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Project Assurance and Quality Assurance

An incredible number of people confuse Project Assurance with quality assurance, so let’s make the difference clear.

Project Assurance is a PRINCE2 term (hence the capital initial letters). Each member of the Project Board has assurance responsibilities, which they may choose to delegate. The person or group to whom these responsibilities are delegated is given the title ‘Project Assurance’. Quality assurance is company-wide, not within a project. It is usually a group, charged with creating and maintaining the company’s quality management system and ensuring that its standards are used properly throughout the company’s work. It is this last part that may bring about an overlap of the two roles. In pursuit of its overall check on use of the standards, quality assurance will require to check that a project is using the relevant standards correctly – and that the standards are effective. The Senior User and Senior Supplier may, therefore, decide to appoint a member of their respective quality assurance groups to perform all or part of their Project Assurance role. But if you are talking about a PRINCE2 role, it is Project Assurance, not quality assurance.

Check back next week for part 4 of the Art of PRINCE2 Survival.
Colin Bentley – Author of: The Art of PRINCE2 Survival – PRINCE2 2009 Edition