COE’s 4 Quadrants of Quality

To ensure we deliver consistent quality to our clients, COE created and follows our 4 Quadrants of Quality©. For COE, quality is: Providing the most consistent, distinct, effective, and professional consulting services and product solutions to our clients which result in: Strong, trusted relationships with our clients Being accurate, complete, and professional in our methods, outputs, and representations Achieving measurable and meaningful results A positive and unique reputation in the marketplace

Click on each of the quadrants to learn more.

Client relations are the professional culture, bond, and trust we create with our clients which is necessary to successfully conduct and manage engagements and achieve results. Quality client relations are characterized by:

• Having the best interest of the client’s organization at all times
• Understanding the client representative’s needs and organizational context so that we can articulate the best response
• Clearly contracting for outcomes, outputs, roles and responsibilities, schedules, cost, etc., and periodically revisiting the agreed to expectations to ensure we are on track
• Meeting our commitments
• Helping clients through issues and problems in a genuine and caring manner
• Maintaining frequent communications with our clients
• Responding quickly to questions, inquires, or concerns
• Managing an engagement team consistent with COE quality standards
• Helping the client address their responsibilities
• The client expressing trust in our ability to support them

For COE, consulting is the practice of giving professional advice and services to clients in order to improve their organization’s performance. Quality consulting practices are characterized by:

• Maintaining unbiased tactics and demeanor
• Applying a strong expertise appropriate to the situation
• Exhibiting a helping posture, using active listening skills
• Staying focused on a holistic solution for a systemic result
• Leveraging resources to stay informed
• Always meeting commitments, staying on top of things
• Communicating clearly and effectively
• Always considering the value our work provides to the client
• Always being aware of situations impacting the client
• Exercising accurate judgment based on facts, experience, and developed intuition
  

Methodologies are the tasks and activities we execute to achieve a specific result. These methodologies include a system of methods, activities, principles, and rules for regulating our disciplines or service areas and ensuring valid outcomes for the intended purpose. Quality methodologies are characterized by:

• Implementing proven, clearly articulated, complete, and appropriately sequenced tasks and activities that achieve the intended result
• Ensuring evidentiary data is robust and accurate
• Multiple sources are used to substantiate findings
• Recommendations that are time-tested and result in complete solutions that solve real problems
• Qualitative and quantitative data is used
• Validation methods are employed
• Hypotheses are appropriately tested and confirmed
• Dialogs with each other are used to further understand the problem and effectiveness of the recommended solution
• Research and education to ensure the latest methodologies are engaged
  

Artifacts are the products and deliverables we create. They may be reports, guides, presentations, workflows, software, and plans. The quality of artifacts is how we are often most judged by clients. Quality artifacts are characterized by:

• Being free of error
• Being grammatically correct, clear, and articulate
• Being professional and consistent in format and appearance
• Including creative ways to express messages that are easily internalized and retained by the reader the way we intended
• Having a logical flow
• Using graphics, callouts, tables, and other visuals to support the narrative and serve as quick reference
• Being well supported – findings, implications, recommendations
• Telling a compelling story
• Meeting COE report writing guidelines
• Being uncompromisingly valid
• Including the right content for the purpose being served
• Being written for the intended audience(s)
• Reflecting our strong expertise
• Completing the COE production checklists