Managing Quality in Projects

The extant project management literature identifies and supports three criteria or objectives for assessing the success of a project. These are known as the 'iron triangle' of time, cost, and quality. The first two objectives are relatively simple to define and measure. However, project quality as the third objective or dimension of this 'iron triangle' is more difficult to define and assess, although it has received some attention in academic literature. The guidelines for project quality in the project management bodies of knowledge (APM, 2006; PMI, 2008) also reflect procedures of design and process requirements. These definitions and guidelines appear to suffer from two important limitations, viz. a lack of clarity in the description and the exclusion of organisational learning practices. This lack of precision concerning quality is often the source of project disputes. By picking up where quality management guidelines in bodies of knowledge (e.g. PRINCE) are failing, this book brings together leading-edge thinking and concepts from operations management and supply chain management disciplines. It shows how these concepts when relayed to quality can be applied to major projects leading to project excellence. Contributions to knowledge include the project quality and excellence model. This in turn defines project quality with three dimensions: design, process and organisation. It underpins project excellence with project quality, operational excellence concepts and continuous assessment.