8

P R OJE CT QU AL IT Y MA NA G EM E NT
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.
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.
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.

Figure 8-1. Project Quality Management Overview

Project Quality Management Overview

8.1 Plan Quality Management

.1 Inputs
.1 Project charter
.2 Project management plan
.3 Project documents
.4 Enterprise environmental factors
.5 Organizational process assets
.2 Tools & Techniques
.1 Expert judgement
.2 Data gathering
.3 Data analysis
.4 Decision making
.5 Data representation
.6 Test and inspection planning
.7 Meetings
.3 Outputs
.1 Quality management plan
.2 Quality metrics
 .3 Project management plan updates
.4 Project documents updates

8.2 Manage Quality

.1 Inputs
.1 Project management plan
.2 Project documents
.3 Organizational process assets
.2 Tools & Techniques
.1 Data gathering
.2 Data analysis
.3 Decision making
.4 Data representation
.5 Audits
.6 Design for X
.7 Problem solving
.8 Quality improvement methods
.3 Outputs
.1 Quality reports
.2 Test and evaluation documents
.3 Change requests
.4 Project management plan updates
.5 Project documents updates

8.3 Control Quality

.1 Inputs
.1 Project management plan
.2 Project documents
.3 Approved change requests
.4 Deliverables
.5 Work performance data
.6 Enterprise environmental factors
.7 Organizational process assets
.2 Tools & Techniques
.1 Data gathering
.2 Data analysis
.3 Inspection
.4 Testing/product evaluations
.5 Data representation
.6 Meetings
.3 Outputs
.1 Quality control measurements
.2 Verified deliverables
.3 Work performance information
.4 Change requests
.5 Project management plan updates
.6 Project documents updates
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.

Figure 8-2. Major Project Quality Management Process Interrelations

Plan Quality Management

Quality management plan
Quality metrics

Project Integration Management

Deliverables
Work performance data

Quality templates from organizational process assets

Manage Quality

Quality reports
To Other Project Processes

Manage Quality

Test and evaluate documents Quality reports

Control Quality
Verified deliverables
Validate Scope

Control Quality
Quality control measurements
Work performance information
Manage Quality

Quality reports
To Other Project Processes

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.
Quality and grade are not the same concepts. Quality as a delivered performance or result is “the degree to which a
set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements” (ISO 9000 [18].). Grade as a design intent is a category
assigned to deliverables having the same functional use but different technical characteristics. The project
manager and the project management team are responsible for managing the trade-offs associated with
delivering the required levels of both quality and grade. While a quality level that fails to meet quality
requirements is always a problem, a low-grade product may not be a problem. For example:
It may not be a problem if a suitable low-grade product (one with a limited number of features) is of high quality
(no obvious defects). In this example, the product would be appropriate for its general purpose of use.
It may be a problem if a high-grade product (one with numerous features) is of low quality (many defects). In
essence, a high-grade feature set would prove ineffective and/or inefficient due to low quality.
Prevention is preferred over inspection. It is better to design quality into deliverables, rather than to find quality issues
during inspection. The cost of preventing mistakes is generally much less than the cost of correcting mistakes
when they are found by inspection or during usage.
Depending on the project and the industry area, the project team may need a working knowledge of statistical control
processes to evaluate data contained in the Control Quality outputs. The team should know the differences between the
following pairs of terms:
Prevention (keeping errors out of the process) and inspection (keeping errors out of the hands of the customer);
Attribute sampling (the result either conforms or does not conform) and variable sampling (the result is rated on a
continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity); and
Tolerances (specified range of acceptable results) and control limits (that identify the boundaries of common
variation in a statistically stable process or process performance).
The cost of quality (COQ) includes all costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing
nonconformance to requirements, appraising the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failing to
meet requirements (rework). Failure costs are often categorized into internal (found by the project team) and external
(found by the customer). Failure costs are also called the cost of poor quality. Section 8.1.2.3 provides some examples
to consider in each area. Organizations choose to invest in defect prevention because of the benefits over the life of the
product. Because projects are temporary, decisions about the COQ over a product’s life cycle are often the concern of
program management, portfolio management, the PMO, or operations.

There are five levels of increasingly effective quality management as follows:

Usually, the most expensive approach is to let the customer find the defects. This approach can lead to warranty
issues, recalls, loss of reputation, and rework costs.
Detect and correct the defects before the deliverables are sent to the customer as part of the quality control
process. The control quality process has related costs, which are mainly the appraisal costs and internal
failure costs.
Use quality assurance to examine and correct the process itself and not just special defects.
Incorporate quality into the planning and designing of the project and product.
Create a culture throughout the organization that is aware and committed to quality in processes and products.

TRENDS AND EMERGING PRACTICES IN PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Modern quality management approaches seek to minimize variation and to deliver results that meet defined
stakeholder requirements. Trends in Project Quality Management include but are not limited to:
 Customer satisfaction. Understand, evaluate, define, and manage requirements so that customer expectations are
met. This requires a combination of conformance to requirements (to ensure the project produces what it
was created to produce) and fitness for use (the product or service needs to satisfy the real needs). In agile
environments, stakeholder engagement with the team ensures customer satisfaction is maintained throughout
the project.
Continual improvement. The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle is the basis for quality improvement as defined by
Shewhart and modified by Deming. In addition, quality improvement initiatives such as total quality management
(TQM), Six Sigma, and Lean Six Sigma may improve both the quality of project management, as well as the
quality of the end product, service, or result.
Management responsibility. Success requires the participation of all members of the project team.
Management retains, within its responsibility for quality, a related responsibility to provide suitable resources
at adequate capacities.
Mutually beneficial partnership with suppliers. An organization and its suppliers are interdependent.
Relationships based on partnership and cooperation with the supplier are more beneficial to the organization and
to the suppliers than traditional supplier management. The organization should prefer long-term relationships
over short-term gains. A mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability for both the organization and the
suppliers to create value for each other, enhances the joint responses to customer needs and expectations, and
optimizes costs and resources.

TAILORING CONSIDERATIONS

Each project is unique; therefore, the project manager will need to tailor the way Project Quality Management
processes are applied. Considerations for tailoring include but are not limited to:
Policy compliance and auditing. What quality policies and procedures exist in the organization? What quality tools,
techniques, and templates are used in the organization?
Standards and regulatory compliance. Are there any specific quality standards in the industry that need to be
applied? Are there any specific governmental, legal, or regulatory constraints that need to be taken into
consideration?
Continuous improvement. How will quality improvement be managed in the project? Is it managed at the
organizational level or at the level of each project?
Stakeholder engagement. Is there a collaborative environment for stakeholders and suppliers?

CONSIDERATIONS FOR AGILE/ADAPTIVE ENVIRONMENTS

In order to navigate changes, agile methods call for frequent quality and review steps built in throughout the project
rather than toward the end of the project.
Recurring retrospectives regularly check on the effectiveness of the quality processes. They look for the root cause of
issues then suggest trials of new approaches to improve quality. Subsequent retrospectives evaluate any trial processes
to determine if they are working and should be continued or new adjusting or should be dropped from use.
In order to facilitate frequent, incremental delivery, agile methods focus on small batches of work, incorporating as
many elements of project deliverables as possible. Small batch systems aim to uncover inconsistencies and quality
issues earlier in the project life cycle when the overall costs of change are lower.