EAGLE II FC3 at DSCI

 

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Quality Assurance

Our International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 registered Quality Management System (QMS) helps us ensure that we meet our customer requirements and exceed expectations while delivering superior products and services.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) are integral parts of our QMS which help DSCI meet agreed upon customer requirements and our quality objectives of delivering our products and services on time and within budget. QA ensures our staff is following approved DSCI and customer processes and procedures while the product is being developed or the service is being performed. QA builds quality in the product along the way, reducing defects, costs, and cycle time. QC helps us determine if we met the customer requirements and how well we performed based on our quality metrics.

Our corporate DSCI quality control function:

The results of our quality control tasks are quantitative and are used for process improvement, trend analysis, fixing defects, lessons learned, and assuring high quality deliverables are provided to our customers that exceed expectations the very first time.

DSCI's approach consists of an overall EAGLE II Program Quality Control Program (QCP) and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans (QASPs) for every Task Order (TO). The QASP is a plan that details what methods will be used by the Government to assess DSCI's approach to Performance-Based Service Contracting (PBSC). The QASP will be used by EAGLE II buyers to manage contractor performance assessments, ensuring that systematic quality assurance methods are utilized; this validates that the contractor's quality control efforts are timely, are effective, and deliver the results specified in the contract or TO. The QASP directly corresponds to the performance objectives and standards such as quality, quantity, and timeliness specified in the Performance Work Statement (PWS); it details how, when, and by whom the Government will survey, observe, test, sample, evaluate, and document contractor performance results to determine whether the contractor has met the required standards for each objective in the PWS. A combination of the QCP, QMS, and the QASP will be used on all EAGLE II procurements to assure overall software and system quality management from end-to-end for any project. Our Quality Management program and associated templates, checklists, dashboards, and metrics are based on industry best practices and standards. We use the guide/standards/requirements set forth in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for program management; ISO 9001 for quality management; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1012 for Independent Verification and Validation; ISO 12207 for Software Processes; ISO 15288 for System Processes; ISO 29119 for Testing; American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) 748 for Earned Value Management (EVM), Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Modeling Integration (CMMI) approach for development, acquisition, and services; and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) for service management and the delivery of best practices. Additionally, DSCI will also comply with all of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Systems Engineering Lifecycle (SELC) processes, directives, polices, control gates, and guidance as well as other component agency standards specified by the procurement contract.

Our Quality Control Plan covers two levels:

  1. The EAGLE II Contract Level, based on compliance with overall contract requirements and metrics
  2. The EAGLE II Project/TO Level, based on the specific requirements of each TO; QASPs are required for all Project/TOs keyed to the nature of the services/work performed

Evaluation methods are comprised of Peer Reviews, Third Party Independent Assessments, Planned Sampling and Process Validation, QC Sampling and Process Validation, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Confidence Level, Incidental Inspections, and Analysis of Results. QC Inspection/Audit Planning consists of checklists developed by function and output; inspections/audits planned monthly; scheduled but unannounced reviews; and pass/fail tests. We have active QC programs (audits, etc.) for our current TOs/Projects.

The EAGLE II Quality Control Manager (QCM) and EAGLE II Program Manager (PM) jointly establish the quality measures identified in our EAGLE II FC3 SOW performance requirements and resources for surveillance specifications, develop service delivery summaries and performance objectives, and measure each against respective metrics. The QCM produces reports at least monthly and at other times when situations warrant and provides them to DSCI COO/CEO with copies to EAGLE PM and TOPMs.

DSCI's proven 20 step QA guidelines include the following process steps:

DSCI's 20 Step Quality Assurance Guidelines
Item Description of Activity
1 DSCI Management approves Quality Assurance Process and Plan
2 Project Manager with Team define and develop processes and plans specific to their project, ensuring that CMMI/ISO practices are kept in place
3 QA Plan and Process are reviewed for customer, CMMI/ISO, and DSCI compliance
4 Train the DSCI team on all required processes and procedures that need to be followed
5 Implement Plan and coordinate project audits
6 Coordinate with the Government to provide data on status of deliverables and QASP metrics
7 Prepare and conduct QA audit of project processes, products, and deliverables
8 Observe project activities to ensure project processes are being adhered to and products and deliverables are meeting quality standards
9 Submit QA observations to Configuration Management as configuration items
10 Report audit findings in a Quality Audit Report
11 Submit QA Control Audit Finding Report to Configuration Management as configuration items
12 Determine if the audit completed the objectives of the audit – regardless of status of audit (e.g., passed/failed)
13 Record and update Non-Compliances
14 Submit to Configuration Management Control Non-Compliance Log
15 Assign Corrective Actions
16 Sign and distribute Audit Report Finding
17 Follow-up on Corrective Actions to ensure compliance
18 Perform risk management and mitigation activities
19 Gather lessons learned and customer feedback
20 Perform continual process improvement