Project management and Constraints

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Successfully managing any project is a challenge. Prospective project managers who attend our Project Management Foundations course often think they have too much to deal with in terms of time, cost, and scope constraints. However, there is a fourth element they often overlook which ties these three together – Quality!

It is crucial to have a quality management system for projects to be approved or otherwise completed successfully This ensures that clients and stakeholders feel satisfied with deliverables and industry standards are met.

Concepts for creating a Quality Management Plan

A good Quality Management System encompasses the processes and activities that focus on customer satisfaction and professional standards monitoring & documenting.  As you are formulating your Quality Management Plan, these concepts must always be kept in mind:

Quality Vision

The project team needs to ensure they have a shared understanding of quality objectives with everyone involved in the process; this includes clients, contractors, and stakeholders. So that all parties are on board from day one regarding expectations for each deliverable.

Research

Do your research. Collect and analyze input data from project objectives, for example, scope or schedule of work, risks involved, and so on, to create a more effective plan that will meet every need.

List of Deliverables

Next is to make a list of Project Quality deliverables. These include; technical specifications, quality assurance, schedules with deadlines, and the like.

Quality Metric

A quality metric will help you and the team to determine goals for each stage of the project. It should be set up such that that it achieves outcomes and helps assure success with deadlines. The metric should also keep an eye on how efficient things are being done along the way too.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is about identifying constraints that will limit your ability to achieve targets. Once you’ve identified the limitations, then offer recommendations for improvement on practices to the team or party involved so you can start turning those weaknesses into strengths.

 

Quality Management Plan Template

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This template will help you set up your quality management plan and ensure that your team members are on the same page about what they need to do to meet their targets. Use this as a starting point and make any changes necessary before using it with your team.

 

 

Step 1: Introduction

Purpose of The Project Quality Management Plan

[Provide the purpose of the Project Quality Management Plan. This document should be tailored to fit the particular project needs. Identify which project(s), product(s), and/or the portion of the project life cycle that are covered by this plan and the overall quality objectives for this project.]

The Project Quality Management Plan documents the necessary information required to effectively manage project quality from project planning to delivery. It defines a project’s quality policies, procedures, criteria for and areas of application, and roles, responsibilities, and authorities.

The Project Quality Management Plan is created during the Planning Phase of the project. Its intended audience is the project manager, project team, project sponsor, and any senior leaders whose support is needed to carry out the plan.

 

Step 2: Project Quality Management Overview

Organization, Responsibilities, and Interfaces

[Describe the primary roles and responsibilities of the project staff as it relates to the practice of Project Quality Management. Indicate responsibilities for activities such as mentoring or coaching, auditing work products, auditing processes, participating in project reviews, etc.]

Name	Role	Quality Responsibility
[John Doe]	Project Manager	Quality mentoring & coaching
[Jane Doe]	Team Lead	Quality audits
<Name>	<Role>	<Responsibility>

Tools, Environment, and Interfaces

[List and define the data elements the quality tools that will be used to measure project quality and level of conformance to defined quality standards/metrics.]

Tool	Description
[Benchmarking]	[Industry recognized benchmarks]
<Tool Name>	<Tool Description>

 

Step 3: Project Quality Management

At the highest of levels, Quality Management involves planning, doing, checking, and acting to improve project quality standards. PMI PMBOK breaks the practice of Quality Management into three process groups: Quality Planning (QP), Quality Assurance (QA), and Quality Control (QC). The following sections define how this project will apply each of these practice groups to define, monitor, and control quality standards.

Quality Planning

[Identify which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. Identify and define appropriate quality metrics and measures for standards for project processes, product functionality, regulatory compliance requirements, project deliverables, project management performance, documentation, testing, etc. Identifies the acceptance criteria for project deliverables and product performance]

Define Project Quality

[Identify quality standards and expectations for customers, the project, organization, and federal regulations, define customer and project goals, quality standards, critical success factors, and metrics for which to measure success, and outline acceptance criteria for project deliverables and product performance.]

Measure Project Quality

[Identity desired metrics and related monitoring processes for which to measure quality standards, develop a plan for measuring quality, define methods of data collection and archiving, and document timeframe for measurement and metrics reporting.]

 

Quality Assurance

[Identify and define those actions, and the metrics to measure them, that provide the confidence that project quality is being met and has been achieved. Relate these actions to the quality standards defined in the planning section of this document.]

Analyze Project Quality

[Analyze quality data, document opportunities for improvement, and apply what was learned from quality analysis to eliminate gaps between current and desired levels of performance.]

Improve Project Quality

[Identify ways of doing things better, cheaper, and/or faster. For projects, identify ways of eliminating unsatisfactory performance.]

 

Quality Control

[Identify those monitoring and controlling actions that will be conducted to control quality throughout the project’s life. Define how it will be determined that quality standards comply with the defined standards outlined earlier in this document. Identify owners of ongoing monitoring and improvement of project processes.]

 

Step 4: Quality measurement Logs and tools

[In this section, logs should be used to provide documentation of the findings. If measurements do not meet standards or requirements then some action must be taken, such as a correction to produce a high-quality product that will satisfy stakeholders’ needs and expectations.]

Quality Control Log

Exception ID Number	Review Date	Deliverable Reviewed	Findings	Resolution	Resolution Date
QC-Exc-1
QC-Exc-2

Quality Assurance Log

Exception ID Number	Review Date	Process Reviewed	Findings	Resolution	Resolution Date
QA-Exc-1
QA-Exc-2

The Project team may use many different tools when performing quality management activities for the project. Some of these tools are listed below:

Software Quality Tools

• Microsoft Office Tools (i.e. Project, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
• Defect Management Repository & Defect Tracking Software
• Test Management Software
• Test Management Repository

Project Management Tools

• Server
• Risk & Issue Management System
• Software Vendor Web sites and/or Software Development Lifecycle Asset/Artifact(s) Repositories (as applicable)
• Deliverables Repository
• Software Vendor Problem Reporting
• Schedule Management and Tracking software

Appendix A: Project Quality Management Plan Approval

The undersigned acknowledge they have reviewed the <Project Name> Project Quality Management Plan and agree with the approach it presents. Changes to this Project Quality Management Plan will be coordinated with and approved by the undersigned or their designated representatives.

[List the individuals whose signatures are desired.  Examples of such individuals are Business Representatives, Project Manager, or Project Sponsors.  Add additional lines for signature as necessary. Although signatures are desired, they are not always required to move forward with the practices outlined within this document.]

Signature:		Date:
Print Name:
Title:
Role:

Signature:		Date:
Print Name:
Title:
Role:

Signature:		Date:
Print Name:
Title:
Role:

Appendix B: References

[Insert the name, version number, description, and physical location of any documents referenced in this document.  Add rows to the table as necessary.]

The following table summarizes the documents referenced in this document.

Document Name and Version	Description	Location
<Document Name and Version Number>	[Provide description of the document]	<URL or Network path where document is located>

Appendix C: Key Terms

[Insert terms and definitions used in this document.  Add rows to the table as necessary. Follow the link below for definitions of project management terms and acronyms used in this and other documents.

https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/lexicon

The following table provides definitions for terms relevant to this document.

Term	Definition
<term>	<definition>
<term>	<definition>
<term>	<definition>