Quality Plan

Definition

The quality plan is the quality work product that documents all plans for performing quality engineering on an endeavor.

Objectives

The typical objectives of a quality plan are to formally document the endeavor’s:

• Quality policy, risks, and objectives.
• Quality work products to be produced.
• Plans for performing quality engineering tasks.
• Planned techniques for performing these tasks.
• Producer responsibilities for performing quality engineering tasks.
• Major issues and assumptions regarding quality engineering.

Benefits

The typical benefits of a quality plan include:

• The quality plan helps the customer organization to understand:
  • What work products will be developed and delivered.
  • What tasks and techniques will be used to ensure quality on the endeavor.
• The quality plan helps everyone on an endeavor understand their quality engineering responsibilities.

Contents

A quality plan typically has the following contents:

• Quality Engineering Overview:
  • Endeavor Quality Policy
  • Endeavor Quality Objectives
  • Endeavor Quality Risks
• Work Products:
  • Quality Plan
  • Audit Report
  • Process Inspection Checklist
  • Inspection Report
  • Inspection Summary Report
• Tasks:
  • Quality Needs Assessment
  • Quality Modeling
  • Quality Assurance
  • Quality Control
• Techniques:
  • Auditing
  • Demonstration
  • Desk Checking
  • Inspecting
  • Quality Metrics
  • Reviewing
  • Static Analysis
  • Testing
  • Walkthroughs
• Producer Responsibilities:
  • Quality Team
  • Endeavor Management Team
  • Process Team
  • Metrics Team
  • Requirements Team
  • Architecture Team
  • Inspection Teams
  • Development Organization
  • Customer Organization
  • User Organization
  • Quality Tools
• Appendices:
  • Major Issues
  • TBDs
  • Assumptions

Stakeholders

A quality plan typically has the following stakeholders:

• Producers:
  • Quality Team
• Evaluators:
  • Program Management Team
  • Project Management Team
• Approvers:
  • Program Manager or Project Manager
  • Technical Leader
• Maintainers:
  • Quality Team
• Users:
  • Program Management Team or Project Management Team, which uses the quality plan to understand how quality is to be ensured on the endeavor.
  • Program Team or Project Team, which uses the quality plan to understand their responsibilities for performing quality engineering.
  • Customer Representative, which uses the quality plan to understand how quality is to be ensured on the endeavor.

Phases

A quality plan is typically produced and maintained during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Business Optimization: Maintained
• Initiation: Completed
• Construction: Maintained
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Archived

Preconditions

A quality plan can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The endeavor has been started.
• The quality team has been adequately staffed and trained in quality planning.

Inputs

A quality plan typically has the following inputs:

• Work Products:
  • Contract
  • Statement of Work
  • Master Schedule
  • Risk Management Plan
  • Application Vision Statement
  • System Requirements Specification
  • System Architecture Document
• Stakeholders:
  • Customer Representative

Guidelines

• ISO 9000-3 calls the quality plan the quality manual.
• The quality plan is typically developed, refined, and updated at the same time as the management plan.
• The schedule of quality tasks can be found in the endeavor’s master schedule.
• The budget for the quality engineering activity can be found in the endeavor’s budget.
• Test planning information belongs in the project test plan rather than the quality plan.
• The quality plan should answer the following questions:
  • What should be the overall quality policy of the endeavor?
  • What should be the specific quality objectives of the endeavor?
  • What will be the most important risks the endeavor must face in meeting its product and process quality requirements?
  • What should be the quality work products? What documents, forms, reposts, and records should be produced? Where, how, and for how long should they be stored and maintained?
  • What should be the quality tasks and techniques? How should they be tailored to meet the specific needs of the endeavor?
  • What will be the teams and roles involved in the quality engineering effort? What should their quality responsibilities be? How will the quality team and its members collaborate with other teams and their members? Do more resources need to be allocated to achieve the required levels of quality? What specific training (if any) will they require to meet the endeavor’s quality objectives?
  • What quality tools (e.g., new equipment, instruments, software applications) will be needed? Are they available or Will they need to be acquired?
  • How will the endeavor’s other activities and tasks need to be improved to meet the quality objectives.
  • Does the endeavor’s standards for work product acceptability need to be improved?
• Make sure that all participating organization and teams have a chance to review the quality plan before it is implemented.
• As with most document work products, tailoring will consist of removing the unnecessary and cost ineffective parts, making modifications, and adding new parts.

Conventions

Quality plans are typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Work Flow
• Content and Format Standard
• MS Word Template
• XML Template
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Example Quality Plan