It is important not to confuse quality assurance with project assurance: Quality assurance provides a check that the project's direction and management are adequate for the nature of the project and that it complies with relevant corporate, programme management or customer standards and policies. Quality assurance is therefore independent of the project. Project assurance is the project board's responsibility to assure itself that the project is being conducted correctly. The project board members each have a specific area of focus for project assurance, namely business assurance for the executive, user assurance for the senior user(s) and supplier assurance for the senior supplier(s). Project assurance is therefore independent of the project manager but not independent of the project. So D is the correct answer.