CTV – Quality in Eu projects

Gianmaria Capuano© Progetto FIAF-CSVnet “Tanti per tutti. Viaggio nel volontariato italiano

Once you have an idea of the different concepts and pillars of your project it’s time to implement a project quality management plan, which is a document and a tool.

To do so you have to consider three tools.

Quality plan

First, identify the requirements for the quality of each deliverable and how the project needs to be managed to reach those requirements.

It’s really important to describe the quality standards of your deliverables and to do that with your team and your target group if possible. To properly analyze and ensure the quality expectations of the project are met, it is necessary to set concrete objectives that the project should meet. You have to set up a series of indicators to accomplish during the project period.

Indicators and targets

An indicator is a variable that is normally used as a benchmark for measuring program or project outputs. It is “that thing” that we have to look to evaluate if our project is going in the right direction and if it having the right impact. It is based on indicators that evidence can be built on the impact of any undertaking.

There could be two different types of indicators: qualitative and quantitative.

On the one hand, quantitative indicators are those measurable inputs that will allow you to analyze the quality of the project. These indicators will be accomplished during the whole duration of the project implementation. On the other hand, we can find qualitative indicators, which cannot be measured quantitatively but also reflect the quality levels of the project activities and products.

The plan will include these specifics as well as metrics for measuring the quality while managing the project. This should include a quality checklist to collect and organize the marks you need to hit during the project.

The quality plan includes all the processes which are important to ensure you deliver appropriate products. The contents of the quality plan need to be documented, agreed, and understood. The plan should include the following information:

• your quality goals and objectives,
• the approach and quality processes to be followed,
• quality standards by which the project will be measured,
• the quality-related activities to be performed,
• the quality tools you will use,
• the quality roles and responsibilities you will deploy.

This quality plan becomes the road map for how the quality standards will be achieved.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance can be defined as “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.” We have to assure the quality of our project with the different public, internally and externally.

Internally is the project team, externally refers to stakeholders, users and third parties.

Use quality assurance to make sure your processes are working towards making the project deliverables meet quality requirements. Two ways to accomplish this is by using a process checklist and a project audit.

Quality Control

To be sure and aware of the ongoing project is important to have control procedures, to speak, to share, to make sure that the rules are being followed and that the expected quality is being met. Some ways to ensure that the required quality of the deliverables is being achieved is through peer reviews and testing.

In a project, it is important to nominate someone responsible for this. The partner or the person reasonable for Quality control must keep track of the achievements and the possible delays. To perform the quality control quality plan and quality assurance are fundamental.

Quality is a goal but it’s also a process. It’s essential to check the quality of the deliverables during the project management process in order to adjust the deliverables if they’re not meeting the standards that have been set. This can be done at the end of the project, but it’s not as efficient to redo rather than to readjust.

Quality plan includes assurance that includes control.