The document outlines expectations for what a Quality Management System (QMS) should provide to various roles involved in a software project. It is expected that a QMS will provide standards and procedures to support project managers in risk management, reporting, and record keeping. It should also provide standards for requirements specification, coding, testing, system design, and reporting progress to customers. The QMS aims to ensure uniform processes, documentation of activities, and allocation of appropriate staff across all functions of a software project.

1. Expectation from QMS
By Fazal Wahab

2. The Project Manager
• QMS is expected to support the following functions of a
project manager:
– QMS should provide facilities whereby a project manager can
consider the vast majority of possible risk, which could affect a
project.
– QMS should specify standards, which will enable staff to report
on their activities in a uniform way.
– QMS should lay down standards and procedures, which ensure
that cost and expenditure records from earlier projects are
kept in a easily accessible form.

3. The Project Manager
 QMS should provide a way of collecting and analyzing defect
statistics;
 QMS should contain a standard for a project plan which gives
details about the capabilities of the staff who are to carry out
the project task such as system testing.

4. Programmer/Developer
 QMS should set coding standards
 QMS should provide directions to the developer to store
test data and test outcomes in files.
 QMS should guide the developers and the configuration
managers towards organizing the entire software project
repository

5. System Designer
 QMS should provide a standard, which describes how the
process architecture and data architecture are to be
written.
 QMS should specify standards, which lead to a system
that should be easily maintainable.
 It should provide standards, which lead to a good
requirements specification.

6. Analyst
 QMS should provide a standard for the requirements
specification.
 It should provide a number of checklists
 It should provide a description of the process involved
when an analyst liaisons with a customer.

7. Senior Management
 QMS should provide senior managers with reports of
achievements against targets for each of their projects;
 It should provide direction on the setting up of audit trail
documentation.
 It should provide facilities whereby reports on defects
discovered during development are issued regularly.

8. Staffing Department
• QMS should provide standards for a project plan where
the skill level of the staff on the project is properly
specified. It helps the HR department to allocate the right
people to the project.
• QMS should provide a standard format for reports as
well as for the resume.
– To produce a written report on the effectiveness of the staff
on the project.

9. Customer
 QMS provide directives which specify how progress
meeting are to be organized.
 Who should be invited from the developer’s staff?
 When the meeting should be scheduled?
 What physical arrangements, such as the booking of a room
should be made?
 How issues arising from a progress meeting are to be
resolved.

10. The Testers
 QMS should ensure that procedures and associated
checklists are in place to enable test data and test
outcomes to be stored in a project repository.
 QMS should ensure that procedures exists which help in
arrangement of resources requirement for tests.