Quality Policy

Quality Tips

1. Web Access QMS is influenced by
- Our business environment and risks associated with business environment
- Our business needs
- Our business objectives
- Products and services we provide
- Processes we employ
- Size and org structure of our company
2. Web Access QMS is focused on achieving customer satisfaction
3. WA QMS is based on process approach. The process approach means
- Understanding and meeting requirements
- Need to consider processes in terms of added value
- Obtaining results of process performance and effectiveness
- Continual improvement of processes based on data
4. Web Access Quality Policy is to achieve customer satisfaction through:
- Delivery of quality products and services
- Continuous improvement of process effectiveness
- Use of technology to support operations
5. WA QMS is organised in 3 levels
- Level 1 : Quality Manual (QM)
- Level 2 : Quality System Procedures and Processes (QSPP)
- Level 3 : Forms, Formats and Reports (FFR)
6. The Quality manual is the primary document that defines requirements for WA QMS
7. All three documents of QMS i.e. QM, QSPP and FFR are related documents and not independent of each other
8. QSPP Manual defines the processes that refer to the quality requirements defined in QM
9. QM has 3 basic and 5 core clauses
10. 3 basic clauses of QM are:
- Scope : Defines the scope of WA QMS as to what type of projects are covered under the QMS
- Reference : WA QMS is modelled around ISO 9001:2008 International Standard of Quality. WA QMS refers to this standard.
- Introduction : This chapter introduces the Web Access services and type of projects we undertake
11 A. 3 of the 5 core requirements of QMS as described in QM are:
- Quality Management System : Describes how WA QMS is organised (3 levels) and how the QMS documents will be controlled
- Management Responsibility : Describes the areas of responsibilities of management in ensuring quality
- Resource Management : Describes the requirement for provision of resources in terms of people, competence and training of people, infrastructure and work environment
11 B. Remaining 2 of the 5 core requirements of QMS as described in QM are:
- Product Realisation : This pertains to quality requirements such as project plans, designs, development , verification and validation, release to customer and backup.
- Measurement, Analysis and Improvement : QMS emphasises on decisions and improvements to be based on data. Measuring the data, analysing it and initiating improvements are defined in this clause of QM
12. Customer focus refers to:
- Ensuring customer requirements are met
- Enhancing customer satisfaction
13. Ensuring that customer requirements are met is done through the process of verification. Verification implies that all customer requirements have been met.
14. Verification is a continuous process. You should verify customer requirements at each milestone and before delivery to the customer.
15. Customer satisfaction can be ensured through:
- Timely delivery
- Delivering quality product
- No major and critical bugs in the system after delivery. Very small number of minor issues after delivery. This implies thorough testing
- Setting customer expectation and exceeding it
- Timely and honest customer communication
16. Testing of the product to make it bug free is a major thrust area for achieving customer satisfaction
17. Ensuring that the system is bug free is achieved through the process of validation which includes peer review, testing and inspection
18. One of the major quality objective of Web Access is to achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 3.0 or higher on a scale of 1 to 4
19. We follow an open communication policy for internal communication. All employees are free to walk into any office and communicate. Project communication is, however, channelled through project lead/project manager
20. That a delivered system is stable implies :
- The results produced by the system are consistent across sets of data and over period of time
- System done not through up bugs
- System produces same output for the same set of data at all times
- The system does not break
21. Browser compatibility is a major and primary requirement for all web applications whether specifically stated or not
22. We can attempt on best effort basis to finalise the requirements but it may not be possible to achieve a complete freeze on requirements
23. Continual improvement in quality is the responsibility of each employee of Web Access. We must, therefore, give suggestions to improvement freely
24. Resource Management in the context of Web Access quality management implies:
- Provision of infrastructure such as work space
- Provision of competent human resources and their training
- Identifying competencies of human resources
- Provision of work environment such as good working conditions
25. "Clause 7.0 Product Realisation" of QM is one of the most important clauses of WA QMS. Product realisation means creation or development of the product/service based on customer requirements and achieving customer satisfaction. We should all be familiar with the provisions of this clause
26 A. "Clause 7.0 Product Realisation" provides the quality requirements in the area of
- Planning for product realisation
- Provisions related to the customer in terms of customer requirements, review of customer requirements and customer communication
- Planning for design and development of the product based on customer requirements
26 B. "Clause 7.0 Product Realisation" provides the quality requirements in the area of
- Provision of work environment such as good working conditions
- Making purchases for realisation of the product whenever needed
- Creating methods and procedures for identification of the product/service e.g. unique ID, backup and version control
26 C. "Clause 7.0 Product Realisation" provides the quality requirements in the area of
- Development of the product, verification and validation
- Testing of the product to make it bug free
- Releasing the bugfree and stable product to the client
- Preservation of the product
27. QSPP 7.1 Process for Project Planning lays down the process we follow to plan a project. PM and PL are responsible to ensure that this process is followed
28. Starting point for QSPP 7.1 is the acceptance of WA proposal by the client and receiving the client requirements.
- On receiving a project, the assigned PM/PL will create the project in the ALARM Projects and a unique identity is assigned to the project
- Sys Admin will allocate project space in SVN
- PM/PL will document the requirements
29 A. Planning for product realisation implies:
- That we have a hold of the customer requirements
- That we plan our work by grouping requirements into phases and milestones
- We allocate time for each milestone
- We plan time for verification and validation of the product
29 B. Planning for product realisation implies:
- We cater for risks that may occur and plan to mitigate them
- Plan how the customer delivery will be made and what will be customer's acceptance criteria
- Plan for supporting the product after implementation
- Plan for identification of the project, version control, backup and preservation of the product after the work is complete
29 C. Planning for product realisation implies:
- Establish objectives for the project
- Plan to measure effort, schedule and quality objectives
- Plan how customer communication shall be made
- Plan how status reporting to customer will be done and at what frequency
30 A. product realisation includes customer related processes. One such customer related process is "determination of requirements related to product". This, from WA QMS perspective, means:
- We document the requirements specified by the customer and understand them well
- We document the requirement which have not been specifically stated by customer but necessary for intended use
30 B. product realisation includes customer related processes. One such customer related process is "determination of requirements related to product". This, from WA QMS perspective, means:
- Identify and document statutory and regulatory requirements or the additional requirement considered necessary by development team
- We track all the requirements through the process of verification throughout the development lifecycle
31. The second customer related process is "review of requirement related to product". This process in WA is performed at proposal stage
32 A. The third and very important customer related process is "customer communication". This relates to making effective communication with customer for:
- Seek and give product/service related information including requirements, specifications and designs etc.
- Enquiries and clarifications
- Status information
32 B. The third and very important customer related process is "customer communication". This relates to making effective communication with customer for:
- Changes, contract or order handling
- Customer feedback including customer complaint
- Support information
33. Product realisation is covered in Clause 7.0 of the QM. Clause 7.1 describes Planning and Clause 7.2 describes the Customer related processes
34 A. Another important clause in Product Realisation is Clause 7.3 which deals with "Design and Development". Clause 7.3 has 7 sub-clauses.
- 7.3.1. : Design and development planning
- 7.3.2. : Design and development inputs
- 7.3.3. : design and development outputs
- 7.3.3. : design and development review
34 B. Another important clause in Product Realisation is Clause 7.3 which deals with "Design and Development". Clause 7.3 has 7 sub-clauses.
- 7.3.5. : design and development verification
- 7.3.6. : design and development validation
- 7.3.7. : control of design and development changes
35. 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 are clauses that ,if followed properly, shall lead to attainment of quality delivery and customer satisfaction
36. Design and development planning will essentially include:
- Planning for UI designs and look and feel
- Planning for screen layouts/ wire frames / workflow – need for PoC
- Database designs
- Modularisation
- Phases of development and milestones
37. Design and development inputs are:
- Customer requirements – functionality, UI, look and feel, navigation needs etc.
- Validations/restrictions etc.
- Performance and scalability
- Security requirements
38. Design and development outputs are in the form of suitable verification against the design and development inputs. Design and development outputs should:
- meet input requirements for design
- contain or reference acceptance criteria
- specify the essential characteristics the product should meet
- provide adequate information for product's operation
39. Production and service provision is yet another very important clause of WA QMS which is described in Clause 7.5 of QM. This has 5 sub-clauses as follows:
- 7.5.1. : Control of production and service provision
- 7.5.2. : Validation of processes for production and service provision
- 7.5.3. : Identification and traceability
- 7.5.3. : Customer property
- 7.5.5. : Preservation of product
40 A. Control of production and service provision implies that we carry out development work under controlled conditions. The controlled conditions include:
- Availability of information that describe the characteristics of the product i.e. requirement specifications
- Availability of work instructions i.e. the plan of work
- Use of appropriate equipment i.e. appropriate software, and hardware e.g. we purchased iPad for Contenix testing
40 B. Control of production and service provision implies that we carry out development work under controlled conditions. The controlled conditions include:
- What will we measure - e.g. schedule, effort, productivity, milestone delivery, quality of the delivery in terms of bugs and stability etc.
- How we shall release the product, how we shall do version control, what will be the backup method etc.
41 A. Monitoring and measurement is an important function for continuous improvement in delivery of quality and achieving customer satisfaction. At Web Access some of the measuring and monitoring equipment used include:
- Attendance logging system via access control device and ALARM to monitor attendance and leave
- ALARM Projects for project creation, planning, task assignment and log recording
- ALARM for task and log records
41 B. Monitoring and measurement is an important function for continuous improvement in delivery of quality and achieving customer satisfaction. At Web Access some of the measuring and monitoring equipment used include:
- Performance evaluation via ARARM Performance
- Project reports via ARAM PMS
- Red Mine for bug tracking
42. Continual improvement of WA's performance, WA's employees and WA's quality are the permanent objectives of Web Access
43. Effective decisions are based on analysis of data and information. That is the reason at WA, we insist on logging all data pertaining to our work. Wrong data may lead to improper decisions which is detrimental to organisation and employee growth. It is ,therefore, essential to ensure accuracy of data. This approach is called "Factual approach to decision making".
44. When employees in a project team follow a process consistently the output will be consistent as well. This is an essential principle to ensure quality of output. This approach to quality is called "Process approach".
45. Quality policy can be defined as the overall intentions and direction of the company related to quality as formally expressed by management. Quality policy provides a framework for setting quality objectives.
46. Quality management system represents the coordinated set of activities to direct and control the company with regard to quality
47. The term quality represents the degree to which a set of "INHERENT" characteristics of an organisation fulfils the customer requirements. "INHERENT" implies the systems and process that exist in the company and all projects and employees follow these systems and processes to deliver customer requirements. As such quality has to be inherent in our way of working.
48. We have used two terms "effectiveness" and "efficiency" in our quality system many times. The term "effectiveness" refers to the extent to which we are able to realise the planned results and the term "efficiency" refers to the relationship between result achieved and resources utilised. For example if we planned to deliver a project by a certain date and were able to deliver it by the planned date our effectiveness would be 100%. However, if the project was planned to be delivered with an effort of 2000 hours and we utilised 2500 hours, the efficiency would be 75%.
49. Traceability implies ability to trace the history, application and location of the product/project under consideration. It relates to origin of the product/project, the development/delivery history, and the distribution and location of the product/project after delivery.
50. Conformity or conformance implies fulfilment of requirements. Nonconformity / non-conformance would, therefore, imply non-fulfilment of requirements.
51. Both the terms nonconformity and defect pertain to non-fulfilment of requirements. However, defect specifically implies non-fulfilment of requirement related to intended or specified use. The term defect has legal connotations as in a defective system.