Quality & Assurance

Quality is all too often the poor, forgotten distant cousin of requirements, and Assurance is the forgotten element of governance requirements. This is no way to success.

Customer Quality expectations must be collected, coordinated, set, matched and tested, as a key part of solution design and project execution. This is no longer a Testing job at the end of the project: it has to be addressed at the design of the project. All too often this is poorly done, particularly in the IT sector. And as it is especially challenging in the complex programme environment, there is often too little attention to it, which leads to programme and project failure.

Project and Programme Assurance is crucial to meeting the increasing need to prove what and how a project and programme has achieved its outputs or outcomes/benefits. This is particularly challenging given the increasing involvement of DNB/AFM in the Dutch financial sector, and of aggressive legal tactics in contract management in other sectors.

Oppidum has built up experience in assuring projects and programmes and in mediating (or preferably - before it gets so far - in fulfilling the role of Assurance Board Member in project and programme boards) solution between stakeholders, and increasing the chances for:

• On time and on scope delivery;
• (Retrospective) Approval by governing bodies;
• Full confidence in legal defence.

We implement or operate accepted Best Practices in this area, but also can execute from local set-ups with the minimum of tailoring. A number of the Managing Partners have referenceable record where contracting (and conflicting) parties have agreed to respect the independence & expertise of Oppidum in this area, and thus jointly have turned around project & programme failures into success.