8.1 Plan Quality Management

The Plan Quality Management process establishes the standards and requirements for the project and deliverables.  It defines how compliance to required quality standards will be met and what those standards are. Some quality standards may be defined in local policies or governmental ordinances or regulation. Consultation  with experts may also be required.  The Inputs Tools & Techniques and Outputs for this process are in figure 18 below.

Figure 18. Plan Quality Management: Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p.232. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.

Process Definition

During the plan quality management process not only are the quality standards for the project deliverables identified but the quality requirements for the planning process as well.  This should spelled out how deliverable standards are evaluated and updated in conjunction with cost and/or schedule adjustments and they fall within the approved risk assessments defined in the project documents.  

Process Assessment

In planning quality management consideration should be taken to balance the quality cost against the benefits.  Its' possible to exceed the project scope by insisting on too high of quality in a product or process.  This is where risk analysis can be a critical factor.  Often standards for quality are dictated by the project originator.  They will know what the value of quality is to their project.  

Artifacts

Input

The Stakeholder Register identifies the stakeholders, their needs and the types and timeliness of information they require.  This is often done as part of the collecting requirements with the project scope activities.  Understanding the quality of the communications and with stake holders is what this portion of stakeholder planning entails.  see 8.1.1

Tools & Techniques

You can't have a discussion about quality management in projects without addressing the 7 Quality tools. Throughout the program we used one or more of these tools for analysis.  In PMGT614 I wrote a comprehensive  report on the use of these tools.  see 8.1.2

Output

The major out put for the Plan Quality Management process is the Quality management Plan included below is the Quality Management plan we generated in PMGT501. see 8.1.3