SeaPort-e Quality Assurance
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Blue Heron Services, Inc.
Product and Process
Quality Assurance Policy and Approach Introduction This document establishes
the Blue Heron Services, Inc. (BHS) policy and approach to process and product
quality assurance. It is BHS policy to conduct quality assurance (QA)
reviews on all products and services delivered to customers. In addition,
selected internal work products such as invoices and financial accounts and
other internal processes are subject to QA review. BHS has adopted the CMMI PPQA Specific Goal 1 Objectively
Evaluate Processes and Work Products Adherence
of the performed process and associated work products and services to
applicable process descriptions, standards, and procedures is objectively
evaluated. Specific Practice 1.1-1 Objectively
Evaluate Processes - Objectively evaluate the designated performed processes
against the applicable process descriptions, standards, and procedures. Specific Practice 1.2-1 Objectively
Evaluate Work Products and Services - Objectively evaluate the designated work
products and services against the applicable process descriptions, standards,
and procedures. CMMI PPQA Specific Goal 2 Provide
Objective Insight Noncompliance
issues are objectively tracked and communicated, and resolution is ensured. Specific Practice 2.1-1 Communicate
and Ensure Resolution of Noncompliance Issues - Communicate quality issues and
ensure resolution of noncompliance issues with the staff and managers. Specific Practice 2.2-1 Establish
Records - Establish and maintain records of the quality assurance activities.[1]
The BHS PPQA approach
includes a QA plan for each customer task, applying the BHS QA process and
product standards appropriate to the task. In addition, other BHS
processes are evaluated according to the BHS standards appropriate to that
particular internal process (some of which are currently under development). The BHS process and product
Quality Assurance (QA) approach to implementing these guidelines is outlined in
the following sections. Customer Product
and Service PPQA Most of Blue Heron Services’
work products comprise written documentation such as briefings and
reports. Since quality must be evaluated against a standards, BHS has
chosen to adopt the American Psychological Association (APA) style as its
publication and presentation standard (see http://www.apastyle.org/).
The APA Style Manual (5th. Edition) applies to written reports and
other publications. Companion APA publications include guides on
presenting and displaying findings. For services, customer service level
agreements and customer survey focus questions are negotiated with the customer
to represent the customer standard for quality. BHS evaluates its service
delivery against the appropriate service level agreement as outlined in the
task and on a customer survey conducted after each task is complete. These standards are
summarized in the following table:
Customer service and product
QA reviews are conducted on all products and services delivered to the
customer. For briefings and reports, these reviews take the form of peer
reviews and are documented according to an internal BHS tabulation sheet to
record and track results for each review. These results are reviewed
semi-annually by a BHS quality review board which analyzes and reports results
to BHS senior management. These results of these management reviews shape
process and product quality assurance BHS process improvement activities.
[1] Capability Maturity Model Integration Version 1.1,
Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute, |