A quality audit is a structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, process, and procedures, The objectives of quality audit may include (PMBOK, 2017):
Identify all good and best practices being implemented;
Identify all nonconformity, gaps, and shortcomings;
Share good practices introduced or implemented in similar projects in the organization and/or industry;
It is becoming more common for firms in the private sector and many governmental jurisdictions to do business (Thai, K, 2007).
Looking to above standard definition, most of the firms, governmental organizations selecting vendors/contractors that have made the commitment to total quality as the company's way of life. Most of the time the vendors use their quality control methods as part of the project implementation strategies. The firms and governmental organizations always giving weight to different aspects and project quality control methodologies.
The proposal evaluation team may give enough weight to quality control/compliance, our proposal evaluation criteria is as follow;
The project scoring model may be based on 5 main factors more or less however in our case its only below 5 sections;
Proposed solution
Project implementation
Project compliance
Platform operations
Value-add
We focus on that how the vendor proposed a quality control management solution in their proposals, most of the time particularly in Federal funding partnership projects, third party audit is mandatory. The reason behind audit is to remove discrepancy and manage the project in better way and according to the proposed solution of the vendor.
Generally, firm ethics can also play a vital role in the implementation process where they give more value to the firm reputation, is a good sign and they focus on to successfully implement the projects to keep the firm reputation in the market and secure future projects with same buyers. But still quality audit is a route for both buyers and vendors to manage and implement successfully projects by removing shortcomings and to share good practices. Saving Changes...
I didn't see a question in your text above, but going by the title of your post, my feedback would be that a quality audit ensures that a 3rd party is following their documented quality control procedures and that those quality control procedures are being effective at achieving the quality objectives for the product, service or result they are responsible for as per the contract.
Performance improvements resulting from the feedback received by an audit can vary based on the size of a corporation but are more likely to be influenced by a number of other factors including:
- the quality "maturity" of the 3rd party organization
- the strength of the relationship between the buyer and sellor
- the extent of variance between the expected outcomes and the audited outcomes
- contractual obligations, terms & conditions
Kiron Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Audits should be business-driven. You identify the business risks and the controls you will use to mitigate them. Controls can be tools, processes or even people. The audit will make sure that the controls are sufficient, effective and address the business risks. Saving Changes...
