Back to Home

Quality Management

Ensure project deliverables meet or exceed stakeholder expectations through comprehensive quality management practices.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Holistic approach combining culture, systems, and tools to ensure quality throughout the project lifecycle.

Quality Assurance (QA)

Process-oriented approach that builds quality into the project through standards, training, and preventive actions.

Quality Control (QC)

Product-oriented approach that verifies deliverables meet requirements through testing and inspection.

Quality Planning

Strategic process of defining quality objectives, standards, and methods to meet stakeholder expectations.

Documentation & Records

Essential documentation including Quality Management Plan, Procedures/SOPs, Work Instructions, Checklists, and Records.

Software Development & Quality

Quality practices embedded throughout the SDLC from requirements to maintenance, ensuring consistent quality at each phase.

Auditing

Systematic examination of processes and products to ensure compliance and identify improvement opportunities.

Quality Standards & Models

Frameworks like ISO 9001, CMMI, Six Sigma, and Lean that provide structured approaches to quality management.

Quality Management in Project Management

Quality management is a comprehensive approach to ensuring that project deliverables meet or exceed stakeholder expectations. It encompasses both the processes used to create deliverables and the characteristics of the deliverables themselves.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is a holistic approach that combines three key elements:

Core Components

  • Customer Focus: Every process starts with end-user needs
  • Continuous Improvement: Ongoing small upgrades (Kaizen)
  • Employee Involvement: Everyone owns quality
  • Process Approach: View work as linked workflows
  • Fact-Based Decisions: Use data, not hunches
  • Integrated System: All subsystems align to quality goals

Quality Assurance (QA)

QA is process-oriented, focusing on building quality in rather than inspecting it out.

Typical QA Activities

  • Standards definition (coding guidelines, style guides)
  • Process audits (verifying procedure compliance)
  • Training & mentorship (pair programming, brown-bag sessions)
  • Preventive actions (root cause analysis)
  • Supplier evaluation (quality of incoming materials/services)

Quality Planning

Quality planning involves:

  1. Identifying stakeholders and "voice of the customer"
  2. Setting measurable objectives (SMART)
  3. Selecting standards and methods
  4. Creating a Quality Management Plan:
    • Roles & responsibilities
    • Metrics/KPIs & dashboards
    • Review cadence
    • Tools (CI/CD, static analysis, test frameworks)

Quality Control (QC)

QC is product-oriented, focusing on checking deliverables against the plan.

Typical QC Activities

  • Unit & integration testing
  • Code inspections
  • Acceptance testing
  • Control charts
  • Defect triage

Project Process & Definition

  1. Define process flow (SIPOC or flowchart)
  2. Document entry/exit criteria
  3. Instrument with KPIs
  4. Improve via PDCA or DMAIC loops

Documentation & Records

Essential documentation includes:

  • Quality Management Plan
  • Procedures/SOPs
  • Work Instructions
  • Checklists
  • Records & Logs

Software Development & Quality

Quality practices embedded throughout the SDLC:

  • Requirements: User stories with acceptance criteria
  • Design: Architecture review, threat modeling
  • Coding: TDD, pair programming, static analysis
  • Build & Integration: CI, automatic linting
  • Testing: Unit → Integration → System → UAT pyramid
  • Deployment: Canary releases, feature flags
  • Maintenance: Observability, post-incident reviews

Auditing

Systematic examination of processes/products against predefined criteria.

Audit Process

  1. Plan – scope, objectives, checklist
  2. Conduct – interviews, sampling, observation
  3. Report – findings, non-conformities, OFIs
  4. Follow-up – corrective actions, verification

Audit Types

  • Certification audits (ISO 9001, ISO 27001)
  • Supplier audits
  • Regulatory audits
  • Penetration testing

Quality Management Standards & Models

Key frameworks include:

  • ISO 9001:2015 (Universal QM)
  • CMMI Dev v2.0 (Software maturity)
  • ISO/IEC 12207 (Software life-cycle)
  • Six Sigma (DMAIC)
  • ITIL 4 (IT service quality)
  • Lean (Waste elimination)

ISO 9001:2015 Structure

  1. Context of the Organization
  2. Leadership
  3. Planning
  4. Support
  5. Operation
  6. Performance Evaluation
  7. Improvement

Best Practices

  1. Start with clear quality objectives
  2. Involve all stakeholders in quality planning
  3. Use data-driven decision making
  4. Implement continuous improvement
  5. Maintain comprehensive documentation
  6. Conduct regular audits and reviews
  7. Train and empower team members
  8. Monitor and measure quality metrics

Integration with Other Knowledge Areas

Quality management integrates with:

  • Scope Management: Quality requirements
  • Time Management: Quality activities in schedule
  • Cost Management: Cost of quality
  • Risk Management: Quality-related risks
  • Stakeholder Management: Quality expectations

By effectively managing quality, project managers can ensure deliverables meet stakeholder expectations while maintaining project efficiency and effectiveness.