Quality as a success factor: Quality management implemented in practical projects
- Quality Management
- 10 min read
Julian Both
This article explains how quality management in project management helps to meet requirements and ensure sustainable project success. It covers the core processes of planning, assurance, control and improvement, the concept of the cost of quality, key tools such as the Ishikawa and Pareto diagrams and current challenges between agility and standardization. Quality is not understood as mere control, but as a strategic success factor for customer satisfaction and competitiveness.
Whether in construction, software projects or product development - quality management is one of the central pillars of successful projects. It ensures that results are not only completed, but also delivered in the agreed quality. It is not just about the flawless functioning of a product, but also about ensuring that budgets, schedules and communication channels are adhered to - and that everyone involved knows what is expected of them.
Good quality management creates trust: Customers get what they need, project teams work efficiently and companies strengthen their competitiveness. To achieve this, clear goals, fixed standards, ongoing reviews and a willingness to learn from mistakes are required. Quality is therefore not an isolated work step, but a principle that runs through all phases of a project - from initial planning to acceptance.
The PMBOK® Guide from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is a proven guideline for the procedure. In its current 7th edition, it no longer focuses solely on rigid process steps, but on 12 basic principles for successful project management. These include a focus on value creation and tailoring - i.e. the flexible adaptation of methods to the individual framework conditions of a project. Instead of the previous knowledge areas, the focus is now on eight performance domains in which quality is always taken into account - especially in the areas of project work, team and stakeholders.
This makes it clear that quality management is not a bureaucratic obligation, but a strategic success factor. It thrives on active design - for example through early customer feedback, iterative improvements and data-supported decisions. In this way, quality becomes a real competitive advantage: for satisfied customers, successful teams and sustainable project results.
2. core processes of quality management
The four core processes(quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality improvement) form the backbone of successful quality management because together they ensure that quality is not left to chance. Each of these processes has its own task - from planning and implementation to control and improvement - and only when they work together do they develop their full effect.
Why are these processes so important?
They ensure that quality is systematically planned, implemented by all those involved, objectively reviewed and continuously improved. Only if these steps build on each other and support each other can a project reliably achieve its quality goals - and react flexibly to new requirements.
This is why these processes must not be isolated from one another: Good planning is useless if it is not accompanied by quality assurance and quality control. Similarly, a one-off inspection is useless if it does not result in sustainable improvement.
In practice, this means that quality is actively managed from the beginning to the end of a project - with clear responsibilities, appropriate methods and a constant focus on potential for improvement.
The four core processes at a glance:
1. quality planning
Quality planning is the starting point for any systematic quality management and forms the foundation on which all further activities are built. In this phase, it is determined what quality actually means in the respective project: Which requirements, standards or norms must be met? What do the stakeholders expect? What criteria apply for a work result to be considered high quality?
A central component is the creation of a quality management plan (QMP). This defines:
Goals and requirements: What should be achieved and how is quality measured?
Methods and tools used to ensure and check quality.
Roles and responsibilities: Who is responsible for what? Who carries out audits? Who decides on deviations?
Resources and timeframes to ensure that measures can be realistically implemented.(Learn more about successful resource planning now)
Why is this so important?
Without clear planning, there is no common basis on which all those involved can orient themselves. Quality planning translates abstract requirements into concrete, verifiable specifications - so that misunderstandings are avoided, risks are recognized early on and quality is not left to chance. It makes quality visible, measurable and controllable.
2. quality assurance
Quality assurance builds directly on planning and ensures that the defined standards are adhered to in day-to-day project work. It includes all preventative measures to ensure that errors do not occur in the first place. This includes, for example
Process monitoring,
Audits and reviews,
Training courses,
and regular coordination with stakeholders.
The focus is on identifying and eliminating potential problems at an early stage - before they lead to costly errors or rework. In this way, quality is systematically practiced right from the start instead of only being checked at the end.
3. quality control
Quality control checks whether the results actually achieved comply with the planned quality standards. While quality assurance has a preventative effect, quality control is reactive: it identifies deviations so that they can be rectified in a targeted manner.
Typical measures are
Inspections and tests of partial results or end products,
Statistical analyses to recognize patterns,
Acceptance and approval of work results.
Quality control is crucial to ensure that customer expectations and contractual requirements are met - and that only error-free results are passed on or delivered.
4. quality improvement
Quality improvement ensures that quality is not viewed as a static state, but is continuously developed. This process picks up on the findings from planning, assurance and control, analyzes the causes of deviations and uses them to develop optimization measures.
Central activities are:
Analysis of quality data,
Identification of repetition errors,
Derivation of lessons learned,
and the implementation of process improvements.
The advantage: teams react more quickly to changes, increase their efficiency and reduce costs and risks in the long term. This means that quality is not a snapshot, but a permanent goal that evolves with every project.
3. cost of quality (CoQ)
The cost of quality (CoQ) is a key concept for managing the financial impact of quality decisions in a project. It makes it clear that quality always incurs costs - either through investments in good quality or through costs incurred as a result of poor quality.
There are four main categories:
Prevention costs: Investments in training, careful planning, process optimization and preventive measures. The aim is to avoid errors before they occur wherever possible.
Appraisal costs: Costs incurred through tests, inspections, audits and controls. They help to identify errors at an early stage so that they do not leak into later phases.
Internal error costs: Efforts to correct errors within the project before a product or result is sent to the customer - e.g. rework, rejects or corrective measures.
External failure costs: Costs that only occur after delivery - e.g. complaints, warranty claims, recalls or reputational damage.
An important correlation is the cost of change: the later a defect is discovered, the more expensive it is to rectify. Therefore, the following applies: plan, check and ensure quality as early as possible.
The following strategies can be used to optimize CoQ in projects:
Investment in prevention: Increased expenditure on quality planning and training can reduce error costs in the long term.
Early quality assurance: Integration of quality checks in early project phases to avoid costly corrections later on.
Continuous improvement: Implementation of processes for continuous quality improvement in order to reduce error rates and increase efficiency.
Data-based decisions: Using quality metrics and CoQ analysis to make informed resource allocation decisions.
Stakeholder involvementEarly and continuous involvement of stakeholders to clearly define requirements and minimize changes.
By effectively managing CoQ, projects can not only achieve their quality goals, but also optimize costs and increase overall success, which in turn increases customer satisfaction. The challenge lies in finding the right balance between prevention and evaluation costs on the one hand and potential failure costs on the other. A proactive approach that focuses on prevention and early quality assurance can lead to significant cost savings and higher customer satisfaction in the long term.
How can CoQ be used in practice?
To ensure that the concept is not just theoretical, project teams can use CoQ in practice to make better decisions:
1. capture and visualize CoQ
2. evaluate data and derive priorities
3. carry out cost-benefit assessments
4. continuously adapt CoQ strategy
5. convince stakeholders
Cost of Quality is not an abstract principle, but a practical management tool:
It makes visible where money is invested in quality - and where errors cause avoidable costs.
It helps project managers and teams to argue with figures, make smart investment decisions and systematically improve project quality.
In this way, CoQ helps you find the right balance: Invest enough to avoid mistakes - but not more than is economically viable.
Tips for CoQ optimization:
Invest in prevention and training.
Ensure quality at an early stage.
Use quality metrics for data-based decisions.
Involve stakeholders closely to clearly define requirements.
Promote a culture of continuous improvement.
4. quality management tools
Quality management tools are indispensable for systematically analyzing project and process quality, identifying weaknesses and implementing targeted improvements. They provide teams with a structured approach to not only observe problems, but also to better understand their causes, correlations and effects.
Such tools are particularly helpful here:
Separate symptoms from causes: A problem often only appears superficially at first. A good tool helps to make the real causes visible.
systematically identify weak points: Instead of only reacting to individual problems, teams recognize patterns and recurring sources of error.
data and observations: This makes it clear which factors have the greatest influence - and where a measure has the greatest effect.
derive and prioritize measures: By quantifying causes and their impact, improvements can be implemented in a targeted manner and resources can be used sensibly.
Practical example:
If a project team repeatedly finds that delivery deadlines are not being met, it is not enough to simply adjust the affected process step. The right tools can be used to analyze whether the causes lie in unclear requirements, poor coordination with suppliers or a lack of buffer times, for example.
Two practical and proven tools should be highlighted here:
Ishikawa diagram (cause-effect diagram)
The Ishikawa diagram, also known as a fishbone or cause-and-effect diagram, is a proven tool for visualizing the main causes of a problem in a structured way. The "head" of the fish represents the problem to be analyzed, while the "bones" represent the potential areas of influence, e.g:
People (e.g. knowledge, motivation, qualifications)
Machine (e.g. technology, maintenance, equipment)
Method (e.g. workflows, standards, instructions)
Material (e.g. raw materials, quality of supplies)
Environment (e.g. legal framework, location factors)
Management (e.g. leadership, planning, communication)
In order to systematically identify weak points, all potential influencing factors are collected together in the team, for example in a moderated workshop. The structured presentation in the Ishikawa diagram helps to analyze causes in context rather than in isolation. This allows teams to recognize where causes are repeated, how they influence each other and which factors have the greatest influence.
This is how the Ishikawa diagram is applied step by step:
1. clearly define the problem:
Formulate the deviation to be investigated as precisely as possible (e.g. "Delivery dates are frequently exceeded").
2. define categories:
Determine which main categories are relevant. Classic 6M categories are a good starting point, but can be adapted for specific projects.
3. collect causes (e.g. in the workshop):
Organize a moderated workshop with team members from different areas. Collect possible causes together in a brainstorming manner without evaluating them immediately.
4. define correlations:
Assign the collected ideas to the appropriate categories. Each cause is drawn in as a "bone".
5. discuss connections:
Analyze how causes can influence each other. Are there recurring patterns? Do several causes lead to the same effect?
6. identify the main causes:
Evaluate which causes have the greatest influence or are mentioned most frequently. These should be addressed first with measures.
Benefit:
The Ishikawa diagram makes the search for causes tangible and comprehensible, promotes active exchange within the team and helps to tackle the actual causes instead of just treating symptoms. It provides a structured overview of all possible influencing factors, their interrelationships and weighting. This allows weak points to be precisely identified and measures to be derived in a targeted manner.
Specifically, the Ishikawa diagram supports this:
Structure the root cause analysis so that teams don't get stuck on superficial symptoms.
Promote team dialog by bringing together different perspectives and sharing knowledge.
to make connections visible that are easily overlooked in day-to-day project work.
prioritize measures, as the main causes become clearer and improvements can be implemented efficiently.
The method is easy to understand, can be used flexibly and is ideal for penetrating even complex problems - whether in production, IT projects or in the organizational area.
Pareto diagram
The Pareto diagram is a proven tool for identifying the causes or sources of error that have the greatest impact on a problem. It is based on the Pareto principle ("80/20 rule"): 80% of the effects are often triggered by only 20% of the causes.
In practice, the Pareto chart is presented as a bar chart:
The bars show the different causes or problem categories.
They are sorted in descending order of importance - the most frequent or most expensive causes are on the left.
A cumulative line shows the extent to which each individual cause contributes to the overall problem.
5. challenges in quality management
Modern projects - especially those that work with agile methods - pose new challenges for quality management. Traditional approaches often reach their limits here, as flexibility and adaptability play a greater role than rigid specifications. Project managers must therefore consciously control how quality is ensured even under dynamic conditions.
Typical challenges and how project managers can respond to them:
Balance between agility and standardization:
On the one hand, projects must react flexibly to changes, but on the other hand they must still maintain consistent quality standards.
What helps?
Tailoring: Processes, methods and quality requirements should be adapted so that they fit the project context without being overly prescriptive.
Minimum Viable Standards: Clear guidelines define the quality requirements that must be met in every sprint or release.
Integration into agile processes:
In agile projects, quality must not be seen as a downstream check, but must be considered iteratively - in every user story, every sprint and every review.
What helps?
Quality gates: Binding quality checklists can be defined in each sprint backlog, which must be fulfilled before completion.
Automated tests: Continuous Integration (CI) and automated regression tests ensure that changes are immediately checked for effects.
Definition of Done: A common "Definition of Done" ensures that teams share the same quality criteria.
Suitable metrics:
Traditional quality indicators are often not enough to make quality measurable in dynamic, incremental projects.
What helps?
Real-time metrics: Automated dashboards show test coverage, error rates or deviations in real time.
Qualitative indicators: Customer feedback loops, retrospectives and reviews help to make soft factors visible.
Learning-oriented metrics: Error rates should not only be documented, but also regularly analyzed to identify patterns.
Cultural change:
Quality must not be seen as the task of individuals - it is a shared responsibility of the entire team.
What helps?
Open communication: Teams need regular forums (e.g. retrospectives) to talk about quality problems without apportioning blame.
Training and coaching: Targeted training helps to anchor methodological competence and quality awareness.
Role model function: Project managers and executives must exemplify quality, make successes visible and recognize quality-conscious behaviour.
6. Conclusion
Quality management is much more than mere control - it is a strategic success factor that makes projects more efficient, customer-oriented and sustainable. Properly understood, it means actively managing quality instead of just checking it at the end.
The four core processes - planning, assurance, control and continuous improvement - help to systematically anchor quality from the initial concept through to project completion. The cost-of-quality principle clearly shows that investing in prevention and early error detection saves costs for rework, complaints and reputational damage in the long term.
Methods such as the Ishikawa diagram or the Pareto diagram offer teams simple but effective tools for understanding causes, making connections visible and making improvements where they have the greatest impact.
Agile projects in particular, which are constantly evolving, need a vibrant quality culture. Quality must be understood and lived as a shared responsibility - in every sprint, in every decision, in daily interaction. Open communication, common standards and a constructive approach to mistakes are the key.
Those who view quality as an integral part of the project DNA not only create satisfied customers, but also strengthen team performance, motivation and competitiveness. This turns quality management from a supposed effort into a real advantage - and is a crucial building block for sustainable project success in an increasingly complex world.
