What Is "Project Quality"?

What Is Project Quality ?

What do you think of when hear "quality"? Testing? Zero defects? Audits? Overhead? If you answered yes to any of these, you may be surprised to know how PMI defines quality. To PMI, quality equals "conformance to requirements and fitness of use." Well, of course it does. Simply translated, this means that the project produces what it said it would and that what it produces satisfies real customer needs. In other words, did the project deliver on the targeted requirements and were the requirements on target? Did your understanding of client needs translate into client satisfaction?

You may be thinking, "Greg, isn't this what a project is supposed to do?" or "You know, Greg, this sounds an awful like managing requirements." Exactly. While there are aspects of managing quality that are unique, mainly verifying that the work is complete and correct, most elements of managing project quality are fused tightly with other aspects of project management, especially requirements (scope) management, expectations management, risk management, team management, and procurement management.

In the same way that we said project management is risk management in the last chapter, we could also say project management is quality management too. After all, most of the best practices now recommended for project management (and discussed in this book) have quality concerns as their foundation. From clearly defining the project, to the approach we take to accomplishing the work, to the project team we assemble, to the focus on customer "buy-in," it's all there to give the project the best opportunity to deliver the solution requirements and to meet the expectations of the clientin other words, deliver project quality.