TABLE OF CONTENTS So, you have the contract. Now what? Or you have just received the directive from management to initiate an internal project. Now what? What exactly should you do next to ensure that quality is built into the project? The answer lies in the component parts of quality management.
Many approaches to quality management exist. Every consultant with a laptop and flip chart probably has a proprietary approach that is advertised as the one best method. Taking a broader view, the PMBOK Guide describes three elements of quality management: quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control. The Juran Trilogy describes three slightly different elements: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. Juran's view includes assurance and control activities within quality control. It also adds the essential element of quality improvement, which the PMBOK Guide does not include as a distinct process. Our approach combines the best of these two views to include quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement.
The PMBOK Guide states that quality management processes " include all the 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."1 This description is sufficiently general to cover the needs of the project in terms of time, cost, and scope and the needs of the product of the...
