Quality assurance

Assurance is the process of gaining stakeholders confidence by providing evidence that the quality-related activities are being performed effectively and the planned actions will be completed to produce a product or service that will satisfy the stated quality requirements.

Quality assurance provides confirmation based on evidence. The donor, beneficiaries, organisation and other stakeholders are ensured that product developed will meet their needs, expectations and other requirements. It proves the existence and effectiveness of process and procedure, tools, and ensures that  safeguards  are  in place  to make  sure quality  outputs are produced by reaching expected quality level.

Quality assurance happens during the implementation phase of the project. The project performance is completely evaluated. Quality assurance is also done to the process and procedures used to manage the project.

The famous tool used to determine quality assurance is the Deming Cycle. The four steps of this cycle are Plan, Do, Check and Act. It is also called as the PDCA cycle. The same is shown in Figure 1.1.

Let us now discuss the four quality assurance steps within the PDCA model.

• Plan: plan and establish the objectives and processes to produce the expected result.
• Do: implement the developed process.
• Check: check and evaluate the process of implementation by comparing the results with the predetermined objectives.
• Act: apply improvement actions if the result needs to be changed.

The PDCA cycle is a never ending cycle of continuous improvement.

Figure: PDCA cycle