Software Quality Manager

Key responsibilities:

A. IT Project Governance

• Establish and maintain an effective IT Project Governance framework.
• Define minimum governance requirements applicable to IT projects based on project size, complexity, risk and

criticality.

• Ensure projects follow the defined project lifecycle from initiation through closure.
• Establish project governance checkpoints and quality gates.
• Review project governance compliance at defined stages of the project lifecycle.
• Ensure appropriate project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure practices are followed.
• Ensure Project Charters / Project Initiation Documents are prepared and approved where applicable.
• Ensure project scope, objectives, deliverables, timelines, resources and responsibilities are clearly defined.
• Ensure appropriate governance forums and review mechanisms are established for major projects.
• Review project status, risks, issues, dependencies and escalations from a governance perspective.
• Ensure significant project deviations are appropriately documented, approved and escalated.
• Monitor compliance with defined project management methodologies and organisational standards.

B. Project Planning & Management Process Compliance

• Ensure project teams follow defined project management processes and templates.
• Review adequacy of project plans, milestones, deliverables and dependencies.
• Ensure appropriate resource planning and responsibility allocation.
• Monitor compliance with project review and reporting requirements.
• Ensure project risks and issues are identified, assessed, tracked and mitigated.
• Ensure appropriate change control mechanisms are followed for scope, timeline, cost, resources and technical

changes.

• Monitor project baseline changes and ensure appropriate approvals are obtained.
• Ensure project decisions and key actions are documented and tracked to closure.
• Ensure appropriate stakeholder communication and escalation mechanisms are followed.

C. Project Quality Assurance & Audits

• Develop and implement a Project Quality Assurance framework.
• Conduct periodic project quality reviews and governance audits.
• Assess project compliance against defined project management and SDLC processes.
• Conduct stage-wise quality assessments at appropriate project milestones.
• Identify process gaps, non-conformities and governance weaknesses.

Issue quality audit observations and track corrective actions to closure.

• Conduct follow-up audits to verify effectiveness of corrective actions.

• Identify recurring project governance issues and recommend systemic improvements.

• Maintain audit evidence and ensure projects remain audit-ready.

• Support internal and external audits relating to IT projects, software development and information security.

• Provide independent quality assessments to management on project health and compliance.

D. Software SDLC Governance

• Establish and maintain the organisation's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) framework.

• Ensure adherence to defined SDLC processes across all application development projects.

• Define appropriate quality gates covering:

• Business requirements
• Requirement analysis
• Solution / technical design
• Development
• Code review
• Testing
• Security assessment
• UAT
• Deployment
• Release
• Post-production review

• Ensure appropriate documentation and evidence are maintained at each SDLC stage.

• Conduct periodic SDLC compliance assessments.

• Drive corrective and preventive actions for SDLC deviations.

• Establish appropriate approval and sign-off mechanisms for critical SDLC stages.

E. Software Quality Assurance

• Develop and implement Software Quality Assurance practices for application development.

• Establish software quality standards, procedures, guidelines and checklists.

• Define and monitor software quality KPIs and project-level quality metrics.

• Review development processes to identify quality risks and improvement opportunities.

• Conduct project/process quality reviews.

• Ensure defects, quality issues and process deviations are recorded, analysed and closed.

• Drive Root Cause Analysis for significant software quality issues.

• Establish lessons-learned mechanisms and ensure recurring issues are addressed.

• Promote quality-by-design rather than relying solely on testing to identify defects.

F. Application Security & Secure SDLC

• Integrate Information Security requirements into the Software Development Life Cycle.

• Establish and monitor Secure SDLC practices in coordination with Information Security.

• Ensure appropriate security requirements are defined during requirements and design stages.

• Ensure Secure Code Review is performed as applicable.

• Ensure Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT) is conducted at appropriate stages before

production deployment.

• Ensure identified vulnerabilities are risk-rated, tracked and remediated within defined timelines.

• Monitor closure of Critical and High security vulnerabilities.

• Ensure security exceptions are formally documented, risk-assessed and approved.

• Coordinate application security assessments with the Information Security team.

• Promote secure coding practices and security awareness within development teams.

• Support implementation of DevSecOps practices wherever applicable.

G. Software Testing & Defect Governance

• Define and govern the overall software testing framework in collaboration with development and testing teams.

• Ensure appropriate testing based on application risk and complexity.

• Ensure appropriate functional, integration, regression, performance, security and UAT activities are performed.

• Establish testing entry and exit criteria.

• Monitor defect trends and defect leakage.

• Analyse production defects and identify systemic causes.

• Ensure appropriate test evidence and approvals are maintained.

• Drive improvement in testing effectiveness and automation.

H. Change, Release & Deployment Governance

POSITION / JOB DESCRIPTION

• Establish and monitor governance requirements for application changes and releases.

• Ensure appropriate Change Management processes are followed.

• Ensure changes are assessed for business, technical, security and operational impact.

• Ensure appropriate testing and approvals are obtained before production implementation.

• Establish release readiness criteria.

• Ensure mandatory quality and security gates are completed before Go-Live.

• Review release exceptions and ensure appropriate risk acceptance.

• Monitor emergency changes and post-implementation reviews.

• Analyse production incidents attributable to inadequate release/change governance.

I. Project Risk & Issue Governance

• Establish appropriate project risk management practices.

• Review project risks periodically and assess adequacy of mitigation plans.

• Ensure critical risks are escalated to appropriate governance forums.

• Monitor ageing and closure of project issues.

• Identify cross-project risks, dependencies and systemic issues.

• Escalate significant risks that may impact project scope, timeline, quality, security or business outcomes.

• Ensure risk acceptance and exception management processes are followed.

J. Project Metrics, Dashboards & Management Reporting

• Establish project governance and quality KPIs.

• Develop management dashboards covering project health, quality, SDLC compliance and security.

• Track metrics such as:

• Project milestone adherence
• SDLC compliance
• Project governance compliance
• Open project risks/issues
• Defect trends
• Production defect leakage
• Security vulnerabilities
• VAPT compliance
• Change/release compliance
• Audit observations
• Corrective action closure

• Provide periodic project quality and governance reports to senior management.

• Identify trends and emerging risks through data analysis.

• Provide recommendations for management intervention where required.