Project Quality Management

Quality processes should be used on all types of projects. As part of project triangle, project should be completed within time and cost, while maintaining high quality is very important for the successful outcome of the project. Worldwide competition has also resulted in a stronger emphasis on quality. If quality requirements are not met, it could lead to negative impact to both the customer and the company building the product or providing the service. The approach used to ensure quality can differ a lot between projects. For example, when developing a software there are other procedures then when developing a drug. To ensure quality satisfaction for the customer some Quality Management processes must be implemented. The quality management system consist of quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control. In this article we will look at how quality is defined and what are the best practices for managing quality to satisfy the customer and to meet quality standards.

What is quality?

There is no single definition of quality, depending on who is asked quality can mean different things. The ISO definition for quality is “The quality of an organisations’ products and services is determined by the ability to satisfy customers and the intended and unintended impact on relevant interested parties.” and “ The quality of products and services includes not only their intended function and performance, but also their perceived value and benefit to the customer”(ISO 9000:2015(E)).

Quality can also mean (Handbook of Project Management. page 124):

• Relative quality - the product or service compared to other products or services.
• Fitness for use - the product or service is able to be used.
• Fitness for purpose - the product or service will meet its intended purpose.
• Meets requirements - the product or service in relation to the customer’s requirements.
• Quality is inherent - quality cannot be tested in. The process must support designing in quality, not attempting to test it in at the end of the process.

The lack of definition on this term causes troubles for the project manager, if they can’t describe precisely what quality improvements they are aiming for it will be difficult to implement quality improvement objectives.

Dimensions of quality for manufactured products (Operation management page 56)

• Performance - The basic operating characteristics of the product.
• Features - The “extra” items added to the basic features.
• Reliability - The probability that a product will operate properly within an expected time frame.
• Conformance - The degree to which a product meets pre established standards.
• Durability - How long is the product life span.
• Serviceability - The ease/speed of getting repairs.
• Aesthetics - How a product looks, feels, sounds, smells, or tastes.
• Safety - Assurance that the customer will not suffer injury or harm from a product.

Dimensions of quality for service

Quality in service is directly related to time and the interaction between employees and the customer. Evans and Lindsay (J.R. Evans and W.M Lindsay, The management and control of quality, 3rd ed.) identify the following dimension of service quality.

• Time and timeliness - How long must a customer wait for service, and is it completed on time?
• Completeness - Is everything the customer asked for provided?
• Courtesy - How are customers treated by employees
• Consistency - Is the same level of service provided to each customer each time?
• Accessibility and convenience - How easy is it to obtain the service?
• Accuracy - Is the service performed right the first time?
• Responsiveness - How well does the company react to unusual situations, which can happen frequently in a service company?

Quality assurance

 Continuos process improvements 

Quality control

   A cause and effect diagram
   Pareto charts
   Inspections
   Statistical sampling?