The PRINCE2 Quality Review Technique

 

When checking the quality of a product, there are many ways in which this can occur in determining the products fitness for purpose. These include independent expert checking, peer and gateway reviews, quality checking and testing.

 

Within PRINCE2 there is a quality review technique that is based upon a team review, and it is particularly effective when reviewing products such as documents.  There are 4 review team roles and three basic steps. 

 

This is of course only refers to the method used for quality checking, all other aspects of product development will still be used, for example the use of the Quality Register, Work packages, and Product Descriptions.

 

The objectives of the quality review technique is to assess that the product conforms against set criteria, and to involve key interested parties in the checking of the products quality and in doing so promote wider acceptance of the product.

 

The review team consists of the Chair who conducts the review, the Presenter who represents the producers of the product and tracks the work after the review, and the Administrator role who records the results and actions.  

 

The choice of who fills these roles will vary, but teambuilding benefits can be had by encouraging the project and team managers to chair the reviews.

 

The first step is the review preparation.  The product should be checked that it is ready for review and copies distributed to the review team.  The product is now reviewed against its quality criteria in the associated product description, and a Question List created to capture the results of the review.

 

The next step is the review meeting itself.  After introductions and general questions, the presenter will walk through the product and review the question list from the previous step.  The objective here is to clarify and agree actions on each question as it is raised, and the administrator will record it.  

 

The Chair will review the result and the team must be led to a collective decision which can be one of the following: complete (the product has met its quality criteria), conditionally complete (the product is fit for purpose after the actions had been implemented), or incomplete (the product requires another quality review cycle).

 

The final step is called the review follow up. Here is where the individual actions are signed off and the Chair acknowledges that the product is now complete.  The Chair will now communicate the quality review outcome via the Administrator who will then store the quality records, and the presenter will request approval for the product.

 

Irrespective of the method of quality checking, there are three types of quality related records.

 

The Quality Register.  This will be updated to show the current status of all quality checking activities, and ensures that the products are complete, have met their quality criteria, that agreed processes have been observed, and appropriate approval authorities are satisfied.

 

During the project and project closure, the quality records provide a valuable source of information and can be used as an input to the lessons learned by capturing defect types and trends.

 

Approval records.  Quality records show that each product has met its quality requirements but it is good practice to also obtain a record that the product has been approved.  PRINCE2 does not specify the format or composition of such records.

 

Acceptance records.  Some projects may be providing a phased delivery where ownership of products are transferred during or at the end of management stage.  But these are always used during the Closing a Project process, and will be used to acknowledge acceptance and hence ultimate approval of the project’s product.  

 

Where concessions have been granted by the project board, it may be necessary to recommend follow on actions for later improvements or corrections for the products concerned.

 

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