Project Quality Management includes the processes and 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. Project Quality Management uses policies and procedures to implement, within the project’s context, the organization’s quality management system and, as appropriate, it supports continuous process improvement activities as undertaken on behalf of the performing organization. Project Quality Management works to ensure that the project requirements, including product requirements, are met and validated. 

 

Project Quality Management addresses the management of the project and the deliverables of the project. It applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their deliverables. Quality measures and techniques are specific to the type of deliverables being produced by the project. For example, the project quality management of software deliverables may use different approaches and measures from those used when building a nuclear power plant. In either case, failure to meet the quality requirements can have serious, negative consequences for any or all of the project’s stakeholders.  

 

The project management team should determine the appropriate levels of accuracy and precision for use in the quality management plan. Precision is a measure of exactness. For example, the magnitude for each increment on the measurement’s number line is the interval that determines the measurement’s precision—the greater the number of increments, the greater the precision. Accuracy is an assessment of correctness. For example, if the measured value of an item is very close to the true value of the characteristic being measured, the measurement is more accurate. An illustration of this concept is the comparison of archery targets. Arrows clustered tightly in one area of the target, even if they are not clustered in the bull’s-eye, are considered to have high precision. Targets where the arrows are more spread out but equidistant from the bull’s-eye are considered to have the same degree of accuracy. Targets where the arrows are both tightly grouped and within the bull’s-eye are considered to be both accurate and precise. Precise measurements are not necessarily accurate measurements, and accurate measurements are not necessarily precise measurements.

The basic approach to project quality management as described in this section is intended to be compatible with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) quality standards. Every project should have a quality management plan. Project teams should follow the quality management plan and should have data to demonstrate compliance with the plan.