It is March already, can you believe it? I just published the monthly newsletter, and it is packed with great information for women-owned businesses. In the letter, I talk about the importance of having a Quality Plan and a Performance Scorecard. I also mention the connection between a business plan and a Quality Plan. You may not have heard anyone connect the two, but I will show how closely they are related.
First, let's talk about the Quality Plan. A Quality Plan is establishing quality objectives, and identifying specific processes and procedures to meet specific requirements. This can be done for a project, contract, service, or a product. You will also define the responsibilities of all the people involved, decide on an implementation approach, and determine how success will be measured. (This measurement is where the performance scorecard comes in.) If you have ever seen, or written a business plan, you know there are "specifics" that must be carried out in order to move your business forward. Well, since you already have all of this information, just transform it into a Quality Plan. I have so much more to share with you about this, but I want to save some for later.
Now, what is all of this talk about a Performance Scorecard? This scorecard is simply a snapshot of your company's progress toward specific goals over time. The purpose of it is to track how well your company is doing....in specific areas. You must set the goals first, and the goals must be SMART. (Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.) Now, determine how you will track and measure the goals. For example, how many customers did you receive through facebook this month? How many referrals did you receive this month and who referred them to you? See how easy it is to start developing your scorecard? Hopefully, this was enough information to help you get started.
We use the ISO 9001 quality standard to setup quality systems for our clients. This standard is recognized all around the world, and is a great tool that helps provide confidence quality requirements will be fulfilled.
This is Quality Planning for Global Success!!!!
Beverly Edmonds - President of ProcedurePros, LLC