Software Project Management For Dummies®

Chapter 6. Planning for Software Quality

In This Chapter

• Defining quality in software projects

• Working with your organization's quality policy

• Creating a quality management plan

• Identifying how changes in time and cost will affect project quality

When it comes to quality, you've probably heard some great clichés:

• Quality is planned into a project, not added through inspection (you should spend your time in planning quality instead of inspecting after you have errors).

• It's always cheaper (and more efficient) to do a job right the first time around.

• Why is there always time to do work right the second time?

• Always underpromise and overdeliver.

These sure are some catchy slogans, and clichés become clichés because they're usually accurate. In this chapter we explore what quality is, how to plan it into your project, and how to create a quality management plan.

Defining Quality

Before you can plan for quality, you must first define what quality is. Ask your customers, your project team, your management team, and even yourself what quality is and you get a variety of answers:

• What customers say: The software you create lives up to expectations, is reliable, and does some incredible things the customer doesn't expect (or even think of).

• What your project team says: The work is completed as planned and as expected, with few errors — and fewer surprises.

• What managers say: The customer is happy and the project delivers on time and on budget.

• What you may say: The project team completes its work according ...