Reference no: EM132298592

Implement quality assurance processes for business solutions

Assessment Objectives

• plan and implement appropriate processes and procedures to ensure quality expectations are met
• constructs quality standards that can be measured quantitatively and applied universally
• document quality assurance standards
• monitor and review quality assurance standards and processes.

Assessment - Scenario

ABC is a privately-owned company. Their business is to provide accounting services to small and medium sized business, such as book keeping and tax returns.

They have following staff in the head office in Sydney:

1. Three accountants
2. A director
3. A receptionist
4. A customer support person
5. An IT administrator

They have one Branch Office in Brisbane, where they have only one accountant.

In Brisbane they have 30 customers, and in Sydney they have over 150 customers.

They have following computing resources for their Staff.
1. Dell Inspiron 8 GB, i5 dual core processor Laptops.
2. Windows 10 Operating System
3. Office 365 and One Drive for all the staff

They have a business Internet solution from Telstra. Which provides them with NBN Internet in both Head Office and Branch Office. They also have a VPN connection between Head Office and Branch Office. They have Cisco IP based telephones and VOIP solution from Telstra.

Their customer support person uses a 1300 number for incoming and outgoing customer communication.
ABC uses QuickBooks for the purpose of managing accounts for their customers. This is a cloud-based software. They access it from anywhere. Some of the staff works from home sometime.

They have a server in the head office, where they have a shared folder. This folder is accessed by the staff using the VPN. The server is running on an HP ProLiant machine with Windows 2012 R2. The size of shared folder is over 10 GB. It holds all client related data.

There is a backup server, completing the backup of the shared folder every day. It is Windows Server 2016 backup software. The policy is to have a full back up every fifth Sunday. Then there is an incremental backup every day. The backup tapes are rotated to the home of the Director of company every fifth Saturday before a new full backup is taken. These are DDS3 tapes and tape drives.

Moreover, in both head office and branch office, they have a CISCO firewall and a Telstra Router. They also have a wireless access point for local area connection.
It is therefore necessary for the staff to have access to the internet, QuickBooks and the shared folder server to continue their business as usual.

Relevant Working Conditions, Standards and Documents

For completion of this assessment, use:
• The quality plan template provided in your learning guide
• ISO 9001 Standard Guidelines
You should be able to demonstrate consistent performance in conditions that are safe and replicate the workplace. Noise levels, production flow, interruptions and time variances must be typical of those experienced in the systems analysis and design field of work, and include access to:
• relevant quality standards
• data related to the business model
• organisational guidelines that apply to quality standards.

Key Business Processes of ABC
1. Account management for clients. Quickbooks is used for this purpose.
2. Printing of reports and records for their clients
3. Key IT Procedures
a. Management of Workstations
b. Operating System Patching
c. Network Administration
d. Maintenance of the shared folder
e. Backup Activities
f. Firewall Administration

Business Strategy

ABC's business strategy is to provide professional services in relation to financial management for small and medium sized businesses who do not have these skills.

Assessment Tasks
The objective is to ensure that all computing resources including Quickbooks, VPN, Internet, Backup Server and the Laptops are maintained to keep business running as expected. There should be minimum disturbance to business from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. All maintenance activities shall be done outside of business hours.

Task 1. Determine business quality performance expectations and benchmark standards
Evaluate and Describe:
• Critical Business Processes
• Management Responsibilities
• IT Support Responsibilities

Task 2. Develop business standards and guidelines for achieving each benchmark
For each process identified in Task 1, define what are the business expectations, and develop the guidelines to meet these expectations. The guidelines will be your benchmarks.

Task 3. Allocate strategic quality responsibilities for meeting business standards and guidelines according to business procedures
Once Benchmarks are set, define roles and responsibilities associated with each benchmark.
Task5. Identify the risks associated with each critical process you have identified. Prepare a risk analysis worksheet and define how risk can be mitigated or minimized.
Task6. Develop a quality management standard document, describing what are the key objectives associated with the critical business processes

Task 4. Document expectations, standards and benchmarks in a quality management plan, you are required to write quality policies and directions for the assigned resources as business directives

Task5. Prepare a report based on your work along with a PowerPoint presentation. Provide the draft report to your trainer and obtain feedback.

Task 6. Analyse the feedback to determine what corrections are required in your plan. Make appropriate changes in your plan and prepare second version of your quality management plan and any other documents that are affected by the change.

Task7. Present your updated documents to your trainer and obtain final sign off

Task 8. Prepare a quality standards implementation guide based on your quality management plan.

Task 9. Prepare a quality control and change management document. This will be your quality reporting and monitoring program. Consider:
• How will you monitor the quality process performance?
• How will you obtain feedback from stakeholders on quality performance?
• How will you report your progress on quality management to the management?

Task 10. As quality management is a continued process, prepare a plan to:
• Identify any breakdowns in management and operations that will affect business as usual
• Record corrective actions and who will be responsible for these actions
• Measure performance of your quality management plan by recording number of incidents before and after its implementation, downtimes, and any other discrepancies such as in resource allocation, budgets etc.
• Update your quality management standards, and the document control and change control process
• Quarterly review of business procedures, quality plan implementation and reporting to the management