PPQA Philosophy
One of the things I appreciate most about PPQA is its departure from widely held views of the quality assurance role. Many professionals have been exposed only to a rather customary QA approach in which activities are designed only to provide senior management insight. Often, this approach places QA people into something of a "tattletale" role, and not surprisingly, projects view them with suspicion.
PPQA is the DEV model's shortest PA (probably also in ACQ and SVC, but I haven't checked to be sure). There isn't much material in its Specific Practices by Goal section. Its Introductory Notes are relatively lengthy, though, and they're a rich source of information about PPQA's intent and even its philosophy. Among other things, the Introductory Notes establish a distinct tone of respectful and helpful project support."Quality assurance should begin in the early phases
of a project to establish plans, processes, standards,
and procedures that will add value to the project and
satisfy the requirements of the project and the
organizational policies. Those performing quality
assurance participate in establishing the plans, processes,
standards, and procedures to ensure that they fit the
project's needs and that they will be useable for
performing quality assurance evaluations. In addition,
the specific processes and associated work products that
will be evaluated during the project are designated. This
designation may be based on sampling or on objective
criteria that are consistent with organizational policies
and project requirements and needs." [emphasis added]
The next paragraph reinforces this collaborative view:
"When noncompliance issues are identified, they are first
addressed within the project and resolved there if possible.
Any noncompliance issues that cannot be resolved within the
project are escalated to an appropriate level of management
for resolution." [emphasis added]
The image of asking a respected colleague to provide a "sanity check" comes to mind whenever I read this material.
Management oversight certainly is a part of PPQA, and an important one at that. And management oversight is clearly evident in the escalation language quoted above and in SG 2. I just feel that the collaborative project support aspects of the PA are essential, and should be factored into any CMMI-based process improvement implementation. Collaborative is more likely to be overlooked, though, because it's outside many professionals' personal experience, and it's easy to miss in the scarce PPQA material. [Unfortunately, many people don't seem to spend much time in any of the PAs' Introductory Notes sections.]