Principles for Quality Assurance in the Public Sector

Readers – A friend asked me to lay down some ground rules for Quality Assurance Vendors in the Public-Sector.  These are principles I drafted for use – I’ll let you know what happens and where they’re used.  Comments and suggestions are welcome!

ACC

Principles for Quality Assurance in the Public Sector

Organizational Leaders are responsible for Quality Outcomes.

Quality Professionals provide counsel to Organizational Leaders.

Quality is defined by four attributes:

• Timeliness.
• Fitness for use.
• Cost-effectiveness.
• Appropriate durability.

The performance standard for Quality is both referential and ever-evolving.

Agreements:

• Each situation is unique.  Patterns echo.
• Everyone is learning as they go.  Be courteous.
• That which evidentially performs well is to be emulated.
• News regarding Quality is to travel unimpeded throughout the organization.

 Evidence consists of information in all of its forms and includes:

• Satisfied users.
• Energized and engaged professionals.
• Documented progress against clear objectives on a daily or weekly basis.

Furthermore:

Quality Professionals commit to:

• State facts.
• Share opinions.
• Transparently substantiate predictions and forecasts.

Organizational Leaders commit to:

• Listen.
• Open doors.
• Guide toward Quality Outcomes.

Tact is appreciated.  Judgment is essential. Integrity is non-negotiable.

Alex Chompff, 2013

A Thought on National Health Care Reform

I’ve been thinking about national health care for a while now, and am happy to see the Obama administration attempting to address the problem.

I’m not sure that I agree with the approach they’re proposing, but then I’m not sure anyone else has offered a workable alternative.

(To be honest, I’m not sure that I genuinely understand the details of the various approaches which are being proposed, and I don’t think I’m alone).

Perilous Indeed Is the Life of the Project Manager

What more true statement can be made of the venerable PM?

It’s a thankless task on every front.

The technical resources are sure you’re an idiot, being paid out of line with your value.

Management believes you’re a savior, anointed from on high, fated to bring this troublesome project to a successful conclusion.

The customers think you’re some sort of panacea for poorly written requirements, and a failure to get personally involved, until the project goes sideways, again.

Bring Out the MVP

I have arrived at an answer to the question posed in the post immediately prior to this one.

To wit,

“How do seven people, none of whom have met prior, work on a vaguely defined project with a very tiny budget and bring off an astounding success in the face of time, geography and a complete lack of common infrastructure of any kind, outside of the web?”

Actually, I’ve arrived at two possible answers.  One of them is the heart of this post.

Holy Cow, Batman. We Did It!

HCB, we did it!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been traveling on business. I went out of town to help finish a project I’ve been working on for about 3 months.

It might be the first time in years that a project I’ve been close to has landed on time, within budget and with all the elements of scope originally envisioned.

So there are some things that are kind of interesting about this project:

• We didn’t have a project manager
• There were no assigned project roles
• We didn’t have anything written down that you could call a project plan
• We were making changes to the lineup until the day the project was due to complete
• We really didn’t know all the details until (literally) the day before our project was due