The Steps of Quality Assurance Process

To implement quality control for an organization, you need to identify the steps of the quality assurance process . Some of the major steps of this process are discussed below. 1. First and foremost, the project manager of the company has to create a team dedicated for

quality control. This team will be responsible to evaluate and report on the evaluation regarding every part of the business. The team will be working neutrally and independently having authority and freedom of work, at each point of their operation. This team will be reporting to the senior management of the organization and keeping all results in safe file storage . 2. Once the team is formed, the main responsibility of the team will be to define the tasks and assign them to respective persons. Some of these responsibilities are to review the products, tools, services as per the requirements, standards and guidelines, audit project processes, suggest various methods, standards or tools to be used in the project, report the outcome of the evaluation etc. 3. The quality control team then defines the plans for the quality assurance process . Depending upon the nature of business the details of the plan might change, however the basis of the plan remains common for most of the businesses. Mostly the list includes quality objectives, defining the tests and verificational activities, process evaluation, defining the individual responsibility of the team member, identifying training requirements, budgeting and funding for quality control jobs, scheduling all activities, documenting and tracking etc. 4. 5. The next step of this process is to generate the testing procedures, checklists and related The quality control team now has to perform according to the plan to ensure the next step of activities to explain the way quality control will be performed. quality assurance process . By acquiring the resources to perform the procedures, the team starts evaluating the project. Tools required for this evaluation are identified depending on the nature of the project. Any non conformance with the standards or requirement are notified and reported to the appropriate department. The problems are then corrected and again sent for testing to the quality control team. This way, testing and correcting goes on, till the project is proven to be in conformance with the standard. 6. 7. The next step of quality assurance process is to identify the training requirement for the team The performance of the quality control team should be monitored regularly by the project members to perform the evaluation processes as specified in the quality control plan. manager against the quality control plan, schedule and budget. In case the progress of the quality control team does not satisfy, then corrective actions should be taken. 8. The quality control activities and results are reviewed by the senior management of the organization and their stakeholders on regular intervals. Any non compliance or unsolved issue for the quality control procedure is taken care of by the senior management at this point of time. 9. The team collects review information from various sources. Suggestions for improvement at any step of quality assurance process is accepted and implemented in the next session, if it satisfies the various limitations. Recommendations are accepted from any level of business for future use. 10. The team refines the total process to give it a defined structure with quality control process descriptions, templates and checklists. This structure can be reused as a model for future or might become an example to other organizations.

Methodology

We prefer to refer to our methodology as Smart Quality Control or S.Q. T. which insists of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Quality Quality Quality Quality Quality Quality Assurance Assurance Assurance Assurance Assurance Assurance Assessment Proposal Implementation Coaching Recommendation Testing

7. Quality Assurance Evaluating

Tips to Implement Quality Assurance Procedures

To ensure total quality control in each and every component of your business operation you should follow few important quality assurance procedures . By following these procedures, you will definitely be able to notice a substantial amount of improvement in your business processes, which will eventually produce a better turnover from your business endeavor. Here are few tips on the development or implementation part of the process. 1. The quality control policies must be documented and kept in storage properly, so that the

understanding of the project can be shared by every one, who is involved with the project. If it is not documented, then you can not claim to be sharing the information with others, which might result to bring up many more disputes through out the total process. 2. To implement the quality assurance procedures , you must ensure that the technical infrastructure is capable of executing the policies. A particular quality control policy might require some specific set of environment, which should be available at the time of the checking. 3. 4. 5. Also, you should have essential resources to implement the policies. If you do not arrange the Time to time checking process is required to ensure that the policies are being properly One of the important quality assurance procedures is to maintain audit trails to record the necessary resources, then there is no use of that particular policy. implemented, in real life scenario. outcomes of the checking processes. In case of any failure or dysfunction of any process, the information should be updated. This will help to rectify the faults, so that the process passes the quality control test next time, when it appears. 6. In addition to the developed policies, which are relevant to the context, you can search information from others, having experience with this background. This will give you more opportunities to full proof the system. 7. If you have already ensured total quality control in your organization, then share the effective policies and procedures with other organizations. Your effort to excellence might be an example to apply quality control, for a wider community.

8.

While implementing the quality assurance procedures through out your business processes, do

not expect a perfect result at the beginning. Most of the time, you might find unsuccessful results. But, this should not break your heart. You must be giving enough chance to rectify the system and to settle down for giving correct results. Also, a totally perfect system is not at all feasible, by any means. 9. Whatever policies or procedures you might accept for your quality control project, always remember that you might have some limitation to employ all these policies. It is always advisable, to accept the limitation first to set out the scope of project and then decide on the policies. 10. At the time of implementing the quality assurance procedures , you will get better result if you take one component at a time rather than taking the overall scope of your business operations. This is a far more dependable procedure, as you can concentrate on a single field of issues at one time. This way, you can ensure the quality control to each component of the operation one at a time.

Different Methods

To ensure that customers are happy with the quality of their products and services, companies employ a variety of scientific measures for quality assurance. Since most businesses are often short-staffed, quality assuranceis usually handed over to market research companies. These companies use several different methods to see where the company stands on quality issues. Mystery shopping is one of the most popular methods of quality assurance. Here, a trained personnel visits the business outlet, pretending to be a genuine shopper and has a look at the quality of the product and services. While employees will not know who the shopper is, the shopper will be making distinct notes on the quality. They may even use recording devices for further research later. Another common quality assurance method is using a customer survey. Customers are interviewed with a set list of questions regarding the quality of the companys products or services. Their responses help the company understand customer expectations better and provide areas for improvement. Once the quality assurance process is carried out, the results are evaluated and the company then goes about thinking of ways to improve. If customers are particularly enjoying some aspect of their service or product, the company must ensure that quality aspect is maintained. Improvements may involve a variety of factors such as improving the product or even improving the services provided by an employee at a store.

Conclusion The banking sector is growing day by day with new and complex services offered to the customers by various banks to strive in the competitive market. The whole gamut of business is surrounded with one aspect i.e. customer service. Therefore quality is important while providing service to the customers as any soar experiences will result in loss of customers as well as business. It is mentioned that investment banks must improve and emphasize various service dimensions resulting in better quality service. However it is important to mention here that just offering qualitative service is not sufficient but to assure the same service and much better service in the coming future is necessary for the investment banking which deals in higher segment as compared to commercial banking. As mentioned earlier, apart from acting as banks, the investment banks also engage in consultancy services providing assistance in financial and company matters. Basing on this, most of the companies turn towards the banks for suggestions and providing right advice at the right times demonstrates that the bank is reliable financial adviser and is able to meet the clients expectations. Moreover it is important to provide service far better than expected by the customers during the service process by being responsive, approaching the customer to help inspiring confidence, and adopting an institutionalized approach (Turnbull and Moustakatos, 1996). Service quality is being recognized as one of the key strategic value which aims to provide better service in order to retain the existing customers by providing optimum satisfaction, opportunities for cross selling, development of customer relationships, increased sales and market shares by attracting new customers all of which ultimately enhancing the corporate image and business performance (Joseph and Stone, 2003). In view of the above benefits associated with quality assurance in various organizations and particularly in investment banking, it is an integral part of the management process to achieve the goals and objectives of the investment banks. Thus quality assurance is an important element in attracting customers or client in the investment banking sector.