A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition

Chapter 8

Planning Quality

TOPICS COVERED

Project Quality Management

Plan Quality

Project Quality Management

Project quality management includes the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.

Project quality management is applied to the project and the product. Quality processes and tools and techniques for the product are industry and product specific. Quality processes and tools and techniques for the project can be applied to most projects the same way. Both must be planned into the project to ensure the result meets the customer expectations and fulfills the project objectives.

There are certain underlying assumptions in quality management that the PMBOK® Guide has adopted. They include:

• Customer satisfaction is a key component of project success. Customer satisfaction can be described as conformance to requirements and fitness for use.
• It is better to plan quality in and prevent defects and errors from occurring rather than to find errors during the inspection process.
• The plan-do-check-act process as defined by Deming and Shewhart is the basis for quality improvement, but it is not explicitly identified in the quality processes.
• Much of the investment in quality comes from the organization. Quality processes and procedures, certifications, investment in proprietary quality methodologies (such as TQM or Six Sigma) are the responsibility ...