Managing Quality

Our infoKits are designed to interrelate and provide best practice guidance wherever you may be in the systems lifecycle. They have been constructed by synthesising achievements and lessons learned from the FE and HE sectors and it is the continuing feedback from these sectors that will keep the Kits relevant and of practical use. Although the sector has had its successes, there has been an equally poor record of system implementation projects within educational establishments, and at this point in a core infoKit it is worth recapping the quality issues that the series of materials addresses and the context in which they feature in System Implementation. The Kits should help your system project proposals to contain clear statements regarding:

• project objectives and constraints;

• project methodology;

• project management;

• organisational change expectations;

• change management;

• identifiable risks, their impact and contingencies;

• risk management;

• technical input to the project;

• user involvement;

• communication plans;

• financial projections and assumptions;

• internal resource requirements and planning;

• staff development plans;

• external resource requirements and tendering arrangements; and

• policies and procedures for the relevant management and administrative functions to be covered by the system.

In the context of implementation, this framework would be strengthened by the establishment of a Project Office responsible for creating procedures, methods and standards for systems projects for all departments of the organisation, ensuring compliance to those standards, monitoring their performance, progress and quality, and acting as an independent advisor to committees set up for the purpose of overseeing such projects.