PROJECT MANAGEMENT CYCLE:PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

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PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Processes

Project quality management involves three processes:

1. Quality planning

2. Quality assurance

3. Quality control

The purpose of these processes is to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. These needs are multidimensional—Garvin (1987) suggests that quality has eight dimensions or performance measures:

1. Performance: This dimension refers to the product or service’s primary characteristics, such as the acceleration, cruising speed, and comfort of an automobile or the sound and picture clarity of a TV set. The understanding of performance required by the customer and the design of the service or product to achieve the required performance level are key factors in quality- based competition.

2. Features: This is a secondary aspect of performance—the characteristics that supplement the basic functioning. Garvin (1987) defines features as ‘‘the bells and whistles’’ of the product or service. The flexibility a customer has to select desired options from a large list of such options contributes to the quality of the product or service.

3. Reliability: This performance measure reflects the probability of a product malfunctioning or failing within a specified time period. It reflects on both the cost of maintenance and on downtime of the product.

4. Conformance: This is the degree to which the product or service design and operating char- acteristics meet established standards.

5. Durability: This is a measure of the economic and technical service duration of a product. It relates to the amount of use one can get from a product before it has to be replaced due to technical or economical considerations.

6. Serviceability: This measure reflects the speed, courtesy, competence, and ease of repair should the product fail. The reliability of a product and its serviceability complement each other. A

reliable product that rarely fails, and on those occasions fast and inexpensive service is avail- able, has a lower downtime and better serves its owner.

7. Aesthetics: This is a subjective performance measure related to how the product feels, tastes, looks, or smells. It reflects individual preferences.

8. Perceived quality: This is another subjective measure related to the reputation of product or a service. This reputation may be based on past experience and partial information, but in many cases the customer’s decisions are based on perceived quality because exact information about the other performance measures listed above is not readily available.

Description

Quality planning starts with the definition of standards or performance levels for each of the dimen- sions of quality. Based on the scope of the project, quality policy, standards, and regulations, a quality management plan is developed. The plan describes ‘‘the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures, processes, and resources needed to implement quality management’’ (ISO 9000), that is, how the project management team will implement its quality policy to achieve the required quality levels. Checklists and metrics or operational definitions are also developed for each performance measure so that actual results and performance can be evaluated against specified requirements.

To provide confidence that the project will achieve the required quality level, a quality assurance process is implemented. By continuously reviewing (or auditing) the actual implementation of the plan developed during quality planning, quality assurance systematically seeks to increase the ef- fectiveness and efficiency of the project and its results.

Actual results are monitored and controlled. This quality-control process provides input to quality assurance as well as a firm basis for acceptance (or rejection) decisions.

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