APPENDIX A

Project Quality Participant Empowerment Readiness Assessment (PERA)

PURPOSE and DIRECTIONS

The purpose of the PERA is to measure the project quality empowerment readiness level of individuals and/or teams. It can be used as a 360 degree personal or team self-assessment instrument for prospective sponsors, project managers, and core team members.

For each of the dimensions listed below, circle the number that most closely represents your perception of the individual or team under consideration, using the rating scale below. Comments are optional.

SCORING

Project Technical Task Maturity: Add the numbers circled for questions 1, 4, 7, 10, and 12, and divide the total by 5.

Project Administrative Psychosocial Maturity: Add the numbers circled for questions 2, 5, 8, 13, and 15, and divide the total by 5.

Project Participant Moral Maturity: Add the numbers circled for questions 3, 6, 9, 11, and 14, and divide the total by 5.

INTERPRETATION

Average scores for any of the factors:

0 – 4.0 = Individual or team is not ready for project quality empowerment at this time

4.1 – 7 = Individual or team is ready for regular participation in project quality teamwork

7.1 – 8.0 = Individual or team is ready for self-directed, high-performance project quality teamwork

Use your lowest average factor score as a place to begin preparing yourself or your team for responsible project quality empowerment. Individuals or teams who are prematurely empowered (e.g., individual selected to be a project manager without being ready to assume the commensurate responsibilities) eventually become problems for themselves, others, and the quality system (i.e., the “Peter Principle” of institutionalized incompetence).

Adapted with permission from William M. Lindsay and Joseph A. Petrick, Total Quality and Organizational Development (Delray Beach, FL: St. Lucie Press, 1997). © CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.