Quality processes - How to build quality into project deliverables
Do not let unrealistic time frames or sales pitch rhetoric force you into a high risk, careerimpacting
situation. Give honest answers to the following questions:
- What was the basis for the executives' deadline for your project?
- Did you have input to the date?
- If the date is firm due to regulatory or SEC requirements, what can be done to meet the
Requirements while not necessarily completing every aspect of the project? Often you can
deliver specific functionality to meet such dates and then go on to deliver the remaining
functionality.
- How will your consultant/contractor help you meet the required date? Do they have a track
record of meeting schedules with other clients?
- Have you done a detailed implementation plan that clearly defines all deliverables and
milestones for all participants?
- How much work needs to be done with the end user work processes to fully leverage the new
technology functionality? How much change management and training will be required to
implement the streamlined processes?
- Have you done a risk identification and mitigation exercise?
Vendor products always need to be tested for your specific configuration in your specific
environment. Demonstrations and prototypes are well suited to test concepts, prove suitability,
and to educate the project team and end users; however, production systems are the lifeblood of
an organization and must be thoroughly tested to ensure that critical business process and
services are not adversely impacted.
An advantage of thorough production readiness testing is that it is an opportunity to get the end
users involved in a manner that facilitates taking ownership.
What needs to be done?
Quality processes are really just a matter of having people take responsibility and be actively
involved. The first step to success is to incorporate the following quality process characteristics
into your project:
- Quality processes are used for the entire project lifecycle, from requirements gathering through acceptance testing and training of end users.
- Requirements gathering is based upon end user work processes (as envisioned to be improved and enabled by technology).
- End user work process improvements are defined using a methodology that is facilitated
by subject matter experts who can present detail level straw man best practices for each end user process rather than an approach that starts with a clean sheet of paper. When and
where possible, actual demonstrations of the end result of a GIS systems integration is a
very powerful and fast way to educate end users and help them to visualize the final
improved end processes. System integrators and consultants should be using these
demonstrations as a tool to move through the business process modeling exercise in an
efficient manner.
- Work process improvement sign-off based upon review sessions that are held with a
reasonable cross section of the organization (different regions and districts; i.e., rural
areas as well as urban areas) and where employee feedback is solicited.
- Clear definition and sign-off on acceptance criteria based upon use cases.
- Quality processes must involve everyone in the organization as well as consultants and
contractors. If your consultant/contractor has a quality plan, make certain that you review and
approve it. If they do not have a documented quality plan, then contractually bind them to
adopt yours.
- Kiss and make up - quality processes cannot be held hostage to internal politics. The
executive sponsor and steering committee must be committed to quality and must
communicate it to the organization. Involve an IT technical manager as soon as possible and
realize that everyone has to contribute to an enterprise level project.
- The project must have a clear definition and documentation of quality in the context of the
work to be done and the final deliverable products.
Top level checklist to implement quality processes for GIS systems integration projects
The following checklist is meant to be a guide for implementing quality processes. The extent to
which each item is implemented may vary from project to project; however, none of the steps
shown can be eliminated or bypassed without significantly increasing the risk to your project.
- Define quality for the project.
The following definitions are required for establishing a quality process:
- Project organization Quality Positions and Quality Policies
- Quality Procedures that will be used to control quality
- Quality Audits that will be used to ensure that the Quality Processes are being followed
- Quality Metrics to determine the effectiveness of the Quality Processes
- Recommended Quality Positions
The following positions are required to effectively implement a quality process for a GIS
systems integration project:
- Executive Sponsor and Steering Committee
- Project Director*
- Project Manager*
- Project Administrator
- Business Process Owners
- Team Members
*Separate positions will not be required for smaller projects
- Recommended Quality Policies
Quality starts at the top of an organization with a policy that emphasizes the importance of
quality processes, the fact that quality is everyone's responsibility, and a statement that
employees are encouraged to bring quality concerns and issues forward. It should also clearly
state that employees who report quality issues will not be reprimanded for doing so.
- Quality Procedures
It is important to have a quality process diagram showing the steps in the process and their
interrelationships. At a high level, the quality process begins with the creation of a Project
Charter that defines the vision and objectives for the project and proceeds through the final
testing and acceptance and finally the training and organizational change management tasks
to deploy the new system to all of the targeted end users. Ideally the quality process should
then continue into the support and maintenance phase of the system's lifecycle.
It is also important to conduct periodic audits of project procedures to ensure that quality
processes are being followed. We suggest that you consider bringing in an outside consultant
to perform this task, and as a client you should also be prepared to audit your consultant or
contractor to verify that the agreed upon quality processes are being adhered to. We
recommend that the initial audit(s) be conducted between three and six months, and that a
subsequent audit be performed on an annual basis.
