Project Quality Management is all about managing quality rather than just hoping for good quality outcomes.
Project Quality Management sometimes regresses to the independent collection of statistics or the counting of problems post delivery. True project quality management is something done by the project manager and the project team from the very start of the project. It requires a mind set, a determination to produce good quality outputs all along the way.
Do gold plating and adding attractive features improve "quality"? No. Quality means delivering what the customer asked for (or if you're really clever what the customer actually wanted, despite what he asked for).
Project quality management in software projects also means aiming to deliver software that has no errors - no bugs, no defects. At which point many people throw up their hands in horror and point out it's impossible to deliver zero defect software, and let's say we agree with this. But the inference that is then drawn is that since zero defects is impossible there is no point in trying so we give up on project quality management before we have even left the starting blocks.
Project quality management must have a target of zero defects even though we know we will fail. So does this mean we pursue this target regardless of costs and schedules? It does not.
The course shows how quality management principles are applied in IT software development projects and how non-technical managers can monitor and control the quality of software during development - rather than waiting for User Acceptance Test to find out if quality is excellent or not.
The course reconciles the zero defect target with the fact that it cannot be achieved and shows how, with good project quality management, this target encourages and galvanises the team's quality efforts.
Specific project quality management techniques such as inspections, simulations, metrics, measurements and causal analysis are covered.
However, project quality management is not something you can isolate. Project Quality Management is not just about doing inspections or producing quality measurements - and it certainly isn't all about testing.
Project quality management means doing everything right. Writing vague requirements then coding from a half baked design in an badly planned, chaotic project and then trying to test out all the bugs and test the quality in won't work. Well, it might work but it will cost rather a lot and take rather a long time.
Good project quality management implies:
In other words quality will only be good if the project as a whole is well managed. Trying to inject some stand-alone quality management, quality assurance, or quality control techniques into a badly run project is unlikely to be successful.
The course shows how software projects should be managed and how specific quality management activities
should be an integral part of the project management process. Indeed, the course could equally well be titled
"Project Management
For Quality".
Software Quality Management is covered in more detail here.
Quality Management in Software Development Projects
Project Management in the Public Sector
The Tale of Three Project Managers
Towards a Project-Centric World
Project Management Proverbs, Saying, Laws and Jokes
So You Want To Be A Project Manager?
Free Online Project Management Book
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