Preparing for Quality

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Before a project manager can plan for quality, he must know what the quality expectations are. Specifically, what are the quality standards of the performing organization and which quality standards are applicable to the project? As part of the planning processes, the project manager and the project team must identify the requirements of planning, determine how the requirements may be met, and identify the costs and time demands to meet the identified requirements.

One of the key principles of project quality management is that quality is planned in, not inspected in. Planning for quality is more cost-effective than inspecting work results and doing the work over, or correcting problems to adhere to quality demands.

The project manager must consider the cost of achieving the expected level of quality in contrast to the cost of nonconformance. The cost of quality includes training, safety measures, and action to prevent poor quality. The cost of nonconformance can far outweigh the cost of quality: loss of customers, rework, lost time, lost materials, and danger to workers.

Determining the Quality Policy

Top management should define the quality policy. The quality policy of the organization may follow a formal approach such as ISO 9000, Six Sigma, or Total Quality Management (TQM), or it may have its own direction and approach to satisfying the demand for quality.

The project team should adapt the quality policy of the organization to guide the project implementation. This ensures the management of the project and the deliverables of the project are in alignment with the performing organization’s quality policy. In addition, the project manager should document how the project will fulfill the quality policy in both management and in the project deliverable.

But what if the performing organization doesn’t have a quality policy? Or what if two different entities are working together on a project and they use differing quality policies? In these circumstances, the project management team should create the quality policy. The quality policy, in these instances, will accomplish the same goals as a company’s quality policy: to define quality requirements and determine how to adhere to them.

Regardless of where the quality policy comes from—management or the project team—the project stakeholders must be aware of the quality policy. This is important because the quality policy, and associated quality methodology, may require actions that could lengthen the project schedule. For example, quality audits, peer reviews, and other quality-centric activities. In addition to the required time to fulfill the quality requirements, there may be additional costs incurred.

Reviewing the Project Scope Statement

Just as project quality management is focused on fulfilling the needs of the project, the scope statement is a key input to the quality planning process. Recall that the scope statement defines what will and will not be delivered as part of the project, as well as objectives regarding cost, schedule, and scope. The deliverables, and the expectations of the customers, will help guide the quality planning session to ensure the customer requirements in regard to quality are met.

Reviewing the Product Description

While the project scope will define the initial product description, the product description may have supporting detail that the project manager and project team will need to review. Consider a project to create an apartment building. The requirements, specifications, and details of the building will need to be evaluated and reviewed since this information will, no doubt, affect the quality planning.

Reviewing the Standards and Regulations

The standards and regulations of each industry will need to be reviewed to determine that both the project plan and the plan for quality are acceptable. For example, a project to wire a building for electricity will have certain regulations it must adhere to. The relevance of the regulations must be planned into the project to conform to the requirements.

Reviewing Other Process Outputs

The project manager will need more than just the scope statement and the product description to plan for quality. The outputs of other processes will need to be evaluated for quality considerations. For example, procurement, which we’ll discuss in Chapter 12, may have special needs for contractors. The organization purchases products and services from vendors. If the vendors’ level of quality is unacceptable, the project can suffer, get off schedule, or result in failure.

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