Assessment 3: Quality Plan Analysis & Quality Assurance Plan

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Complete a quality plan analysis of a failed project and a new quality assurance plan for the turnaround project.

This portfolio work project, quality analysis and assurance evaluation, is based on your selected business or IT project. You may choose to base your assessment on the Revive LLC case study for the development of a new online employee orientation module, or you may continue to base it on a company of your choice. Both human resource (HR) and information technology (IT) employees, as well as contractors, will be utilized in this project.

Project quality management is defined “as a methodology that includes the processes for incorporating the organizations’ quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements, in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations” (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 717).

The quality management plan describes how the project team will implement quality policies to meet project requirements and satisfy the customers’ needs and expectations. A project plan usually includes a quality statement. This document deals with quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control through testing and continuous improvement of the project processes and the project deliverables. If the organization has a PMO and IT governance, a project needs to follow the basic framework and structure specified for all IT-related activities and projects in that organization. Since quality planning is one of the key facilitating processes in the project planning process, it must be performed as planned and in parallel with other planning processes.

The term quality can assume different meanings, depending on the circumstances in which it is applied. For example, as a customer, your quality requirements may be different from that of the product or service provider.

Reference

Project Management Institute. Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Sixth Edition and Agile Practice Guide. Newtown Square. PA. 2017.

Scenario

For this assessment, choose either Option A or Option B. You do not need to do both. Both options will be graded using the same scoring guide.

Option A: Project Revive LLC is a consulting firm of highly charged and accomplished project managers whose main stream of revenue comes from managing the turnaround of failing projects. As a consultant with Project Revive LLC, you will study, analyze, and manage a failed project from NearlyFree.com. NearlyFree.com is a fictitious company and the project documents for NearlyFree.com project scenario are located below. The NearlyFree.com project was originally scoped to develop and deploy an automated web-based training system for new employees to reduce the workload and cut down personnel resources required to complete the new employee orientation (NEO) training.

Your analysis of the failed new employee orientation (NEO) project continues by examining the project with respect to quality.

Option A Resources:

Option B: You may choose a business of your own. It must include (but is not limited to) the following criteria:

  • Clearly indicate the title of the project in every assessment.
  • You must have access to the following documentation:
    • Scope statement.
    • Final deliverable and product definition.
    • Project work breakdown structure.
    • Project schedule.
    • Quality plan.
    • Project costs (estimates and actuals).

Your Role

For both Option A or B, you are the project manager.

Requirements

Microsoft Project is the recommended software tool for this course due to its wide industry acceptance and its use in many project management professional roles. To make this easier, you have the ability to download and install your own version of MS Project for use in this course. See the Software Preparation and Technology Access activity in Assessment 1 for more information.

Practice using MS Project in this course will prepare you for future professional PM roles and responsibilities; please use MS Project for those tasks supported by MS Project. If you have access to other tools such as MS Visio, MS PowerPoint, MS Word, or other project management software that you believe may still meet the requirements of this course, please discuss your selected alternative with faculty.

Use the PMBOK® Guide as the model for developing the deliverables.

Part 1: Quality Plan Analysis

Deliverable: Complete a quality plan analysis of a failed project.

Analyze the approach used in the original project quality management plan and determine how well the final project deliverable met stakeholder expectations. Assess the organizational structure and influences of the company to determine if additional project requirements are needed to improve the quality of the final deliverable or final product.

Complete the following tasks and discuss how each one will contribute to a successful project. Where necessary, define assumptions you made.

Analyze the quality assurance plan of the failed project by:

  • Evaluating quality standards defined for the failed project.
  • Analyzing the product quality using the selected quality standards.
  • Recommending additional quality standards for the project.
Part 2: Quality Assurance Plan

Deliverable: Develop a new quality assurance plan for the turnaround project.

From your experience, you already know the value of a comprehensive quality assurance plan. To convince the NearlyFree.com management that the NEO project turnaround will be successful. As part of the turnaround plan:

  • Prepare a cost of quality (COQ) analysis using a common method to classify cost.
  • Develop a new quality assurance plan for both planned and systematic activities.
    • Explain how the quality assurance plan supports project quality.
    • Consider its impact throughout the project.

Preparation

Use the software of your choice to develop the deliverables for this assessment.

This assessment has two deliverables:

  1. Develop a comprehensive Project Quality Analysis report.
  2. Develop a comprehensive Project Quality Assurance report.

Deliverable Format

  • References: There is no set number of references required for this assessment. Use scholarly or academic sources where applicable.
  • Format:
    • Microsoft Project is not required for this assessment. This assessment has two parts and two deliverables.
    • Use your choice of MS Word, MS Visio, or MS PowerPoint to develop the comprehensive analyses
    • These analyses are professional documents and should therefore follow the corresponding Academic and Professional Document Guidelines [PDF], including single-spaced paragraphs.
    • Use APA style and format for references and in-text citations.

Evaluation

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:

  • Competency 3: Apply project quality tools and techniques to ensure project success.
    • Analyze quality standards of a failed project.
    • Analyze the product quality using the selected quality standards.
    • Recommend additional quality standards for the turnaround project.
    • Analyze the quality assurance plan for a failed project.
    • Develop a new quality assurance plan for planned and systematic activities
  • Competency 4: Communicate effectively in a professional manner consistent with he standards of project management.
    • Prepare a cost of quality (COQ) analysis.

Faculty will use the scoring guide to review your deliverable as if they were your immediate supervisor. Review the scoring guide prior to developing and submitting your assessment.

ePortfolio

This portfolio work project demonstrates your competency in applying knowledge and skills required in the workplace. Include this in your personal ePortfolio.