Project Quality Management
Dr., Rabab Sobhi
Quality Definition
Definition: Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of a product, service, or result fulfills
requirements.
Project Quality Management includes the processes for incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning, managing,
and controlling project and product quality requirements to meet stakeholders’ expectations.
Key Aspects:
• Focuses on both product quality (fitness for use, conformance to requirements) and process quality (efficiency and effectiveness).
• Ensures outputs are defect-free and meet customer satisfaction.
• Involves continuous improvement practices (like PDCA, Six Sigma, TQM).
Risk Definition
2. Project Risk Management
Definition: Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more
project objectives such as scope, schedule, cost, or quality
Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis,
response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project.
Key Aspects:
• Aimed at increasing the probability and impact of positive events (opportunities) and decreasing the probability and
impact of negative events (threats).
• Involves both individual project risks and overall project risk.
Project Risk
Main Processes:
1. Plan Risk Management – Define how to approach and conduct risk management.
2. Identify Risks – Pinpoint potential risks that could affect the project.
3. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis – Prioritize risks by likelihood and impact.
4. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis – Numerically analyze the impact of risks.
5. Plan Risk Responses – Develop options and actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats.
6. Implement Risk Responses – Carry out planned responses.
7. Monitor Risks – Track identified risks, monitor residual risks, and identify new ones.
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
According to PMI (PMBOK® Guide):
Project Quality Management and Project Risk Management are two distinct
but deeply interconnected
knowledge areas that continuously influence each other throughout the project
life cycle.
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
PMI Perspective
•Risk Management prevents bad things.
•And Quality Management ensures good things (fitness-for-use).
•Together, they help you deliver the project on time, within budget, and fit
for purpose.
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
PMI Process Group How Quality Management and Risk Management Interact
Planning Risk management identifies risks that affect quality; quality planning
helps reduce project risks by defining standards, procedures, and
metrics.
Executing Quality assurance confirms that risk responses are properly
implemented (especially for risks related to quality).
Monitoring and Controlling Quality control detects actual defects and variations, which may
signal that a risk has materialized. Risk monitoring keeps track of
quality-related risks.
Closure Lessons learned from both risk and quality management are captured
to improve future projects.
If something could negatively (or positively) impact the project’s ability to meet
quality requirements, it is a risk and belongs in the Risk Register.
Relation between Project Quality Management and Project Risk
Management (PMI Perspective)
1.Interconnected Processes
Quality and risk management are highly interrelated because risks can directly affect
quality, and poor quality can create new risks.
2.Mutual Support
1. Risk management helps identify threats to quality objectives and provides proactive
responses.
2. Quality management ensures that risk responses are effective and that deliverables
meet agreed standards, reducing the likelihood of negative risks (threats) and
sometimes enhancing positive risks (opportunities).
3.Common Goal
Both have a common objective: delivering a product, service, or result that meets
stakeholder expectations.
How Quality Management Serves Risk
Management
How Risk Management Serves Quality
Management
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
1. In real-world PMI-aligned projects, Risk Register and Quality Management Plan are
integrated and cross-referenced.
2. Quality risks are explicitly documented in the Risk Register.
3. Risk responses are often embedded in Quality Control and Quality Assurance
processes.
Inter-Relation between Quality & Risk
Project Risk Management
•Risk Register is the master list of all risks.
•Quality-related risks are not treated separately — they are part of overall
project risk.
•PMI encourages integrating Risk Management and Quality Management.
•Identifying quality risks early helps design effective risk responses (e.g.,
more testing, training, quality audits).
WHAT’S PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT?
Project quality management is a difficult knowledge area to define. The International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines quality as “the totality of characteristics of
an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs” (ISO8042:1994) or
“the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements”
(ISO9000:2000). Many people spent many hours developing these definitions, yet they
are still vague.
Other experts define quality based on conformance to requirements and fitness for use.
Conformance to requirements means that the project’s processes and products meet
written specifications. For example, if the project scope statement requires delivery of
100 computers with specific processors and memory, you could easily check whether
suitable computers had been delivered. Fitness for use means that a product can be
used as it was intended. If these computers were delivered without monitors or
keyboards and were left in boxes on the customer’s shipping dock, the customer might
not be satisfied because the computers would not be fit for use. The customer may have
assumed that the delivery included monitors and keyboards, unpacking the computers,
and installation so they would be ready to use.
WHAT’S PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT?
PMI definition
The processes required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for
which it was undertaken.
It includes all activities of the overall management function that determine
the quality policy, objectives, and responsibility and implements them by
means of quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality
improvement within the quality system.
WHAT’S PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT?
Project Quality Management processes include all the activities of
the performing organization that determine quality policies,
objectives, and responsibilities so that the project satisfy the
needs for which it was undertaken. It implements the quality
management system through the policy, procedures, and
processes of quality planning, quality assurance, and quality
control, with continuous process improvement activities conducted
throughout, as appropriate.
WHAT’S PURPOSE PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT?
The purpose of project quality management is to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
Recall that project management involves meeting or exceeding stakeholder needs and expectations. The project team must
develop good relationships with key stakeholders, especially the main customer for the project, to understand what quality
means to them. After all, the customer ultimately decides if quality is acceptable. Many technical projects fail because the
project team focuses only on meeting the written requirements for the main products being created and ignores other
stakeholder needs and expectations for the project. For example, the project team should know what successfully delivering
100 computers means to the customer.
PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Project Quality Management includes the processes for
incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning,
managing, and controlling project and product quality
requirements in order to meet stakeholders’ objectives.
Project Quality Management also supports continuous process
improvement activities as undertaken on behalf of the performing
organization.
Quality Management Approach
Modern quality management supports project management. Both fields recognize the importance
of the following key principles:
1. Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction involves understanding, defining, and managing two key elements:
• Conformance to requirements: The project must deliver exactly what was agreed upon.
• Fitness for use: The product or service must meet the real needs of the user or customer.
Example:
A company develops a mobile banking app. If the app includes all the features promised (e.g.,
account balance, transfer, bill pay), it conforms to requirements.
If it also runs smoothly, is easy to navigate, and meets customer expectations, it is fit for use.
Quality Management Approach
2. Prevention Over Inspection : It is generally more cost-effective to prevent defects than to fix them later
through inspection or correction.
Example:
In a manufacturing project, investing in employee training and machine calibration from the beginning
costs less than dealing with defective products, customer complaints, and returns later on.
3. Management Responsibility : Top management must take responsibility for quality by providing the
necessary resources (people, tools, time, etc.) to meet quality objectives and ensure success.
Example:
If a software development project requires automated testing tools and skilled QA engineers to maintain
quality, it is the responsibility of upper management to allocate budget and hire the right talent
accordingly.
Quality Management Approach
4. Continuous Improvement
Quality should be improved continuously using a structured approach like the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle,
originally developed by Shewhart and later enhanced by Deming.
Example:
A project team runs retrospectives after every sprint. They identify issues (Check), plan process changes (Plan),
implement them (Do), and monitor the results (Act). This ongoing cycle helps the team deliver better quality over
time.
Edwards Deming
Dr. W. Edwards Deming is known primarily for his work on quality control in Japan.
Deming went to Japan after World War II at the request of the Japanese government to
assist in improving productivity and quality. Deming, a statistician and former professor at
New York University, taught Japanese manufacturers that higher quality meant greater
productivity and lower cost. American industry did not recognize Deming’s theories until
Japanese manufacturers started creating products that seriously challenged American
products, particularly in the auto industry. Ford Motor Company then adopted
Deming’s quality methods and experienced dramatic improvement in quality and sales
thereafter. By the 1980s, after seeing the excellent work coming out of Japan, several U.S.
corporations vied for Deming’s expertise to help them establish quality improvement
programs in their own factories.
Many people are familiar with the Deming Prize, an award given to recognize high- quality
organizations, and Deming’s Cycle for Improvement: plan, do, check, and act. Most Six Sigma
principles are based on the plan-do-check-act model created by Deming.
Juran
Joseph M. Juran, like Deming, taught Japanese manufacturers how to improve their
productivity. U.S. companies later discovered him as well. He wrote the first edition
of the Quality Control Handbook in 1974, stressing the importance of top
management commitment to continuous product quality improvement. In 2000, at
the age of 94, Juran published the fifth edition of this famous handbook. He also
developed the Juran Trilogy:
quality improvement, quality planning, and quality control. Juran stressed the
difference between the manufacturer’s view of quality and the customer’s view.
Manufacturers often focus on conformance to requirements, but customers focus on
fitness for use. Most definitions of quality now use fitness for use to stress the
importance of satisfying stated or implied needs and not just meeting stated
requirements or specifications. Juran developed 10 steps to quality improvement.
Crosby and striving for Zero defects
Philip B. Crosby wrote Quality Is Free in 1979 and is best known for suggesting that
organizations strive for zero defects. He stressed that the costs of poor quality
should include all the costs of not doing the job right the first time, such as scrap,
rework, lost labor hours and machine hours, customer ill will and lost sales, and
warranty costs.
Crosby suggested that the cost of poor quality is so understated that companies can
profitably spend unlimited amounts of money on improving quality. Crosby
developed 14 steps for quality improvement
Ishikawa’s guide to Quality control
Kaoru Ishikawa is best known for his 1972 book Guide to Quality Control. He
developed the concept of quality circles and pioneered the use of cause-and-effect
diagrams, as described earlier in this chapter. Quality circles are groups of
nonsupervisors and work leaders in a single company department who volunteer to
conduct group studies on how to improve the effectiveness of work in their
department. Ishikawa suggested that Japanese managers and workers were totally
committed to quality, but that most U.S. companies delegated the responsibility for
quality to a few staff members
ISO standards
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a network of national standards
institutes that work in partnership with international organizations, governments,
industries, businesses, and consumer representatives. ISO 9000, a quality system standard
developed by the ISO, is a three-part, continuous cycle of planning, controlling, and
documenting quality in an organization. According to the ISO website (www.iso.org) in
January 2018, “The ISO 9000 family addresses various aspects of quality management and
contains some of ISO’s best known standards. The standards provide guidance and tools for
companies and organizations who want to ensure that their products and services
consistently meet customer’s requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.” The
ISO quality management standards and guidelines have earned a global reputation as the
basis for establishing quality management systems.
Standards continue to be updated, and new standards are developed as needed. For
example, in 2013, ISO collaborated with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
to publish a standard to help organizations integrate information security and service
management.
Project Quality Management processes
The Project Quality Management processes are:
8.1 Plan Quality Management—The process of identifying quality requirements
and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and documenting how the
project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements and/ or standards.
8.2 Manage Quality—The process of translating the quality management plan
into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality
policies into the project.
8.3 Control Quality—The process of monitoring and recording the results of
executing the quality management activities to assess performance and ensure
the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations.
Project Quality Management processes
Figure 8-1 provides an
overview of the Project
Quality Management
processes. The Project
Quality Management
processes are presented as
discrete processes with
defined interfaces while, in
practice, they overlap and
interact in ways that cannot
be completely detailed in
the PMBOK® Guide. In
addition, these quality
processes may differ within
industries and companies.
PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Figure 8-2 provides an overview of the major inputs and outputs of the Project
Quality Management processes and the interrelations of these processes in the
Project Quality Management Knowledge Area. The Plan Quality Management
process is concerned with the quality that the work needs to have. Manage
Quality is concerned with managing the quality processes throughout the
project. During the Manage Quality process, quality requirements identified
during the Plan Quality Management process are turned into test and evaluation
instruments, which are then applied during the Control Quality process to verify
these quality requirements are met by the project. Control Quality is concerned
with comparing the work results with the quality requirements to ensure the
result is acceptable.
There are two outputs specific to the Project Quality Management Knowledge
Area that are used by other Knowledge Areas: verified deliverables and quality
reports.
KEY CONCEPTS FOR PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Project Quality Management addresses the management of the project and the
deliverables of the project. It applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of
their deliverables. Quality measures and techniques are specific to the type of
deliverables being produced by the project. For example, the project quality
management of software deliverables may use different approaches and
measures from those used when building a nuclear power plant. In either case,
failure to meet the quality requirements can have serious negative
consequences for any or all of the project’s stakeholders.
For example:
•Meeting customer requirements by overworking the project team may result in
decreased profits and increased levels of overall project risks, employee attrition,
errors, or rework.
•Meeting project schedule objectives by rushing planned quality inspections may
result in undetected errors, decreased profits, and increased post-
implementation risks.
