What is Project Quality?

A good project is usually defined as one which delivers the expected outcomes or objectives:

• within the TIME allocated
• on or under the BUDGET allowed, and
• to an accepted level of Quality

Everyone probably has their own concept of what constitutes a quality project. The objective has to be delivered on time and within budget, it has to meet the specifications, and do so efficiently and effectively. In terms of systems or processes, they need to be easy to understand, easy to use and well documented.

The administration of the project itself needs to be subject to quality processes in order to deliver the appropriate outcomes. This is the area on which we will concentrate.

How To ‘Manage Quality'

Quality obviously needs to be built in to any project, not just bolted on. Every good project manager tries to ensure that it is an integral part of every activity, and that requires every team member to contribute.  Things start going wrong when time constraints occur, and there is pressure to concentrate on the core 'hard' deliverables. 

There are two key activities which can assist in this regard.  Using either will help.  Using both is better.

The Project Office

We should point out right up front that there are many variations on a theme here, the 'project office' concept that we support is only one of many options. The 'project office' can provide key services to any project teams within an organisation, as well as being an objective source of information for the project owner, and the steering committee.

The project office can work with different individual projects, but should not be part of an individual project team.  It manages aspects of project management which are common to most IM&T projects. For example, their responsibilities might include:

• Developing & maintaining the project management methodology

• Developing and maintaining relevant standards and procedures

• Reviewing proposals, status reports and other key documents issuing from the project

• Conducting project reviews

• Coordinating steering committee meetings, and related documentation

• Coordinating training for project managers, sponsors and owners

They might be a competency centre, providing coaching and mentoring for staff, and may also manage project libraries.  The key however is that they have some degree of independence from the project team, and have some authority in terms of insisting on adherence to agreed standards, policies and methodologies.

One organisation we have worked with agrees to an overall project budget, but only allocates funds on a quarterly basis.  Ongoing funding depends on a number of factors, one of which is support from the project office.

Project Health Checks 

Best practice will always call for some form of project review. Many organisations used to limit these to 'Post Implementation Reviews'. (Some organisations still do). All too often these degenerated into witch hunts, despite frequent claims to the contrary.  There is nothing wrong with the concept of a post implementation review. Ideally, it should be the last of several reviews.

By undertaking reviews during the life of the project, it is possible to apply any learning towards improving the outcome of the project, rather than 'learning valuable lessons from the failure of the project'.  We call these health checks, as they are geared towards detecting problems, and taking corrective action in time to save the 'patient'.

The number of health checks and the scope of them will depend on a number of variables including the following project attributes:

• Size

• Criticality

• Nature / functions

• duration

• budget

At the very least, health checks determine if the project is complying with standards and procedures including the project methodology. They can also compare projects to 'best practice' or 'common practice' and look for common problems. 

Health checks need to be done by experienced people who are conversant with current project management techniques. Their experience will be essential in looking for common project problems, and working within standard methodologies.  We suggest using staff from your project office, project managers who are not currently assigned, or specialist consultants such as Island Consulting. 

Related Topics

There are topics which are components of project quality management. We are in the process of developing information for each one.  As hyperlinks appear, you will be able to click on them for more information.