Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management is a key source for the success of any project or organizations. The quality as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements1. This definition covers all the aspects of quality as it could be tied to a product, process or organization, and quality is achieved by satisfying the customer or stakeholder needs. The PMBOK Guide (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge) defines the Project Quality Management as the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.2 The Project quality management deals with the management of the project and the product of the project. Project Quality management is the responsibility of everyone on the project and organization and every level of the origination should be involve in achieving high quality practices. Quality should flow down from top management to the operatives on the shop floor. According to Albert Lester, to ensure a quality product, it has to be defined, planned, designed, specified, manufactured, constructed (or erected) and commissioned to an agreed set of standards which involve every department of the organization from top management to dispatch.3 In order for organization to maintain the same level of quality and ensure that the quality standards are met, quality assurance, quality control, review and audit need to be continuously carried out in an organized manner through the organization. The Triple Constraint Project Quality Management deals with the management of the project and the product of the project. Quality is a fourth among equivalent in relation to the project triple constraint (time, cost, and scope). The project manager should be able to differentiate between the processes that ensure delivering a quality product and quality project. The quality processes that attune to the scope will ensure delivering a quality product. The quality processes that keep the schedule and cost constraints within the project constraint will ensure a quality project. Project managers
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Kenneth Rose, Project Quality Management Why, What and How, J. Roos,2005, page 5 A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fourth Edition, Project Management Institute, 2008, page 189 3 Albert Lester, Project Management Planning and Control, Fifth Edition, Elsevier (2007), page 73

always tend to make trade off among the three constraints to meet the project objectives. However, project managers should not trade off quality for any reason. A project that meets cost and delivery date, but the quality or performance does not meet customer requirements would attract criticism and could be categorized as a failure. Once the quality repetition of an organization or firm is damaged, it takes a long time and a lot of hard work to bring it back and attract back customers. Implementing quality management will maintain the cost and schedule constrains under control and delivers a quality project and product that exceeds customer expectations. Quality Myths The following are the most common myths about quality: an expensive process, an expensive product, and time consuming. Implementing quality process that reduce defects, will save cost over and over, therefore quality process is essentially free and not an expensive process. Quality is focused on the customer requirements, and satisfying the customer needs. An expensive product that viewed as a top quality product that will satisfy the customer needs has nothing to do with the quality being viewed as an expensive product. The customer wants to spend that much of money for that product, and quality processes will ensure satisfying the customer needs. Also, none of the quality definitions mentions the price; thus, quality is not an expensive product. The last myth that quality is time consuming and some project managers say that there is no time to implement quality. The true that there is always time, but they need to use it wisely. This is always true, since there is always time to do it over, especially when an organization produce and deliver poor quality products that might require rework and/or shipping replacement. Therefore, delivering quality product will save time. Elements of the project quality management Based on the PMBOK Guide, the project quality management is consisted of three elements: 1. Quality Planning: it is the process of identifying the customer, requirements, and specifications, and it documents how the project will satisfy the requirements. The quality planning is essential for project successful. The quality plan includes four elements: a. The quality policies: it discusses the quality direction of an organization. b. Infrastructure and responsibilities (Who is in charge?)
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c. Organization or project goals (Where are we going?) d. Processes, Resources, and standards (How are we going to get there?)

Quality planning is a process that performed in parallel with the other project planning activities. Quality planning is like any process, it has inputs, Tools and Techniques, and outputs. The inputs for the quality plan includes: scope baseline, stakeholders, cost performance baseline, schedule baseline, risk register, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assists. There are many tools and techniques that the project manager can use in this phase and include: cost benefit analysis, cost of quality, control charts, benchmarking, design of experiments, statistical sampling, flowcharting, and proprietary quality management methodologies. The output of quality planning phase are: quality management plan, quality metrics, quality checklists process improvement plan, and project document updates. 2. Quality Assurance: Albert Lester, defines it as the process that ensures that adequate quality systems, processes and procedures are in place.4 Quality assurance addresses the program activities that need to be performed to meet project objective. The quality assurance activities are based on specifications, operational definitions, resources, and responsibilities to a specific entity. The inputs for this phase are: project management plan, quality metrics, work performance information, quality control measurements. In this phase, the project manager can use the following tools: plan quality and perform quality control tools, quality audits, and process analysis. The output of the quality assurance process includes: organizational process assets updates, change requests, project management plans updates, project document updates.

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Quality Control: The process that involve monitoring and recording results of performing the quality activities to evaluate performance and recommend necessary changes. Quality control addresses the outcome of the project while the quality assurance addresses the program activities. There are several benefits for performing quality control, the results of this process will confirm whether the outcome (performance)

Albert Lester, Project Management Planning and Control, Fifth Edition, Elsevier (2007), page 76

within the specification or not, provide the basis for corrective action, and provide feedback to the quality assurance process. The inputs for this phase are: project management plan, quality metrics, quality checklists, work performance measurements, approved change requests, deliverables, and organizational process assets. There are several tools that can be used in this process which include: cause and effect diagrams, control charts, flowcharting, histogram, Pareto Chart, Run Chart, Scatter Diagram, Statistical sampling, Inspection, and approved change requests review. The output of this process are: quality control measurements, validated changes, validated deliverables, organizational process assets products, change requests, project management plan updates, and project documents updates.

Benefits of Implementing Project Quality Management: There are many benefits of implementing project quality management in an organization or project. Here are the main important benefits: increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, reduce waste, improve efficiency, improve supplies, increase profits, generate more business through referrals, and increase Competitiveness Conclusion: It is important to understand that quality is not an event or occur accidentally in an organization or project. It is a continuous process that includes quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control. Project Quality management is a part of every project management process, and an essential part for the successful of any organization and project.

Bibliography 1. Kenneth Rose, Project Quality Management Why, What and How, J. Roos,2005 2. Albert Lester, Project Management Planning and Control, Fifth Edition, Elsevier (2007) 3. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fourth Edition, Project Management Institute, 2008