Ten QA Tips for Project Managers

Quality Assurance is the process concerned with monitoring the quality of all aspects of a project so that the final product fulfils all requirements. So QA is performed before the product is finished – it is an essential part of project management and one of the factors that will determine whether the project is a success or not. It can be a separate role from that of project manager but very often QA is just another one of those hats that the project manager wears from time-to-time.

Note that Quality Control is concerned with the quality of the finished product so is focussed on whether a product meets the original specifications and any additional guidelines for a particular type of product – essentially whether it is fit for purpose.

But let's just focus here on some tips about how to ensure your QA processes are adequate and that they will add benefit to your project rather than just be another bureaucratic procedure to be completed. Remember QA is not designed to keep the auditors happy but to help make the project a success.

1.      Get involved in the change management process to assess any quality issues with incorporating changes.

2.      Ensure that all changes to specifications are approved – a list of approvers should have been included in all original documentation

3.      Update project documentation with approved changes and distribute to all stakeholders using the communication plan to determine how and to whom the updates should be sent.

4.      Elicit feedback from stakeholders about the adequacy of the reporting from the project manager and/or team.

5.      Perform regular quality audits and document any potential quality problems.

6.      Where differences exist between what was expected and what was delivered or performed (from any task or process) try to determine and document the cause of the discrepancy.

7.      Manage the preparation of test environments and documentation of test cases.

8.      Ensure expected test results are fully documented.

9.      Ensure test results are reported to stakeholders and approved by them.

10.  Report all problems with test cases and test results to approvers and stakeholders.

The Yin and Yang of Project Management

Project management can sometimes seem to be a job of opposites - sometimes sitting in front of your screen preparing project plans, documentation and reports. But at other times you’re out and about sorting out problems that could impact the project’s success or diplomatically resolving personality clashes that could lead to a crisis. And whether you're documenting aspects of the project or fire-fighting problems it never seems to be easy. But then you probably wouldn't want to do the job if it was. 

Part of what makes project management interesting is the challenges it always seems to throw up. And part of what makes a successful project manager is being able to deal with the challenges whether they are related to the budget, scope, schedule, people or project documentation.
A project manager must be all things to all people. You can't be successful as a project manager if you are only effective at the scheduling and budgeting and not good at dealing with people on a personal level or convincing others of the benefits of the project.

Yin and yang are opposite forces that are both interconnected and interdependent, and, therefore, complementary. Everything has both yin and yang aspects - light and dark, female and male - and one cannot exist without the other; but either aspect can be more or less prominent. In a project manager it is the balance of the yin and yang that determines how they handle aspects of a project such as change, risk and individual people on the project team.

So nurture both sides of your personality to obtain the perfect balance of yin and yang and develop your project management skills to a level that will ensure success.

·         Build collaborative teams

·         Develop a supportive working environment

·         Encourage professional growth

·         Deliver first-class products

·         Accept that mistakes can be made (and move on without blame)

·         Foster a can-do attitude

·         Communicate authoritatively and concisely

Read more about the attributes of male and female project managers in these articles:

"Do Men make the best project managers?"
"Do Women make the best project managers?"

And if you are still in doubt undertake some training on one of the very best project management courses in a recognised methodology such as PMP, PRINCE2 or APMP.

The importance of end-users in IT Projects

I met up with an old colleague recently who I worked with when we were both IT Project Managers for a large blue-chip corporation. Our conversation got me thinking about how often the opinions of end-users in IT projects are dismissed as of little importance or, worse, ignored completely. The stakeholders, senior management, project manager, suppliers and vendors all have a voice in IT projects – they can articulate their needs and requirements and their opinions are duly noted and acted on because of their importance within the organisation and within the project hierarchy.

And yet it is the end-user who will be using a new software system on a daily basis. It is the end-user who knows and understands the data in the legacy system, who knows how to work around problems with the current system and understands how to get their job done quickly and efficiently. So why don't more project managers take more notice of the comments and concerns of this important group?

Is it that the group itself does not believe their opinions carry any weight and, therefore, do not speak up when given the opportunity to do so. Is it that they are never fully involved in the project and so don't have the opportunity to speak up? Whatever the reasons might be, don't ignore users' concerns and comments throughout the project. In my experience it is often the user who can identify a potential problem before it happens.

If it is proving difficult to get feedback from the everyday user of a system then it is in the interests of the project manager to elicit that information by the best means possible. There are many approaches to obtaining feedback from users. Informal brainstorming sessions, formal meetings and questionnaires all may work well for different projects and different individuals. The best project management training courses will suggest other ideas for gleaning the information you need to ensure the new system delivered can actually be used effectively from day one and hence make your project a success.

I have personally found that cultivating a good personal relationship with key users is the best way to do this. Talk to them informally and on a personal level about their concerns – perhaps at a casual lunch or over coffee. Find out what their day-to-day tasks are now (on the existing system) and understand what they do. I have often shadowed a key user for their typical working day – it can be hugely revealing and throw up information that is almost impossible to find out in a more formal session.

So involve key users from the outset of the project. This is particularly important if a legacy system is being replaced with new technology or software to ensure the wealth of information in the existing database is not lost through incorrect handling. Data conversion can be a huge stumbling block if not done properly – I know of new IT systems that have been implemented without the full suite of data required for the users to perform their jobs. These are new IT systems that looked good, went live on time, had all the required features but the databases were incomplete so the systems were effectively useless. This sort of project will always have a poor reputation even if the problems with the data are quickly rectified.

I have also found that in many IT projects the most resistant user to the new technology can become the greatest advocate given the right involvement, training, encouragement and a good deal of hand-holding. The benefits of this effort on the part of the project manager are enormous. The chances of a highly successful project are much greater, the "reputation" of the software is immediately a good one, as soon as it goes live. And we all know it is much easier to get people to accept a few faults in an otherwise good system than to rescue the reputation of a system that starts off badly.

So learn from previous project problems and failures, take the advice of more experienced project managers and ensure you attend one of the professional project management courses available but never ignore the comments and concerns of the end-users in IT projects. You do so at your peril.

Project Success in Doubt

So you have brought your project in on-budget, on-time and it meets the requirements as documented and approved by the stakeholders. But the end-users are not happy and do not consider the project to be successful. The business department for which the project was carried out will now only sign-off the project if a new plan is put in place to add a whole series of enhancements to the original project.

You are probably asking yourself how did this happen? It could just be that that's life, stuff like this happens and there is nothing you can do about it. But stop right there, a simple solution may be close at hand.

There are many reasons why end-users may not be satisfied with a project that seems to be a success on paper. The most common ones are:

• Poorly defined Business Requirements
• Lack of involvement of key people
• Business imperative pushing through a pre-determined but unrealistic deadline
• Poor communication between all involved parties throughout the project
• No prototype
• Lack of, or poor, training on the new system/process
• Human resistance to change

If you are a project manager and have ever been in this situation, or fear you might be soon, then I would recommend that you look first at training and resistance to change. These are areas that can be rectified fairly easily and may resolve the problem. The simplest and most effective way to do this is to speak to the people who are the end-users.

Let's take as an example a project that involved delivering a new software system for administrative staff in a multinational corporation. Previously they had been using their own local versions of software developed over many years that very specifically targeted and met their local needs. But the global heads of the corporation wanted all their reports to look the same and present data in the same way so a new, common system has been introduced with this aim.

Each local department now feels they haven't quite got a system as good as the one they used to have. They're probably right from their perspective but from the perspective of the "powers that be" the project is a great success.

But your reputation is at stake if the system gets a bad reputation in the early stages of implementation so you need to do something about it.

So talk to the users and find out specifically what their gripes are. A little bit of hand-holding and encouragement may be all that is needed. If not, you will have a better idea of the enhanced requirements to ensure the system is eventually accepted. Very often, in my experience as a project manager the people given my time and attention in the early stages of implementation became great advocates of the new systems and even became "expert users" over time.

Good communication with all parties involved in a project is vital to a project's success, which I have said many times before. But I still regularly hear about projects in difficulty when simple, honest, face-to-face communication would have prevented the problems arising in the first place. So never underestimate its importance and if you get to go on some project management courses in the near future take a special note of the tips and techniques they will teach you about the importance of communication in a project environment and strategies such as SWOT analysis that will help you to make better decisions on future projects to prevent the same situation arising again.