Discussion Questions on Project Quality Management

Quality Management is a key factor in managing customer expectations and ensuring that the project requirements are met. What tools and techniques are used to measure quality control?

I am going to take a major left turn on this one. When talking about quality, many think of the same types of quality work that is done in a production environment. In Project Management: A Systems Approach, Kerzner talks through seven tools that are used to measure quality control: data tables, cause-and-effect analysis, histogram, pareto analysis, scatter diagrams, trend analysis and control charts. But I don’t see these as the focus of quality in project management. Instead, I view quality as the degree to which the project meets requirements. The requirements that I focus on are the measures of time, cost, and scope.

Within scope is the list of the deliverables expected from the customer. Those deliverables should be described in enough detail that you can measure what is delivered to confirm that they meet the stated requirements. If they do, your quality for scope is good. The same goes for schedule. When you develop a schedule you should measure your performance against the schedule. If you are on schedule, your quality is good. Same for budget. So to me, quality is more than data tables and histograms measuring parts and pieces. Quality extends to the project management process itself, and yes, to the project manager. If the project is producing the desired scope, on time and within budget, the project manager is doing quality work.

Should we also provide the highest level of quality on every project?

Absolutely NOT. Producing quality beyond what is required is known as gold plating. Some believe that if you can give the customer extra stuff for nothing that you are providing higher quality. That isn’t the case because if resources on your team have time to do stuff that isn’t within scope, they are wasting time and money producing something that wasn’t asked for. As a result, they are costing the overall project more time and money that it would have cost if they had just focused on the requirements. The focus should be to meet the requirements of the project, not to exceed them.

When is too much quality a bad thing? Give an example.

Too much quality is a bad thing when it costs you more time or budget than it would have to provide the quality needed to meet the requirements of the customer. In other words, it is always a bad thing! Think of it this way… if you go to the ATM machine and request to take out $100 dollars and the machine gives you $100 dollars, you would consider this a quality transaction because it met your requirements. However, if it kicked out $120 dollars, it would have still met your requirements but it would have unnecessarily cost the bank an extra $20 dollars. Would you be happier as a customer? Absolutely! However, the bank would not be in business for long if it kept gold plating ATM transactions.