Project Management

Chapter 19 : Project Quality Management

Definition of Quality

International Quality Standards

The Cost of Quality

Project Quality Management Concepts

Quality Policy
Quality Objective
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Quality Audit
Quality Program Plan

Project Quality Control Tools

Process Capability

Acceptance Sampling

Outcome of Acceptance Plan
Operating Characteristic (OC) Curve

Quality Circles

Just In Time (JIT) Management

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Chapter Summary

Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Maintenance of good quality improves business for the firm. Clients view the quality of a project as: conformance to specifications, value for money, fitness for use, support, psychological impression. Firms incur costs when they attempt to improve quality and these costs are referred to as 'cost of quality.' The cost of quality can be classified as costs of prevention, costs of appraisal and costs of failure.

Project quality management concept includes: quality policy, quality assurance, quality control, quality audit, and quality plan. Some useful tools of project quality control are data tables, cause and effect analysis, pareto chart, scatter diagrams, trend analysis and control charts like X charts, R charts, p chart, np chart and c chart. Acceptance sampling is a useful technique while deciding whether to accept or reject a particular lot.

A quality circle is a group of employees who voluntarily meet to discuss the quality issues. These circles help the management and the employees improve quality of the project. Just in Time systems integrates all organizational processes by eliminating wastes and by using minimal inventories. The principles of total quality management also help the project manager for consistent improvement of project product quality.

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