Introduction

I opened up my closet the other day and put on a pair of casual pants that I have had for three years. As I put them on, I thought about their excellent quality. They fit well. The plaid pattern has not faded after three years. They are not yet thread worn. They have not shrunk. These are all indicators that these pants are of excellent quality. On the other hand, I also have a pair of pants that are frayed at the hems, are slightly faded, and generally fit poorly after only a couple of months. These pants are of lesser quality.

Why do I share this fashion anecdote with you? Because quality is often an elusive concept in project delivery. How do we know that we have delivered a quality project? More importantly, how do we know that we have delivered a quality product? The pants provide a basic demonstration of measuring quality within a product. Quality must be defined by some measurable and objective standards.

Setting Quality Standards

Quality standards need to be set at the beginning of the project. The project team should work together with the project sponsor to define the level of quality that a project or product will achieve. To define quality levels, the project team should either identify internal standards (those created and defined by the project team or sponsor) or external standards (generally recognized standards within the particular community).

Internal Quality Standards

Internal standards are defined by the project team or sponsor and are based on the team’s previous experience or knowledge. These standards are not recognized by other organizations or teams as being authoritative, but provide a good marker about when the project team has achieved an appropriate level of quality. For example, I set standards for what I feel are a good pair of pants. They do not fade or fray within three years. They do not shrink despite repeated washings. These are standards that I feel reflect good quality pants. They are not recognized by any governing body or standards organization, I simply choose them for myself.

External Quality Standards

External standards are those that are defined by a body or person external to the project, and are usually generally accepted among a larger community of professionals. For example, the Canadian Standards Association sets standards for a wide range of activities, from business management to construction to privacy. They have set measurable goals that indicate a product or company is of high-quality and that are recognized by professionals everywhere. Were they to set standards for pants, they might consider the weight of the fabric or the number of stitches per inch. These are markers of quality defined by externally-recognized organizations or bodies.

Measurable

Another characteristic of quality markers is that they should be measurable. Being measurable allows the project team to indicate whether they have been met. If a quality marker is immeasurable, achieving this marker is subjective or a matter of opinion. I claimed that my pants were good quality because they had not faded or frayed after three years. One can determine whether these quality markers have been achieved. Were I to simply state that they were good quality with no way to objectively mark that (e.g. if I simply said, “They’re good quality because they look great.”), one could easily refute it.

Example

Let’s look at an example that may be a little more closely related to your organization than pants.

An employment organization is developing a new program that will assist newcomers in finding employment in their chosen profession. The program will include offering language training to individuals needing it, guiding them through the certification process, and placing them in a workplace co-op environment so that they are able to gain some Canadian experience. You are able to see that some of the “products” that this project will create are a Terms of Reference for the program, some training materials, policies and procedures guiding the program, and a network of interested employers.

How would you determine whether you have delivered a quality project or product? One measure might be the satisfaction level of participants. How happy are they with the training you delivered? Another measure might be the number of participants that enter jobs within their chosen profession within six months of completing the program. Your project could be considered a success if a certain number of participants were more likely to receive jobs because of your employment program. Each of the above are internal quality standards that you can set to determine whether you have delivered a quality project.

External standards are those that are widely-recognized or developed by an external body. The International Organization for Standardization sets quality standards for many, many things, including management systems. A marker of quality for your product could be that the policies and procedures meet the ISO standards for management systems. Another marker might be that your policies and procedures respect the privacy principles identified by the Canadian Standards Association. Each of these are defined by external bodies and widely-recognized as indicators of quality.

Summary

All projects must meet a certain level of quality; however, quality can be an elusive concept unless objective metrics are identified against which the project can be evaluated. Internal quality standards are those identified by the organization and not widely-recognized by other professionals in the field, such as a certain level of satisfaction with a training program. External quality standards are those identified by an external body or organization and widely-recognized by other professionals in the field, such as ISO or CSA standards. These standards must be measurable so that you can definitively say that you have or have not met them.

The project team and sponsor must work together at the beginning of the project to identify the quality standards that they will meet so that when you evaluate your project at its conclusion, you can truly say that you have delivered a great project!

Blair Witzel (blair@mcdoane.com) is a member of the Project Management Institute and a consultant with McDonnell Doane + Associates, an information management and technology firm focusing on the not-for-profit and public sectors. His work centres on managing multi-project portfolios and working with organizations to develop project management methodologies to more effectively deliver projects.