Project Management Theory & Practice - Assignment Example

Therefore, in order to come up with successful, reliable and efficient projects, project managers are required to have a keen interest in managing quality of a project and shall also consider factors influencing quality of a project (Chen, 2010; Levy, 2011). This paper includes a discussion of how various factors influence the quality management process in a project management scenario and what different alternatives for managing quality and recommendations on how further improvements in quality of a project can be attained.

Quality Control / Management – Definition Quality control or management can be defined as a process aimed at ensuring that a project which involves manufacturing a product or rendering of a service is able to a predefined and acceptable level of quality. The process of controlling or managing quality includes initiatives and steps taken by the responsible persons to verify and test whether the project is adhering to a certain predefined sets of quality assurance standards (Levy, 2011; Lester, 2007).

The Project Management Process The process of project management is a purely managerial activity which involves planning and managing activities related to a project. The traditional layout of a project management process comprises of various processes. These processes include the following: Initiation of Project Planning and Developing a Project Executing the Project Monitoring and Controlling the Project Closing Down the Project (Levy, 2011). Before going into the details of managing quality in projects, it is pertinent to mention here that the implementation and carrying out of a project involves two basic processes, which include technical process and management process (Levy, 2011).

The technical process refers to a process which relates to the development of product. The technical process determines sub processes or activities for development of a product. The process outlines the cycle which is to be followed while carrying out a project and also identifies the activities involved in different phases of a project (Levy, 2011). On the other hand, management process refers to a process which relates to the whole project. This process determines the processes and ways in which all the activities involved in carrying out a project are planned, managed and controlled, such that each and every aspect of a project is considered and responsibilities and duties are allocated to relevant personnel and departments.

The management process also takes into consideration the timely completion of a project and carrying out of all activities within the allocated budget (Levy, 2011). The interaction of technical process and management process is diagrammatically shown as follows: Source: (StaffTechs, 2013) As can be observed in the diagram presented above, the quality management process lies in the middle of technical process and management process and is regarded as a supporting process. This means that quality control and management actually bridges the technical and management processes and is interlinked with both of them.

Quality Management Standards In order to satisfy the intended users or stakeholders of a project, it is important that the project meets their expectations and is able to provide them what it is