PRINCE2 quality management strategy

I have spend the past months working in an organization that utilizes PRINCE2 as driver for the projects run. One of the products I have been working with is the Quality Management Strategy (QMS), an essential work product that defines how to approach quality in a project.

The QMS describes how the quality management systems of the participating organizations will be applied to the project and confirms any quality standards, procedures, techniques and tools that will be used. Sounds easy enough, but requires a little thought to ensure proper level of information to ensure that quality is manageable in the project.

The QMS is created as part of the project initiation, and continues to be updates throughout the project. It contains the following:

Quality management procedures for planning and control. Tools and techniques, including records and reporting. Quality management activities, covering dependencies, roles and responsibilities.

During my short time working with the QMS work product, I have made the following conclusions:

• Gold-plating your QM will cost you a lot – Make sure that you set your target at fit project purpose and scope. Make sure that scale and tailoring of standards is described. You might not need everything related to quality that you can find on the corporate intranet. Less is more – too little is a problem.

• Project quality is about customer happiness and satisfaction, meaning that you need a lead on those acceptance criterias and definitions that tells if product is fit for purpose. Furthermore you need to think about how to get input from the customers.

• Remember that PRINCE2 is about learning, meaning that you should have some focus on improving described processes and tools, based on the observations and learning you experience in your project. These activities needs a place in QMS.

Happy testing!

/Nicolai