Head First PMP, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Quality management: Getting it right

It’s not enough to make sure you get it done on time and under budget. You need to be sure you make the right product to suit your stakeholders’ needs. Quality means making sure that you build what you said you would and that you do it as efficiently as you can. That means trying not to make too many mistakes and always keeping your project working toward the goal of creating the right product!

What is quality?

Everybody “knows” what quality is. But the way the word is used in everyday life is a little different than how it is used in project management. You manage quality on your project by setting goals and taking measurements. That’s why you need to understand the quality levels your stakeholders believe are acceptable, and that your project meets those targets... just like it needs to meet their budget and schedule goals.

Brain Power

How can you tell a high-quality product from a low-quality one?

You need more than just tests to figure out quality

A lot of people confuse quality with testing. When projects run into quality problems, some project managers will respond by adding more testers to the project to try to find more bugs. But testing is only one part of the story. To know your product’s quality, you need to do more than test it: ...