Project Quality Management
Quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements”, and is
based on:
Conformance to requirements: the project’s processes and products meet written
specifications
Fitness for use: a product can be used as it was intended
Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was
undertaken, in accordance with specified quality standards.
Project quality management processes include:
1. Planning quality: identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how
to satisfy them. The application of metrics provides a standard of measurement.
Planning quality implies the ability to anticipate situations and prepare actions to bring
about the desired outcome. It is important to prevent defects by:
Selecting proper materials
Training and indoctrinating people in quality
Planning a process that ensures the appropriate outcome
Scope Aspects of IT Projects Related to Quality:
Functionality: is the degree to which a system performs its intended function
Features: are the system’s special characteristics that appeal to users
System outputs: are the screens and reports the system generates
Performance: addresses how well a product or service performs the customer’s
intended use
Reliability: is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under
normal conditions
Maintainability: addresses the ease of performing maintenance on a product
2. Performing quality assurance: periodically evaluating overall project performance
(including all the project activities) to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality
standards.
Benchmarking generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project
practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside
the performing organization.
A quality audit is a structured review of specific quality management activities that help
identify lessons learned that could improve performance on current or future projects.
3. Performing quality control: monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply
with the relevant quality standards. The main outputs of quality control are:
Acceptance decisions
Re-work (if quality is not acceptable or requires updating)
Process adjustments
There are Seven Basic Tools of Quality that help in performing quality control:
1. Cause-and-effect diagrams: trace complaints about quality problems back to the
responsible production operations. They help find the root cause of a problem.
2. Quality control charts: provide a graphic display of data that illustrates the results of a
