OQSI

As a result of our work during the last 5 years we have received queries and requests for the provision of training and certification in OQSI quality standards. This has been reviewed by various contributors to our work who have advised us that theorectical training does not necessarily lead to competent application of recommendations. Indeed the existing project design and evaluation standards are notable in not being standards at all but rather recommendations open to a broad interpretation and therefore resulting in a lack of consistency in application.

The impact of due diligence design procedures and evaluation is dependent on how they are applied. It is therefore important to base any certification on a practical process of on-the-job training and assessment of the competence of each individual to apply the recommendations in practice.. Therefore, the determination of competence as a basis for any certification scheme requires a practical exposure, training and assessment of individual abilities to apply the OQSI recommended: Due diligence design procedure (3DP) Use of the analytical tools Application of evaluation procedures to:

Project design
Setup
Operations performance
Decisions and result cycles
Final design adjustments for post-funding operations

The OQSI is not set up to deliver this type of certified training, this is a human resources constraint issue. However the George Boole Foundation Extension Service (GBFexs) works within the first implemented OQSI operaional framework in the form of SDGToolkit (see Applications) and we have agreed that training and certifications should make up part of beneficiary and any required donor training. The funding facility for this operation can be found here: Sustainable Development Facility.

The work of the OQSI is dedicated to the elaboration and dissemination of recommendations for quality standards, methods and procedures to achieve economic, effective and efficient management and outcomes for:

individual project cycles
programme project portfolio cycles
policy cycles

We place particular emphasis the assessment and development of appropriate logic & analytical techniques for incorporation into cloud-based information management systems for the management of projects cycles and portfolios. The objective is to secure more economic, efficient and effective project operations management supported by the most advanced financial appraisals.

OQSI takes into account all known existing recommendations, standards and methods specified by the many private, national and international organizations. OQSI's effort is directed towards the analysis and resolution of the range of different requirements for projects and policies in various sectors in order to achieve a coherence between practical requirements and recommendations. The scope of our work includes:

Development frameworks
Systems code
Decision analysis methods
Dataset analysis, oversight and reporting
Information & knowledge evolution including human resources development
Integration with economic, financial and sustainability requirements
Evaluation criteria

ISO standards provide a basic reference framework for building processes and projects through the general process approach (ISO_9000) and quality management (ISO_9002). We maintain a series of recommendations on implementation methodologies for Project Portfolio Management (OQSI_PPM series). We work closely with SEEL-Systems Engineering Economics Lab who provide advice and applied development services related to:

Our work includes systems software design standards such as ECMA_262 and ISO/IEC_16262 and other active web operational standards (W3) whose content and capabilities advance according to agreed international agreement.

All decision analysis models used in process and project design should be transparent and enable the full deployment of the state-of-the-art range of logical, mathematical and operations research algorithms used for goal seeking and optimization including reiterative simulations to identify options such as the Monte-Carlo, SIMPLEX, Markov chains and other methods. These methodologies are grouped under OQSI_DAM and include optimization based on simulation for the analysis of output quality, process technologies and techniques, resources allocation, economic and financial analysis, environmental and social impact assessment. A basic process operational capacity test includes OQSI_pipeline.

We are developing evolving OQSI standards for Data Reference Models (OQSI_DRM) for application data sets, logical reporting standards including for monitoring and evaluation. Recommendations and guidelines for specifying required data precision estimates applying the Locational State method (OQSI_LSM series) are used to fine tune Real Time Audit systems design (OQSI_RTA). This enables on-demand analysis and reporting in real time. This work has given rise to specific practical issues of analysis related to large project porfolios and donor management of multi-beneficiary multi-project situations. The resolution of these specific types of problem are handled by a unit established in early 2021 at Plamsa.Systems.

We maintain an OQSI series that clarifies the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge contributions to operations and costings. We provide guidelines on requirements for information and knowledge delivery using IT as well as embedding and accumulation in human operators. We are developing OQSI standards such as the Personal Professional Contributions Record (PPCR) based on the personal Accumulog concept (accumulog.org).

We are developing evolving OQSI standards to interface with the requirements of technologies and analytical methods applied to decision making in support of economic, financial and sustainability techniques including fintech.

We monitor and assess all evaluation criteria recommendations by other organizations and currently the OECD DAC criteria cover most requirements.