, and keep a hard copy in the project binder. These reports are excellent for record keeping and nudging the project team back on track.

Cumulative Reports     As its name implies, this report focuses on the work from the beginning of the project until the current date. Cumulative reports are excellent in long- term projects and should be created based on management s requests , at milestones within the project, or on a regular schedule such as every three months. Use these reports for looking back on the progress accomplished so far on the project. Information in this report should include:

  • Work completed

  • Lagging tasks and plans for recovering lost time

  • Significant accomplishments

  • Variances

  • Budget information

Management Summary Reports     Management summary reports detail the overall status of the project, changes from the original plan, change in execution, or cost variances within the budget. These reports are created on an as-needed basis and are ideal for upper management, as upper management does not have the time to read detailed reports to discover that everything on the project is going as planned. These reports are quick and to the point ”effective when sharing bad news. The purpose of these reports is a fast, honest way to summarize the project status so that management may keep the project in check.

Variance Reports     Variance reports are summaries of any variances within the project, mainly time and cost, but they can also be reports on scope variances. They require the project manager to evaluate the cumulative work against the original project implementation plan. The comparison of the two should indicate where the project is and where it is heading. These detailed, number-orientated reports are an ideal way of enforcing quality and keeping the project on track.

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From the Field

Interview with Greg Zimmerman

Name: Greg Zimmerman
Title and Certifications: Network Administrator, CCNA, CompTIA Network+
Organization: Minnesota Department of Transportation
Years as an IT project manager: 4

Greg Zimmerman is the systems administrator for the Office of Materials and Road Research, a division of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Greg is solely responsible for all aspects of technical projects at the Office of Materials and Road Research. Greg has a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse. He previously worked as an IT consultant.

Q: As a project manager, what is your definition of quality?

A: From my perspective, which is working on network projects, I define quality as reliability.

Q: How can a project manager work with each team member to ensure quality throughout the project?

A: To ensure quality throughout the project, there must be clear, decisive goals. Each member must understand what it takes to reach his goal and how his responsibilities within the project affect the project as a whole. The project manager must track and evaluate the process to see if the goals that each member has been assigned are being met. In other words, the project manger must manage the project and the people working on it.

Q: How can a project manager inspire the project team to impact quality on each phase of a long-term project?

A: By establishing clear, decisive goals and enforcing their establishment. Most projects that fail do so because there were never clear and decisive goals set in the beginning.

Q: What is most difficult part of enforcing quality?

A: The most difficult part of enforcing quality is scalability ”the ability to grow and evolve the project either during the project management process or after. The reason being is that so often a project manager's concentration is on the completed product, not what the product will be after it is completed. Poor project managers do not look beyond the constraints at hand nor do they look to the future and try to forecast future expectations or requirements.

Q: What processes should be in place so that a project manager may take a sampling of the work completed to ensure an ongoing commitment to quality?

A: There should be major goals set at the beginning of the project, and each of those major goals should be broken into subgoals.

Q: How does a project manager address a situation where a team member is lackadaisical about his duties ?

A: The project manager should immediately address the team member to rectify the problem. If the problems persist, then the team member should be excused from the project.

Q: What are attributes of a project manager who is committed to quality on each IT project she's involved with?

A: Good leadership, follow-through, determination, and resourcefulness.

Q: When a project manager is working with an IT integrator to complete an implementation, how does he address and ensure quality control issues?

A: By establishing expectations ahead of time. Enforcing preagreed expectations is simple. Trying to enforce uncommunicated expectations is an uphill battle.

Q: What role does the team play in quality control issues?

A: The team plays the biggest role in quality control issues. Their overall importance is the leading factor when it comes to quality control.

Q: If a project plan needs to be delayed, how does the project manager address this issue in regard to quality control?

A: Quality should never suffer to meet a deadline. I often have an agreement in place that states the deadline is always extended by the number of days that a project is delayed by forces not stemming from the project manager or team members .

Q: Can you share an experience of a project you've managed that required quality control and dedication to the project?

A: We did a hot swap of an entire 750-node network from hubs to switches with zero down time. The key ingredient was planning, planning, and more planning. Each new switch and router was thoroughly tested before it was implemented. This project took approximately 1000 man hours and four months to implement. The project was completely successful due to the planning and the establishment of goals at the beginning.

Q: Can you share an experience where a lack of quality severely impacted an organization?

A: I was running several projects when I was asked to take one more small one on. The project involved recabling a building with Category 5 cable and establishing new access points and patch panels. The vendor was very established, one I had worked with before. When the project was approximately fifty percent done (and on a Friday), I realized the vendor had not established the access points or the patch panels in the correct location. I stopped all work and stated that I needed it done as originally specified. The contractor stated that the only way to get the project done on time was to work all weekend long, including nights. Since it was my responsibility to see it through, I stayed with the contractor all weekend until the errors were corrected.

Q: What advice do you have for aspiring project managers?

A: Work for as many project managers as you can. You can learn from the bad ones as well as from the good ones. As a team member, look at situations the project manager is dealing with and ask yourself if you would handle the situations the same way the project manager did. If you wouldn't, ask yourself why not. If you would, ask yourself why.

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IT Project Management
IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Third Edition
ISBN: 0071700439
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 195

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