Quality Register

Quality Register is a diary of the quality events that take place during the project, such as workshops, reviews, testing, and acceptance. At first, the quality register will be empty and the project manager will get most data from the plans and product descriptions. A Quality Register provides a summary of all the Quality management activities that are planned or have taken place, and provides information for the End Stage Report and End Project Report . I like to say that a Quality Register does three things:

• Provides an overview of the planned quality activities and provides a unique reference for each quality activity.
• Provides an overview on the status of all quality activities and a pointer to the quality records.
• And at the end of the project, it provides a history of all quality activities that have taken place and all results.

A Quality Register makes it easier for the Project Manager to follow up on quality during the project, as they can check whether the Actual Target Review date and Actual Approval date columns are filled in or not. This allows the Project Manager to control quality.

Timeline Quality Register

• The Quality Register is normally created in the Initiation Stage
• Most of the infomation for the Quality Register will come from the Stage Plan and Product Descriptions ( Product Description )
• The planning of quality activities will be done the Managing a Stage Boundary process
• The Quality Register will be updated during Controlling a Stage process
• The Quality Register is an important control document as it shows if quality tests are failing or if quality tests are being delayed
• At the end of the project ( Closing a Project process), the Project Manager will review the Quality Register while they are preparing the End Project Report and .
• The Quality Register is updated by the project manager and project support.

Sample Quality Register Example

• Product ID: Just a product tracking number in the project (e.g., 124)
• Product name: A common name to refer to the product (e.g., “Elevator”)
• Quality method: Describes how testing will be done (e.g., Inspection for the Elevator)
• Producer: Who produces or installs the product, such as Otis (e.g., an Elevator Co.)
• Reviews: Who will review the product after its delivered?
• Approver: Who quality-approves the product (e.g., “John from Safety Company”)
• Target review date: When the product should be reviewed (e.g., “June 20”)
• Actual review date: Actual date that review happened
• Target approval date: When project manager will get approval (e.g., 1 week later)
• Actual approval date: Actual date when project manager received approval
• Result: This can be Pass or Fail

Sample Quality Register Example - The PEN project

• The black text is filled in as part of Quality Planning
• The blue text is filled in the when quality activities (Quality Control) take place: Actual Dates, Results, and Links.

Source data for the Quality Register

• The format and composition will be defined in the Quality Management Approach and the Project Manager will normally ask for the last Quality Register template and review it.
• The Project Manager or Project Support will add quality activities when creating the Stage Plan (schedule and Product Descriptions)
• Entries may added or update when the Team Plan is created
• Other information comes from the actual performance of the quality activity
• Links to sign-off documents can also be added.

Format of the Quality Register

• Document, spreadsheet or database but normally a shared spreadsheet
• Standalone register or a carry forward in progress review minutes
• Entry in a project management tool.

Quality Criteria

• Check that each quality activity is entered on the Quality Register
• Responsibility for the Quality Register has been allocated; e.g., Project Support
• Actions are clearly assigned
• Entries are uniquely identified, including to which product they refer
• Access to the Quality Register is controlled and is kept in a safe place.

Tips from Frank

• I have not seen many companies using a Quality Register
• Most projects test a product once it is ready for testing and look at the quality information in the Product Description
• If the product fails the tests, the team are normally instructed to take the necessary action
• If the product passes the tests, the product is accepted and the team will be assigned new products ( Work Package ) to deliver.