Hello, and welcome to another Parallel Project Training podcast. These podcasts are linked to the APM PMQ syllabus, launching in September 2024. I’m Ruth Phillips, and I’m here with my colleague Lisa Regan, one of Parallel’s senior trainers. Good morning, Lisa.
Morning, Ruth.
We’re here to talk about quality management today, which is a huge and incredibly important topic. If we don’t deliver to quality, we’re unlikely to realise the benefits, which is the whole point of the project. It’s absolutely central to successful projects.
Let’s take a look at the syllabus and the learning objectives, then we’ll explore the learning outcomes in more detail. The learning objective on quality management is to understand how to ensure that outputs are delivered in accordance with requirements. Lisa, could you give me a quick overview of what quality management is?
Quality management is the overarching approach to ensuring the products are fit for purpose. It’s not just about what you deliver, but how you deliver it. It’s about making sure that whatever you’re delivering meets the expectations of the user or customer.
Exactly. This links back to requirements management, which we discussed in another podcast. Quality needs to be considered from the start, and we need to ensure we’re delivering in line with the requirements.
Let’s move on to the learning outcomes. The first one is about understanding quality planning, including quality indicators and how they relate to the business case. What’s quality planning?
For me, quality planning involves assigning roles and responsibilities – who’s going to manage quality? Is it the project manager or a separate quality team? But it’s more than that. It includes regulations, standards, specifications, and acceptance criteria. It covers how quality will be measured at the end of the project, looking at factors such as time, cost, quality, risks, and benefits.
That’s interesting because when we talk about quality, we often think of high quality, but it’s really about what’s fit for purpose. Whether it’s a luxury product or a prototype, it’s about what’s suitable to meet the project’s objectives.
Exactly. Quality planning includes both quality control and quality assurance, and it’s important to define who will handle each aspect.
Could you explain the difference between quality control and quality assurance?
Quality control is black and white – it’s about passing or failing. It’s about inspection and testing to check whether the product meets the set criteria. Quality assurance, on the other hand, is about building quality into the process. It’s about ensuring that the right processes and methods are being followed throughout the project.
That makes sense. It’s not about weeding out bad quality, but providing evidence that the required level of quality has been met.
Exactly. That’s the key difference – quality control is about inspection, while quality assurance is about maintaining standards during the project.
The learning outcome also mentions quality indicators. What are they?
Quality indicators are specific markers that help measure progress towards quality goals. They can relate to performance, such as process efficiency, or to the end product, like stakeholder satisfaction or compliance with industry standards. For example, in construction, indicators might include material quality or site safety, while in software development, they could involve the number of issues reported or how well the code adheres to standards.
So, quality indicators help us monitor progress, not just at the end but throughout the project?
Absolutely. They are directly linked to the business case and can justify the project’s investment by showing that we’re delivering what we promised. They’re also useful for managing stakeholder expectations, providing early warnings if things start to go off track.
It sounds like they’re crucial for building confidence and keeping everyone informed. And they can even support risk management by highlighting potential issues before they escalate.
Exactly. They play a key role in supporting the quality plan and ensuring the project meets its objectives.
Would you mind revisiting quality control for a moment? I don’t think we covered it in enough detail.
Of course. Quality control is about preventing poor quality from reaching the customer. It involves testing and inspection, and it must be done by someone technically capable of judging whether the product meets the required standard. It’s important to ensure the right people are involved in quality control.
That’s a great point. In iterative projects, especially in software development, you often see test-driven development, where tests are created before the functionality is developed. It’s all about refining the product to meet the tests, ensuring quality throughout the process.
Yes, and it’s another example of how quality is relevant to both linear and iterative approaches to project management.
We’ve covered the first learning objective well, looking at quality planning, control, assurance, and indicators, and how they relate to the business case. The second learning outcome focuses on how quality control techniques are used to determine whether success criteria are met. What can we say about that?
Since quality control is black and white – pass or fail – it’s about stopping poor quality from reaching the customer. It ensures that the success criteria are being met, or not, with no in-between.
That’s a great way to sum it up. Well, we’ve had a good chat about quality. Should we say it’s fit for purpose?
Absolutely, but we’ll have to see if it meets our stakeholders’ expectations!
Exactly. We’ve looked at the overall quality management process, dug into the learning outcomes, and focused on how to ensure the project meets its success criteria. Thanks so much for joining me today, Lisa.
Thanks, Ruth. No problem. Bye!
