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A Risk Based Approach to Project Quality
Course Description
Course Title
A Risk Based Approach to Project Quality
Overview
When delivering projects, quality is a cornerstone of success, enhancing benefit and satisfying stakeholder requirements. Conversely, without managing this key KPI, projects are unlikely to achieve their goals. Increasingly, a risk-based approach to project quality is being taken, as this tends to be more successful and a more efficient way to deliver. This highly practical course will guide delegates through a process for managing quality on a risk basis, thereby improving project outcomes, and advancing their own skills. Aimed at practising QA/QC staff at all levels, this course combines learning, practical examples, and student exercises to develop understanding and competence in this important area.
What You Will Learn from This Course:
• Why project quality matters
• Why a risk-based approach works
• How to identify, analyse and prioritise project quality risks
• How to build mitigation plans and related activities
• How to execute these plans successfully and integrate them into existing project quality measures
• How to implement a risk-based approach in a project for the first time
• Communication, reporting and review (including continuous improvement)
• Guidelines for effective assurance and governance of this approach
Why Should You Attend this Course?
Getting project quality right is critical to successful delivery, and we must also make sure that we use our limited resources effectively and efficiently whilst doing so. Projects have long realised the importance of this and have adopted a risk-based approach (as outlined in ISO9001:2015) as best practice. This course is for those in, or connected to, a project quality role, and who want to learn how to implement this method well.
Starting from an explanation of why this approach works, delegates will learn a repeatable process for implementing effectively. The course will guide attendees through each element, offering advice and explaining some of the tools and techniques that are available. The interactive and practical nature of the sessions will help to embed learning. Upon completion of the sessions, delegates will be well placed, not only to execute the process, but also to introduce it for the first time into a project and to explain it to project teams and stakeholders.
Because human factors, people skills, assurance and continuous improvement are key to successful deployment, these topics are also covered.
All of this means that delegates should emerge from the course with a high degree of knowledge and a good set of tools and practices to use and to apply to real-life project work.
The course is full of practical techniques and examples, with the intention of turning knowledge into practical benefit and the worked examples, case studies and exercises are intended to make applying the knowledge gained easier.
Finally, the instructor will include opportunities to discuss the real-world problems and issues and questions that are affecting delegates in their own projects and working lives, so that improvements and solutions can be implemented as soon as delegates return to their desks. Often, helpful advice can be gained from the experience of other delegates, and the course setting provides opportunities to do this.
Who Should Attend This Course?
• Project quality staff
• Project controls staff
• Project managers
• Project team members
• Project Management Office Staff
• Project sponsors
Outcome of this Course
By the end of this intensive course, attendees will be able to:
• Identify project quality risks, related mitigating actions and implement them successfully
• Introduce and manage a quality risk process into a project
• Audit and assure a project quality process
• Advise project managers, team members and other stakeholders on project quality risks
• Understand and cater for human factors in project quality risk
• Learn lessons from and implement continuous improvement to this process in their projects
Course Length
3 Days
Course Content
An interactive mix of lecture, case studies, group discussion and activities will be used to illustrate and apply the process and techniques described in the course. The following topics will be covered:
Introduction
• What we mean by projects
• Why project quality matters
• Why a risk-based approach to project quality works best
Quality Risk Process
• Overview of the process
• Preparation
• Identification
• Analysis and planning
• Execution
• Close out and review
Quality Risk Identification
• Existing information, data and records
• What to do when you have little data
• Gathering risks
• Human factors
• Tools and techniques
Analysis and Planning
• Judging severity
• Prioritisation and urgency
• Identifying activities – pre and post risk event, including escalation
• Building mitigation plans, including links to PQP, PMP, ITP etc
• Communication
• Tools and techniques
Execution
• Monitoring, reporting and control
• Communication
• Continuous review
• Tools and techniques
Close out and review
• Putting the process to bed
• Continuous improvement
Introducing a Risk-Based Approach
• Change management
• “Soft” skills and people factors
• Likely issues and opportunities
• “Target” projects
• Integration with existing quality (and project) activities
• Assurance, review, and improvement
Governance
• Audit and assurance
• Integrating into existing project governance structures
Case Studies
• Presentation of real-life examples and case studies of how project controls are deployed in a variety of projects
Practical Exercises
• Exercises, where delegates work in groups or teams to resolve fictitious and real-life project quality problems and situations
Summary and Next Steps
• Summary
• Things you can do next
• Reference Material
