Quality definition

The  initial  step  of  project  quality management  is  to  define quality.  The project manager and the team must identify and define the quality standards to be used in the project .The views of the donor, beneficiaries, organisation and all the stakeholders has to be considered before defining quality. In certain  cases  the  organisation  may  have  some  standard  definitions  of quality that can be used by the project.

A key component of quality definition is to identify quality standards which in turn help in identifying key characteristics that will govern project activities and ensure project outcome, acceptance by beneficiaries and donor.

Quality  management  is  the  ability  to  foresee  future  requirements  and prepare actions that will help bring the desired outcomes. The aim is to prevent defects through regulated and controlled process.

Let us now understand the different participants of quality management system (the key players) when we define quality

• The donor is a source for defining quality; the project manager must communicate with the donor and understand what the donor defines as quality. The donor may have some standards expected from the project and how the project should deliver the expected benefit from the beneficiaries.
• The beneficiaries are another source of quality definition; the project team has to understand the beneficiaries? perspective of quality. This perspective will be more focused on fitness of use. The outcome of the project should be relevant to current needs of the beneficiaries and result in improving their lives. A questionnaire can be created by the project team that seeks to understand beneficiaries? point of view of quality and project success.
• Another source for quality is the development organisation which may have its own quality standards that reflect technical and managerial nature of the project.

Developing a quality plan and a quality check list is a part of defining quality. The checklist will be used during project implementation phase to ensure that the project team and other actors are delivering  the project output according  to  the  quality  requirements.  Once  the  quality  standards  and quality characteristics are defined a quality plan is created that describes the following:

• All the standards relevant to the project are highlighted. Standards have to be followed to comply with the regulatory requirements. The regulatory requirements are set up by the organisation, the donor and external agencies. The local government and professional organisations can be seen as regulators of requirements.

• The requirements that the products and services must meet in order to satisfy the expectations of the stakeholders.
• A condition or situation in which the output falls below quality standard.

• It includes a procedure to ensure quality standards are being followed by all project members.
• It includes steps to monitor and control quality.

• The process to make changes to the quality plan and quality standards.