What is Project Quality Management

Most people can agree that there is a tremendous satisfaction to be found when you produce quality
work. While what is considered "quality" will differ from person to person or customer to customer, our
goal should always be to produce high-quality work. For businesses, maintaining quality when it comes
to project management is incredibly important. Whether your company seeks to provide fantastic
products, services, media, or technology, it’s critical to the company’s outward perception and future
that its quality levels don’t decrease below what is expected by customers or clients. That’s where
project quality management can help out.

What is Project Quality Management?

Project quality management is a process that considers how a project should proceed to achieve the
desired quality for the project’s deliverables. It requires project managers to continually measure the
quality of the activities and processes involved in the project. In project quality management, standards
are set ahead of time to measure deliverables against, and action needs to be taken throughout the
project to course-correct. Project quality management's ultimate goal is to guarantee deliverables that
satisfy the needs and expectations of clients, stakeholders, or customers, depending on its end-user.
Most project managers will approach a project wanting to reach the best possible outcome, yet many
factors could prevent this from happening. Even with the best team and best tools, a project’s output
could fall short of its mark without project quality management measures in place.

How is Project Quality Defined?

While the definition of quality can be challenging to pin down, in project management, "quality" can be
considered something that measures up to — or exceeds — the generally accepted standard for
deliverables in its category. When you’ve achieved quality, your stakeholders or customers will be happy
with the product or service they receive.
What are the Elements of Project Quality Management?

While it may seem like project quality is something you would measure after the project is completed,
this is a misconception. After all, it’s no good to review a project's quality after it has been completed or
delivered, as this doesn’t leave any opportunity for improvements to be made if it’s found to be
substandard.

Here are the three components of project quality management.

Quality Planning

Planning for quality is the first step in project quality management. Before beginning a new project,
agree upon what counts as "quality" for that specific project and what needs to be done in order to
achieve that level of quality. As mentioned, this will depend on what that customer or stakeholder
expects from the project’s deliverables.

During this stage, decide what monitoring quality will look like and document this process. Your project
quality management plan should include the steps you’ll take, such as weekly meetings or marking your
progress against a checklist, what quality metrics you’ll be measuring against, and what milestones you
need to meet during the project.

The big question to ask during this stage is, "Will this process result in a product deemed acceptable by
its end-user?"

As the project progresses, it’s essential to ensure the team follows the agreed-upon plan. Quality
assurance focuses mainly on making sure processes are being followed, that planned activities are being
completed, and that everyone is working towards delivering a quality end product. The way you assure
quality will depend on the project, but we recommend using a checklist and running routine audits.
Quality Assurance

The goal here is to prevent problems before they happen by following processes as agreed. While
quality assurance is preventative, the next step is more reactionary.

Quality Control

Lastly, it's integral to assign an enforcer to the project who can assess whether or not the desired level
of project quality is being met. This person will need to review progress against the plan and checklist
regularly. This provides an opportunity to identify problems and consider methods of improvement,
including adjusting risk factors and contingency plans.

In addition to using the checklist and measuring against key quality metrics, peer reviews and regular
testing can also be used to assess the quality of the deliverables. This process will either reassure you
that the project is meeting the desired level of quality or highlight areas of weakness that need to be
addressed before moving forward. This allows you to make amends as soon as you are aware of an
issue, which is much easier and more cost-effective than re-doing the entire project.

Value Engineering:
Value engineering is a systematic, organized approach to providing necessary functions in a project at
the lowest cost. Value engineering promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less
expensive alternatives, without sacrificing functionality. It is focused solely on the functions of various
components and materials, rather than their physical attributes. Value engineering is also called value
analysis.

Steps in Value Engineering

Value engineering often entails the following six steps, starting from the information-gathering stage
and ending with change implementation.
Step 1: Gather Information
Value engineering begins by analyzing what a product lifecycle will look like. This includes a forecast of
all the spending and processes related to manufacturing, selling, and distributing a product.
Value engineers will often break these considerations down into more manageable data sets. In
addition to assigned financial values, value engineers may prioritize processes or elements along a
product's manufacturing plan. Value engineering may also call for expectations regarding time, labor,
or other resources for different manufacturing stages.
Step 2: Think Creatively
With the core baseline expectations for the product having been documented, it's now time for the
value engineering team to consider new, different ways for the product to be developed. This includes
trying new approaches, taking risks on things never been done before, or creatively applying existing
processes in a new way.
Levering these creative ideas, value engineers will re-imagine how the product will be created and
distributed from state to finish. This phase is the "idea-generation" stage where members of the team
should be encouraged to brainstorm freely without fear of criticism.
Examples of thinking creatively may include changing the materials used, changing the product's
design, removing redundant features, trading off reliability for flexibility, or changing the steps/order of
the manufacturing process.
Step 3: Evaluate Ideas
With a bunch of ideas now on the table, it's time to decide which are reasonable and which aren't Each
idea is often assessed for its advantages and disadvantages. Instead of focusing on the quantity of each
tally, the value engineering team must consider which pros and cons outweigh their counterpart.
For example, a single change may result in five new benefits. However, doing so would outlaw
distribution to a country that the company exports the most goods to. In this case, the five benefits
may not outweigh the one disadvantage.
Step 4: Develop and Analyze
Once the ideas are ranked, the best ideas are taken and further analyzed. This includes drafting model
plans, detailing changes and their impacts, producing revised financial projections, redesigning physical
renderings, and assessing the overall viability of the change.
Be mindful of timeline constraints and considerations when analyzing changes, especially if other
departments will be negatively impacted by pushed out schedules or deadline changes. Also, consider
how the break-even point of a product may change as a result of the adjustment to ensure the strategy
aligns with the philosophy and financial capability of the organization.
Step 5: Present Discoveries
With plans devised and presentations pulled together, it's time to deliver the best ideas to upper
management or the board for their consideration. Often, more than one idea will be presented at a
time so the deciding group can consider and compare alternatives. Each alternative should be
consistently presented with fair representation across each choice.
Value engineering calls for enhancing the value of each product; therefore, presentations should begin
and end with how the change will benefit the company. Presentations should also include revised
timelines, financial projections, drawings, and risks. Often, management may seek specific answers on
changes or desire to see different analysis performed than what is presented.
Step 6: Implement Changes
As management gives confirmation to move forward with changes, value management shifts from a
theoretical practice to an change management implementation process. When proposed changes are
accepted, new teams are formed and assigned areas of oversight. Value engineer team leads often
remain engaged with the changes to monitor what is being adjusted and how expectations are being
aligned with new realities.

Introduction to Project Management Information System

A project management information system gathers, organizes, and uses project data via one or more
software applications. These programs assist project managers in planning, executing, and closing their
projects and organizing the information stream.

There are various PMIS software types, most with similar features like information collection, work
authorization, tools for scheduling and delivery, etc. Some additional features - gathering and reporting
of automated key performance indicators (KPI).

What Is a PMIS Used For?

A Project Management Information System is designed to assist all elements of project

management, including information that must be monitored or collected. PMIS can be used for project
scope management, integration management, project time management, project cost
management, project quality management, project risk management, communications management,
and more.

Essential Features of a PMIS

When a tsunami of information needs to be organized and tracked for the smooth progress of a project,
a Project Management Information System becomes a necessary tool to help with efficient project
management. The information also proves helpful in reducing costs, improving efficiency, and lower risk
for all future projects. 

The software has numerous tools to assist in storing data, making it easily searchable, analyzable,
retrievable, and thoroughly organized. 

Schedule and Planning

It is one of the primary functions of project management. PMIS computes the critical path, slack times,
and early and late schedules. 

Resource Management

Resources in a project include everything, from material to human. Project Management Information
System makes this management of resources easy by including resource input, allocation, resource
leveling, and more. In addition, it helps keep track of the task's expenses spent on procurement and
allocation. 
 Budget

PMIS keeps track of all costs associated with individual tasks since the entire project's budget depends
on the estimates of each task. Thus, for more accurate budget estimation - the customer's budget,
resources allotted, and time available is taken into consideration, and then the budget is generated. 

Control and Performance

PMIS provides performance management by analyzing and controlling cost and performance, updating
existing plans as new information becomes available or existing data changes, and providing what-if
scenarios for the project manager. 

Reporting and Communication

The Project Management Information System generates reports for every task, creates charts and
graphs of all the collected information and analyzes data that can be shared with the team
and stakeholders. It facilities effective communication among team members.

Integration and Ease of Use

PMIS might even access data from several projects for multi-project analysis and integrate it with other
systems such as inventory, payroll, and so on. The easier it is to operate a PMIS, the less cost and time it
takes to train. 

What is Project Management Software?

A project management software is defined as a software used for “project planning, scheduling, resource allocation
and change management”. In other words, it’s a tool that can help you get full visibility into the various workflows
and tasks that goes into every client campaign or in-house project you run. The best project management software
can give insights related to:
 Budgeting and invoicing
 Allocation of resources
 Campaign planning and scheduling
 Task management
 Document sharing

Key Features of Project Management Software commonly found

 Multi-user logins
 File sharing and file repository
 Project categorisation
 Cross-project visibility
 Live work streams and discussion forums
 Project ownership and ability to delegate tasks
 Automatic E-mail notifications
 Ability to set deadlines and targets
 Hierarchical project tasks
 Charts
 Calendar and timelines
 Contact list
 Analytics for effective reporting

How can project management software make your business better? (Advantages of PMS)

Better Collaboration

Sometimes you will run a project which overlaps departmental boundaries. How can you ensure that everyone is
kept in the loop? Most project management solutions provide live activity streams, which can show the various
project members what other colleagues are currently working on.

By increasing visibility of the various workflows, your team can avoid any potential communication issues and
collaborate more seamlessly. Benefit from:
 Real-time updates and workstreams: With a newsfeed or an activity channel, everyone will get full visibility
into which tasks are to be completed at what time.
 Document sharing: Instantly send, receive and edit files and documents in the tool.
 Project portal: Rather than wasting precious time on client calls and meeting, you can allow them to log in and
view relevant tasks, provide feedback or sign off on new activities.

Meet deadlines with better scheduling

When many people are involved, it can be incredibly challenging to keep track of all individual deadlines.

 Project Management software can provide you with easy timelines that can be updated by each individual – this
way everyone will instantly know what the focus is and if resources need to be shifted. Poor management will
never be reason to miss a client deadline ever again:
 Charts: With a dynamic, live timeline you can update your tasks or sign them off as completed. It will also show
you how close you are to specific deadlines, so that you can allocate your resources better if necessary.
 Online scheduling: With complete visibility into everyone’s schedules, you can easily re-allocate resources or
delegate tasks to members with available time slots. Time tracking is essential these days. 

Communicate with clients

Are you tired of having your clients breathing down your neck all the time, constantly checking what has been
done and who is doing what? You’re not alone.

It’s time to implement a project management tool that can give your clients access to your campaign dashboard.
From here, they can easily get an overview of the project and the current progress. If they are required to sign-off
on certain tasks, they can easily log in and view the specific task in the software. No more wasted time:
 Multi-user logins: Increase customer satisfaction by offering them full visibility into the progress of their
projects. With their own logins, they can easily provide approval, edits and feedback on the various
tasks.
 Document sharing: If you’re anything like me, chances are that you have an inbox you can never get to
the bottom of. Don’t let important contracts or documents get lost in the depths of Outlook – let the
client access everything in your project management tool instead.