Quality is something that satisfies the needs
of the stakeholders. It is the degree to which the set of characteristics
fulfills the requirements. It is one of the requirements that needs to be
collected from the stakeholders. It applies to all the projects regardless of
the nature of deliverables. Failure to meet quality requirements may result to rework,
increased project risks, increased undetected errors, decreased profits,
increased costs etc.
Quality differs from grades. Grade is a
category to a deliverable with the same functional use but different
technically. Taking an example of free trial software (with limited days to use
and limited features) but works very fine without any defects. This can be
named as a low grade software. But a software with unlimited features that
works fine as well is named as a high grade software. If the same software with
unlimited features has a lot of defects and sometimes slows other components
then it can be categorized as a low quality because of its inefficiency.
Meeting quality requirements according to
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recognizes the importance
of:
- Customer satisfaction i.e. the customer’s expectation from the project is met and the product or service or result produced really fulfills and satisfies the customer’s needs.
- Prevention over Inspection i.e. the cost of preventing mistakes is less than the cost of correcting them after inspection. Assume, the project is producing a product. The mistakes found during the production process are better to be treated before going to the customers. If the mistakes are found by the customers themselves, then the cost of overcoming them is really high because there is also a risk of losing more customers due to lack of trust to the product. Therefore it is advised the product should be inspected before realizing it to the customer.
- Continuous Improvement by having the system of improving quality continuously in all the processes before deliverance. Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma and so forth can be used to improve the quality of project and the product as well.
- Management Responsibility whereby every member in the project team must feel responsible for quality issues.
- Cost of Quality (COQ) whereby the cost of quality that incurred during the project life cycle (conformance work) and the cost of quality that incurred during the operations (non-conformance work) are identified.
References:
PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/he-white-paper-quality-plans-back-qaa-appear-criticise-hefce
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