Quality management in project management is a crucial aspect because that helps you achieve the stakeholders’ expectations. So, in this article, we’ll explore what is quality management in project management and the processes of quality management.
Table of Contents
What Is Quality
Quality is the degree to which inherent characteristics of a product or service fulfill the relevant requirements. Project quality involves satisfying stakeholders’ expectations and fulfilling project and product requirements. Therefore, quality focuses on meeting acceptance criteria for deliverables. However, the project teams measure the quality using metrics and acceptance criteria based on requirements. Requirement means a capability or condition that is essential to be present in a product or service to satisfy a need. As well as quality is relevant to the project activities and approaches to produce the project’s deliverables. However, quality activities may focus on the detection and prevention of errors, issues, or defects.
8 Dimensions of Quality
Accordingly, dimensions can be used as a framework to analyze characteristics of quality and meet the customers’ expectations. Here are the several different dimensions of the quality. (According to the PMBOK 7th edition)
- Performance – Do the deliverables function as the primary and secondary stakeholders intended?
- Reliability – Do the deliverables produce consistent metrics each time it is produced or performed?
- Conformity – Are the deliverables fit for use? Does that meet the specifications?
- Uniformity – Do the deliverables show parity with other deliverables produced similarly?
- Efficiency – Do the deliverables produce the greatest output with the least amount of inputs and effort?
- Sustainability – Do the deliverables positively impact economic, environmental, and social parameters?
- Satisfaction – Do the deliverables elicit positive feedback from end users? ( this includes user experience and usability)
- Resilience – Are the deliverables able to cope with unforeseen failures and quickly recover?
What Is Quality Management in Project Management?
Project quality management includes the processes and dimensions for incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning, managing, controlling, and evaluating project and product quality requirements to meet stakeholders’ objectives. Furthermore, project quality management supports continuous improvement activities of the organization, reduces operational costs, boosts productivity, enhances interdepartmental collaboration efforts, and increases customer satisfaction.
Maintaining a quality management process is a crucial role because that helps you form and sustain business relationships. As well as that can also affect an organization’s revenue. Understanding how to create, execute, and monitor the quality of the project effectively allows you to produce consistent products and services that meet your customers’ needs and requirements. Through that, you can motivate them to buy from you again. So, let’s explore the processes of quality management in project management.
Processes of Project Quality Management
Project quality management is the process that includes (According to the PMBOK 6th edition) planning quality management, managing project quality, and controlling the project quality. These processes help produce acceptable deliverables and outcomes that meet project objectives and align with the expectations, uses, and acceptance criteria expressed by the organization and relevant stakeholders. Therefore, you should give close attention to quality in project processes to create positive outcomes. So, let’s explore these processes one by one.
Planning Quality Management
Planning is the first process of quality management. In this process, you can identify quality requirements or standards for the project and its deliverables. As well as you should also document how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements or standards. Furthermore, this process will provide clear guidance and direction on how quality will be managed and verified throughout the project life cycle.
End of this process, you can get a quality management plan as an output of this process. However, you can use these inputs, tools, and techniques to make this plan more accurate. Inputs may include a requirement management plan, risk management plan, stakeholder engagement plan, scope baseline, stakeholder register, risk register, and more. Tools and techniques may include expert judgment, brainstorming, interviews, cost-benefit analysis, decision-making, data representation, meetings, and more.
Managing Quality
Managing is the second process of project quality management. In this process, translate the quality management plan into implementable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project. Furthermore, this process helps project managers enhance the probability of meeting the quality objectives and recognize ineffective processes and causes of poor quality. Moreover, they can handle quality using the appropriate data or results from the control quality process to reflect the overall quality status of the project to the relevant stakeholders.
End of this process, you can get quality reports, change requests, and test and evaluation documents as outputs. However, you can use the following inputs, tools, and techniques to get these outputs more accurately. Inputs may include a quality management plan, quality control, risk report, lesson learned register, and more. Tools and techniques may include checklists, document analysis, root cause analysis, flowcharts, histograms, scatter diagrams, audits, problem-solving, quality improvement methods, and more.
Related post: How to analyze a problem using quality tools
Controlling Quality
Controlling is the third process of project quality management. In this process, you can monitor and record the results of executing the quality management activities. As well as you can assess performance and ensure the project output is complete, correct, and meet customer needs and expectations. Furthermore, this process will help you verify the project deliverables and work meet the requirements specified by primary stakeholders for final acceptance. However, this process output must comply with all applicable standards, requirements, regulations, and specifications. Moreover, this process is performed throughout the project life cycle.
End of this process, project managers can get quality control measurements, verified deliverables, work performance information, and change requests as outputs of this process. However, you can use the following inputs, tools, and techniques to get these outputs more accurately. Inputs may include a quality management plan, quality metrics, test and evaluation documents, lesson learned register, deliverables, approved change requests, work performance data, and more. Tools and techniques may include checklists, checksheets, surveys, performance reviews, root cause analysis, control charts, meetings, cause-and-effect diagrams, and more.
Conclusions
Quality management in project management is a crucial aspect of any project because it can affect the entire project’s success or failure. Project quality management is the process that includes planning quality, managing quality, and controlling quality. The dimensions of quality help project managers meet the customers’ expectations. Those are performance, conformity, reliability, resilience, satisfaction, uniformity, efficiency, and sustainability.
FAQ
What are the benefits of project quality management (PQM)?
- Enhanced cost control
- Increased quality of product delivery
- Reduced customer complaints
- Increase the quality of product delivery
- Good supply chain integration
- Improved productivity
- Improved project team satisfaction and moral
- Enhanced decision making
- Continually improved processes
