Critical
Objectives
A refresher on a quality
tool, concept or method
Align project and quality requirements to meet customer needs
Projects are temporary endeavors
undertaken to create a unique product,
service or result according to customer
specifications. Meeting customer spec-
ifications and expectations is a critical
requirement for any project. To meet
these requirements, projects go through
many phases, such as feasibility studies,
requirement gathering, design, develop-
ment testing and deployment.
Quality objectives are a specific sub-
set of the overall project objective and
focus on the stated and unstated quality
expectations of the project. Quality
objectives are the measurable, well-​
defined critical quality expectations
of the end product or application.
Often, customers don’t know their
quality expectations until they see
the product during user acceptance
testing or in a live environment. This
is when the quality analyst plays a vital
role in understanding how customers’
quality expectations align with their
requirements.
Projects with misaligned quality
objectives may deliver the product or
application, but miss the critical quality
objectives. Online Figure 1 (which can
be found on this column’s webpage
at qualityprogress.com), for example,
outlines the difference between project
objectives and quality objectives for
automating gate access. If the gate access
is automated but its response time is
longer than what the customer can toler-
ate, the project objective has been met,
but the quality objective has not.
While providing requirements,
customers may not even think about
quality objectives or quality expec-
tations, thus business and quality
analysts must proactively identify
72 QP September 2019 ❘ qualityprogress.com
quality expectations in detail. This can
be done by creating different scenarios,
what-if analyses, performance require-
ments, constraint analyses and risk
assessments, for example.
Meeting quality objectives
There are five steps to establishing
a quality objective requirement docu-
ment, as outlined in Online Figure 2:
1. Business requirement specifications.
Quality objectives must be measur-
able and quantitative (see Online
Figure 3). A quality objective such
as good performance can’t be mea-
sured and quantified because “good”
is subjective and may be interpreted
differently. Quality objectives must
be defined explicitly in the require-
ment document and agreed on by the
customer before initiating the project.
2. Project management plan. After
the quality objectives are identified
and noted, focus on how to achieve
them and the critical things required
to achieve them.
3. Design. This is the most critical phase
and must facilitate achieving the qual-
ity objectives. The quality analyst can
support the process through regular
work product reviews and checks
on critical quality requirements.
4. Development. Quality requirements
also must be addressed during the
development phase. This can be
achieved only if the developer is ​aware
of them, understands them and can
incorporate them. Design is an import-
ant support document for the
developer, which makes addressing
quality objectives in the design phase
one of the critical success factors
of meeting customer expectations.
marchmeena29 via Getty Images
by Neetu Choudhary
5. Testing. Testing is vital and adds
value only when quality objectives
are addressed. The test strategy, test
scenarios and approach may change
based on the quality objectives.
The project manager and quality assur-
ance analyst monitor quality objectives
through well-defined metrics in line with
the project objectives.
In the gate access automation
example, performance is a quality
requirement and the quality objective
is, “The response time to identify the
vehicle using radio-frequency identifi-
cation must be less than five seconds.”
By defining metrics related to that, this
critical information is monitored. (See
Online Figure 4 for sample metrics.)
Ensure success
Every project has different quality
objectives depending on what is critical
to the customer. This is the parameter
the project manager can use to ensure
a successful project. Identify the proj-
ect’s quality objectives early in the
project life cycle and ensure they’re
incorporated at various phases of the
project to achieve success.
Neetu Choudhary
is a continuous
improvement
leader with a
master’s degree
in computer
applications.
She is an ASQ
member, an ASQ-certified Six Sigma
Black Belt, ISACA certified in the
governance of enterprise IT, European
Foundation for Quality Management-
certified assessor, business excellence
awards assessor and jury member for
various awards.