PPQA Vs. VER

PPQA provides staff and management with objective insight into the performance and compliance of the defined process. E.g. Audits look into process adherence and process performance.

Verification ensures that the selected work products meet their specified requirements. E.g. Peer review of SRS ensures that all the details captured thru BRS are appropriately addressed in the requirement specs.

These two process areas address the same work product from different perspectives - PPQA from process perspective, and VER from the technical aspect.

Typical Audit Process

1. Prepare and publish the yearly audit calendar (in conslutation with project teams).
2. Publish quarterly audit schedule.
3. Issue audit notification to all relevant stakeholders and the final schedule (1 week prior to audits).
4. Review previous findings and check the project artifacts before the actual audit. Skim thru the VSS folders of each project looking out for discrepencies and note them down (Note down variations in naming conventions also).
5. Take printouts of audit checklist. (Always better to have a checklist for audit rather than a random non-focused check.)
6. Actual Audit

a. Check closure of previous NCs.
b. CM audit check (change requests, CI, )
c. Internal audit report check
d. Check against the organization process

1. Get the affirmation of auditees on the noted NCs.
2. Send the filled in checklist to auditees giving a scope to them to come back with their objections, if any.
3. Prepare audit report. Do a self review. Check for Process Area mappings.
4. Get the audit report peer reviewed.
5. Publish the audit report to project teams, delivery head, sponsor
6. Prepare and conduct follow up audits.
7. Conduct review with higher management once a month and report deviations in process.

PA Categories

Project Indicators

An indicator is a metric or combination of metrics that provide insight into the software processes, a software project, or the product itself. The insight helps the project manager or software engineers to adjust the process, the project and make it more efficient.

Project indicators enable a project manager to:

• Assess the status of an ongoing project
• Track potential risks
• Uncover problem areas before the go critical
• adjust workflows or tasks
• evaluate the project team’s ability to control the quality of software work products
  
  I made use of the following project indicators for my projects:

Process Institutionalization

Institutionalization is embedding a process within the organization as an established norm or practice. The process is ingrained in the way the work is performed and there is commitment and consistency to performing the process.

The degree of institutionalized is expressed by the names of Generic Goals. The following table gives an overview of institutionalization:

For a Level 2 organization (Staged representation), all projects have their own framework (derived from org-level policy) for carrying out the processes. But each one differs from the other. For a Level 3 Organization however, the processes are tailored from the organization’s QMS as per the defined tailoring standards. Institutionalization of a process is accomplished at Level 3.

At level 4, only special causes of variations are addressed, while at level 5 even common causes of variations are addressed.