Quality is critical in project management and cannot be overstated. A well-managed project ensures that your team consistently delivers high-quality products and services. Customers will notice and continue to rely on you for transparent, efficient, and high-quality service.

What is project quality management (PQM)?

The process of continuously measuring the quality of all activities and taking corrective action until the desired quality is achieved is known as project quality management. Quality management processes aid in project cost control by establishing standards and determining the steps to completing and confirming those standards. A project’s quality management also reduces the risk of product failure or dissatisfied, unhappy clients.

These three processes are involved in project quality management:

1. Quality Planning
2. Quality Assurance
3. Quality Control

Project Quality Management Plan

While many project managers intend to create the best product or service possible, even the most skilled, educated teams using the most cutting-edge tools may fail if the proper project quality management plan is not in place.

Measuring quality may appear to be something that can only be done after the project is completed. On the other hand, project quality management should be built into the project and monitored throughout these three quality management processes.

Quality Planning

A quality management plan begins with a clear definition of the project’s goal. What is the product or deliverable’s purpose? How did a project succeed?

Assessing the risks to success by setting high standards, documenting all the data, and specifying the methods and tests to achieve, control, predict and verify success are all part of this process. Include quality management tasks in the project plan and assign them to workgroups and individuals who will report and track quality metrics.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance is a process that provides stakeholders with evidence that all quality-related activities are being carried out as defined and promised. It ensures safeguards are in place to ensure all quality output expectations are met. A project’s products and services are subjected to quality assurance. It can be accomplished by operating systems such as a process checklist or audit.

You can effectively measure project quality and customer satisfaction using qualitative and quantitative metrics. Quality assurance tests employ a metric-based system to determine whether or not the quality management plan is progressing satisfactorily. These tests or quality audits will assist you in predicting and verifying goal achievement and identifying the need for corrective actions. Furthermore, quality assurance tests will help you map quality metrics to quality goals, allowing you to report on quality status during periodic project review meetings.

Quality Control

Quality control refers to operational techniques to ensure quality standards are met. Identifying, analyzing, and correcting problems is part of this process. Quality control examines specific project outputs to ensure they meet applicable standards. It identifies project risk factors, mitigates them, and seeks to prevent and eliminate poor performance.

Quality control can also help keep a project on budget and on time. Peer reviews and testing can be used to monitor project outputs. By catching deliverables that aren’t meeting the agreed-upon standards throughout, you’ll be able to adjust your course rather than simply redo certain aspects.

 Advantages of project quality management:

1. Customer gratification
2. Enhanced productivity
3. Monetary Profit
4. Removes silos/improves teamwork

Quality Management Tools:

Affinity Diagrams

Affinity diagrams generate, organize, and consolidate data about a product, process, complex issue, or problem. It expresses ideas without attempting to quantify them (brainstorming sessions).

Process decision-making program diagrams

Process decision program charts depict the steps required to complete a process and analyze its impact. These charts aid in identifying potential problems and planning for them.

Interrelationships Diagrams

Interrelationship diagrams show cause and effect relationships, according to SixSigmaDaily. These diagrams help identify variables that occur while working on a project and which parts of the project those variables may affect.

Prioritization MatrixesC

During brainstorming sessions, use prioritization matrices to evaluate different issues based on predefined criteria to create a prioritized list of items. It aids in identifying potential issues and determining which problems to address first to achieve specific goals.

Network Diagrams

This is a graphical representation of a project’s timeline. It aids in the planning of the project from start to finish. It depicts the scope of the project and the critical path of the project. There are two kinds of network diagrams:

1. Arrow Diagram
2. Precedence Diagram
3. Matrix Diagrams

A matrix diagram is used to analyze data within the structure of an organization. The matrix diagram depicts the relationships between the rows and columns that comprise the entire matrix’s objectives, factors, and causes. Different matrices can be used depending on the number of items and groups of objects to analyze.

The various types of matrix diagrams and their applications:

1. L-shaped matrix: This matrix establishes a connection between two items.
2. T-shaped matrix: This matrix establishes a connection between three groups of items.
3. The Y-shaped matrix establishes a relationship between three groups of items, but it is depicted in a circular diagram.
4. C-shaped matrix: This matrix, displayed in 3D, creates a relationship between three groups of items.
5. X-shaped matrix: This matrix establishes a connection between four groups of items.

Software for quality management

The management of project quality is multifaceted. Your team must: understand the quality expectations, decide how you will measure whether you are meeting those expectations, and implement any necessary changes. An ideal work management platform allows you to track these aspects in a single, simple location.

Workfront’s proofing tools automate the review and approval processes, ensuring quality and avoiding costly errors. You’ll save time spent tracking down approvals, and you’ll aggregate feedback in one centralized hub for team members and stakeholders to access in real-time.