Quality Assurance in Project Management

This chapter provides a fundamental yet comprehensive coverage of quality management. Bringing managers and engineers the most up-to-date quality management tools, research, and theory, this chapter shows readers how to plan for quality and achieve quality control. Broad in scope and inclusive in methodology, the material covered in this chapter will be useful for anyone concerned with quality management and control in business and industry. Topics covered include planning and organizing for quality, total quality management, quality improvement, statistical quality control, and ISO 9000. The chapter begins with an introduction to the concept of quality. Next, the quality management philosophies developed by Deming, Juran, and Crosby are presented. The principles of total quality management (TQM) are described next. The major steps in planning and organizing for quality are addressed in this chapter. Next, the quality improvement process, approaches to problem solving, and tools for quality improvement are presented. The concepts and techniques of statistical quality control are also covered in this chapter. Finally, the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 quality standards are described.