Quality

• Introduction
  • Purpose
  • Quality defined
• The PRINCE2 approach
• Quality planning
  • Overview
  • The customers quality expectations
  • Acceptance criteria
  • The Project Product Description
  • The Quality Management Strategy
  • Product Descriptions
  • The Quality Register
• Quality control
  • Overview
  • Quality methods
  • Quality records
  • Approval records
  • Acceptance records
• Responsibilities

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

The PRINCE2 approach

Quality planning

Product Descriptions

Once detailed planning gets underway, Product Descriptions should be created for all of the project’s products.
Product Descriptions are not optional.
They govern the development of the products and their subsequent review and approval.

The level of detail in a Product Description is a matter of judgement, with the primary aim being to select a level that provides a secure and appropriate measure of control sufficient to fulfil the customer’s quality expectations.

The content of a Product Description is described fully in the folder ‘Product Description outlines’ as part of the product package.

The ‘purpose’ section of the Product Description should clearly state who needs the product, why they need it and what it will do.
In addition to the ‘purpose’, the sections specific to quality are: quality criteria, quality tolerances, quality methods, quality skills required and quality responsibilities.
These define the quality controls that must be applied during product development and in the review and approval procedures for the completed product.

Care should be taken not to write Product Descriptions in too much detail.
They exist to help support the planning, development, quality and approval methods.
Product Descriptions that are too detailed can lead to an unnecessary increase in the cost of quality for the project.
Incomplete or inaccurate Product Descriptions can lead to acceptance disputes if the delivered results do not match the customer’s expectations.
Where necessary, the Product Description should reference supporting information, such as any applicable standards or specialist design documents.

The time needed to create good Product Descriptions will depend on factors such as how important, complex and unique the product is, how many stakeholders will review and approve the product, and whether the organization has a library of standard Product Descriptions for reuse.
Product Description libraries are frequently implemented by PRINCE2® users, to promote consistency and reuse.

The Product Description should include the quality specifications that the product must meet, and the quality measurements that will be applied by those inspecting the finished product.

The quality criteria should be of sufficient detail and clarity to enable those reviewing a product to unambiguously confirm whether the product meets its requirements.

Consider a project to design and manufacture a new camera.
One quality criterion is that the camera and its packaging must weigh no more than 1 kg.
The product breakdown structure identifies a user guide product.
It follows that the size and weight of the user guide is an important factor and not, for example, the number of pages.

Questions to be asked include:

• What is the target market for the camera?
• Does this also imply that the manual needs to be written in several languages?
• Will that mean it gets heavier?
• Or will a CD-ROM-based manual suffice?

This could reduce the weight of the manual and allow the camera itself to be heavier.

Considering quality criteria often highlights connections and factors such as these which inform the subsequent planning process.

Quality tolerances for a product can be specified in quality criteria by defining an acceptable range of values.
For example: ‘Is the duration of the presentation 30 minutes (plus or minus 5 minutes)?’, ‘Is temperature maintained in the range of 1 to 5°C?’

The quality methods section of the Product Description is used to specify the quality activities to be implemented during the development of a product, for review and approval on completion.
Where specialized skills are implicit in the quality methods, these should also be specified.
There are two primary types of quality methods: in-process methods and appraisal methods (see section covering ‘Quality methods’).

To avoid doubt, the quality responsibilities for a product should be specified.
The responsibilities will fall into one of three categories:

• Producer The person or group responsible for developing a product
• Reviewer(s) A person or group independent of the producer who assesses whether a product meets its requirements as defined in its Product Description
• Approver (s) The person or group, for example a Project Board, who is identified as qualified and authorized to approve a product as being complete and fit for purpose.

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.