Lesson 16: Quality, Part 1

Welcome back! This is the first lesson about the ‘Quality’ theme. This theme is covered in five lessons.

Based on AXELOS PRINCE2^® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights reserved.
Note: PRINCE2 2017 edition is now called PRINCE2 6th edition.

00:06 – Hi, and you’re very welcome to the morning show on PRINCE2 TV with your hosts Frank and Nader.
00:12 – Nader, okay. So welcome to the Quality Theme.
00:18 – As usual, we will ask many scenario-based questions on the way, Nader will give a comment, and just a reminder again, I’ll say this a couple of more times, please stop the video and use the manual if you don’t know the answer because it’s a good practice to start using the manual to look up different things.
00:34 – So, starting with the first question and it’s a principle question.
00:38 – So, which principle do you think best supports the Quality Theme and why?
00:44 – Nader? Which principle do you think?
00:48 – Okay. What I usually have in mind is that in order to understand what we’re going to create, when we are thinking about the product Yeah.
00:59 – We need to think about the scope of the product and the quality.
01:04 – The two of them together define what the product is about. Yeah, together, correct.
01:09 – Yeah. So quality has a lot to do with the product and therefore maybe a good answer to your question is the Focus on Product principles principle.
01:21 – Yeah, okay. You’ll make a good detective, I think.
01:25 – Yeah, and where is quality defined then? So, the quality defined is in?
01:30 – Well, we have it in the product descriptions. Product descriptions.
01:34 – First in the Project Product Description and then in the smaller product descriptions. Yeah.
01:38 – Also, we have some information in other things.
01:41 – For example, Quality Management Approach. Do we have such a thing?
01:44 – Okay. Yeah, I have got a few questions on that, so we can wait for that.
01:48 – So, correct, yeah. So the principle that best supports the Quality Theme is the principle Focus on Quality and Focus on Products. Focus on Products, sorry, Focus on Products, and the Project Product Description, which is the main product description, it includes such things as customer quality expectations and acceptance criteria.
02:08 – That’s the two sections, and then in the product descriptions, we have what we call the quality criteria.
02:14 – We’ll mention that a couple of times during the meeting or during this video.
02:19 – Now, scenario. The Project Manager wants to tailor quality, so they start off by tailoring quality in the IP process as this is where the products are started.
02:30 – So they really want to start with quality in the Initiation Stage.
02:36 – Is this appropriate for them to do?
02:38 – That’s a little bit too late because in the Starting Up a Project process, we want to understand if it makes sense to do the project and to do that, we need to understand what type of product we’re going to create, and to understand that,we need to have some information about quality, which is the Project Product Description.
02:56 – So it has to be done starting from the Starting Up a Project process.
02:59 – That’s the quality activities I mean, but you also mentioned tailoring. Yeah.
03:03 – I’m not sure if I understand that part because tailoring is mainly done in the Initiation process.
03:08 – I just wanted to throw you off to say that they want to shift things around a little bit, so I mean that’s the type of question that you can get, you know, they will mention tailoring to try to get you thinking in one direction, but the answer is in a different direction.
03:23 – So, yeah, I was trying to prime you or anchor you in the wrong direction, but you got me.
03:27 – So, yeah, so quality planning actually starts, even though it has the word planning in it, it starts in the SU process, Starting Up a Project process, and it starts with the main product description and again it includes the customer quality expectations and the acceptance criteria.
03:42 – So when you pull out or extract that information from the users, that’s actually what you’re doing.
03:47 – You’re working on the quality, and just maybe one more thing, the main product description is our first idea of scope as well.
03:55 – That gives the first idea of the scope of the project.
03:59 – Alright, now let’s take a look at how Quality Assurance can help with the project management role.
04:04 – So, we have a scenario where the Executive wants the Quality Assurance role to be more responsible for quality in the project.
04:13 – So they want them to check the quality of the project product description as they have good experience with quality. Is this an appropriate thing to do?
04:24 – Okay. Well, first of all, Quality Assurance is recommended to be outside the project borders, but it still works does something inside the project, but what I have in mind about Quality Assurance is that it’s mainly focused on the processes, the way we are doing things, not the exact content that we are creating. Yes, correct.
04:49 – But I’m not sure You’re right. Yeah. Okay.
04:53 – Again, I tried to catch you out.
04:55 – So the Quality Assurance role is more focused on the process, so are we following the standards and policies correct in the procedure?
05:04 – So what does that mean? Well, it means are we doing risk management properly.
05:08 – Are we using the guidelines from the company in doing risk management?
05:12 – Are we keeping … or do we have a Business Case? Are we keeping the Business Case up-to-date?
05:16 – So it’s got nothing to do with the quality of the product itself, but more of the processes that we are using to run the project.
05:23 – Yeah. Not directly with the quality of the product. No, no.
05:26 – But indirectly, it impacts it, for example, with the risk management and the rest. Correct, yes.
05:30 – Okay, good. Now, the Executive the next question, the Executive has reviewed the Quality Management Approach document, that’s the other one of the other approach documents, and they have reviewed the section the Project’s Approach to Quality Control, and they say, “Okay, that’s okay,” and they have reviewed the section Project’s Approach to Project Assurance and they said, “That’s not okay,” and they want that to be removed from the Quality Management Approach document.
05:59 – Is that a good idea or not? And this is where …
06:02 – have a look in the Product Description for this document as well.
06:08 – In the Product Description? Yeah, of this document in the appendix of the manual. Oh, okay, okay.
06:15 – Again, this is a typical type of a question to see if you understand which sections belong to which document and what should be in there and not.
06:24 – So the question was again is there’s a section called the Project’s Approach to Project Assurance and should that be in the document or not? The Executive says no.
06:34 – One thing that I have in mind is that since Quality Assurance is recommended to be outside the project borders than the organization level, then we don’t need it in the Management Approach.
06:47 – On the other hand, it is recommended to be outside the project, but if you want to have it inside the project, then we have to document the processes somewhere.
06:56 – Somewhere, yeah. Good. That’s good, yeah. Correct.
07:00 – So yes, this section actually should be in the QMA document.
07:04 – It should not be removed and again you will see that in the manual.
07:09 – So, the QMA document or Quality Management Approach document should also include how management of quality is communicated to the rest of the project and the roles and responsibilities for quality management as well.
07:24 – The next scenario is when the Executive advises on a new project, that the customer’s acceptance criteria should be defined in the QMA approach document and signed off by the Project Board because this is an important criteria for the handing over of the project at the end, which seems like a good idea.
07:44 – Is that a good idea or not? It’s a good idea to document it, but as far as I remember, the right place for it is the Project Product Description, isn’t it? Yeah, exactly, but I’m trying to catch you out, as you can see, but you’re not falling for my tricks.
07:59 – Oh, that’s good because as you may have realized, I don’t like quality management and I’m not comfortable here. Yeah.
08:05 – No, really. You’re doing pretty good so far.
08:07 – That’s not my favorite thing in project management.
08:10 – But again, that’s an important a good example of the kind of question because the question will direct you to think that, yes, it’s a good idea but it’s actually not.
08:21 – So, I tried to put you in the wrong direction.
08:23 – So the customer’s quality expectations criteria is in the Project Product Description, the main product description, and the QMA is more focused on the quality approach that should be carried out during the project, but not on the quality checking itself. That’s a good hint actually.
08:42 – The management approaches are about the way we are going to work, mainly but not entirely unfortunately.
08:47 – My idea is that they should all be purely about the way we work, but for communications, for example, it’s combined a little bit with the content, but in general, the content is separate from the way we are going to extract …
09:01 – to identify the content or do the controls, do the monitoring.
09:06 – Ideally, when we do it like that, then the approach will be documented in a separate document.
09:12 – Yeah. Maybe just one more comment on the Quality Management Approach document.
09:17 – PRINCE2 says that all these approach documents are created in the Initiation Stage and that’s partly correct, but what the Project Manager will actually do is he’ll just ask for these templates and just pull them into his project and he’ll just follow the same guidelines for quality and risk as every other project without too much change.
09:36 – The only approach document of those four at the beginning that will be changed a bit is the communications one.
09:42 – That’s because the stakeholder analysis will be different for every project.
09:46 – That’s because it’s not purely about the approach. Voila! Exactly.
09:50 – That’s the previous thing that I mentioned and my idea is that it must be made pure. Yeah.
09:56 – We should separate the approach from the content, from the information about the stakeholders, that’s my idea, but thats even not like that in the PMBOK guide.
10:08 – In the past, they were a lot combined in all documents. Now, they are Separated. Maybe 90% separation, but not complete separation, but there we have way more than this, the number of quality management approaches.
10:27 – They are called management plans in the PMBOK guide.
10:30 – I think there are 13 of them.
10:33 – So, one way for people who want to use PRINCE2 in their projects is to take a look at the PMBOK guide, see if they want to add more management approaches to their project.
10:42 – Alright. But you don’t need to do that to pass the exam.
10:45 – You do that if you want to learn more about quality in the future.
10:49 – I think we’ve got time for one more. Okay.
10:51 – So the next scenario is the Project Manager uses the Quality Register to help plan quality checks, but not for quality results. Is that a good idea for them to do? Is that appropriate?
11:04 – That’s a register. That’s mainly for tracking. Yeah.
11:07 – Initially when we add the we form it, the records and the fields, well, that’s a type of planning maybe if you would like, but the main purpose is to track what’s happening.
11:24 – Okay. I like what you said about the register. It’s a tracking device.
11:29 – Yeah. All registers are. It’s a good way to look at registers, yeah, it’s a good reminder.
11:33 – Okay, yes. So, a Quality Register provides I forgot the name for a second a Quality Register provides an overview of actually all quality management activities or the majority of them or almost all.
11:49 – The Quality Register then is used for three different things.
11:51 – It’s used to plan quality, control quality, and at the end of the project, it can actually provide a whole history of all the quality activities.
12:00 – So, just remember it does three things, but now I think it’s …
12:05 – What if the quality activity is very small, simple, and not so important?
12:11 – Doesn’t it go to the Daily Log? Like what we do with issues and risk.
12:16 – I don’t know, I’m just asking.
12:19 – I’ve never considered a quality activity going into the Daily Log.
12:23 – If it’s a small issue, of course, like the example you’re using, I suppose, yes, Daily Log of the quality activity, that’s affecting the product, so you have to ask is it formal or informal. So if it’s a quality issue, I would say that will be formal rather than an informal quality issue, I don’t understand, yeah.
12:42 – Maybe there’s a case, but I cannot think of anything. Okay.
12:45 – However, let’s talk about that over coffee. Yeah. Good. See you later.

We’ll continue the Quality theme in the next lesson.

Scenarios/questions we’ve discussed in this lesson

Which principle do you think best supports the Quality theme, and why?
Scenario: A PM wishes to tailor how quality will be achieved in a project and they wish to start quality planning in the IP process as the products are described in this process. Is this appropriate?
Scenario: An executive of a project makes a request that the quality assurance role in the project is responsible for checking the quality of the main project product once it is delivered as they have good quality experience. Is this appropriate?
Scenario: An executive reviews the quality management approach document and asks the PM to remove the section “Project’s Approach to Project Assurance,” as it does not belong in that document. Is this correct?
Scenario: An executive reviews the Quality Management Approach document and gives the following advice: “The section ‘Customer’s Acceptance Criteria’ should be defined in the Quality Management Approach and signed off by the project board.” Is this correct?
Scenario: During a project, a PM uses the quality requester to help plan quality checks and not just as a place to store the results of a quality test. Is this appropriate?

Lesson 16: Quality, Part 1

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