You should have a quality management plan; How to build it before knowing quality requirements

Yes, the first step is to find out what the client actually wants. But, you see…that is the problem with most of the companies or project teams. They think that, that is the ONLY step. If you really care about the client, then you will go deeper and learn HOW the client want it to be done.

That is why, today, I want us to talk about the quality management plan. TQMP is a blueprint that shows how are you going to determine the clients criteria for “quality” and how are you going to meet those quality criteria.

Often, you can find yourself in a situation where the actual quality requirements are not known at the time the Quality Management Plan is wanted. In that case, what you should do is describe the processes and techniques that you will use to uncover the quality requirements and verify that the requirements are met.

Here are the 5 ingredients of a good quality plan

1. Learn quality expectations. Work with the customer up front to define what it means for a deliverable to be considered complete and and with great quality. Then, do your best work to meet that meaning. You can always over-deliver, but please reach the level the client wants. Also, please establish the process you will use to validate the customer’s expectations for quality.
2. What are your quality standards? Once you find out the client’s perception, you should list any quality standards that the company or organisation has previously defined that its projects will follow. What do you stand for when it comes to proper execution?
3. Who, what, when. What roles are expected to carry out the whole quality side of the project? The project manager has overall responsibility, but you may have other roles that are assisting. These could include quality auditors, third-party testing specialists, inspectors, etc.
4. Constant Monitoring, Control and Assurance. In order to reach the wanted level of service and results, you have to deploy a process which will verify that project deliverables are of high quality. Include the information of how are you going to do this in your plan. When it comes to the assurance side, the activities here focus on the processes being used to build the solution, and can be validated by a functional manager, business sponsor, or a third-party reviewer.
5. What are the tools you are going to use? In this field, you should list and describe the tools that your team is going to use, while executing the plan.

The Quality Management Plan is the game plan where you think ahead of time about how you are going to find out the client needs and perception, so you can establish a process satisfying those wants and needs. After you kick off the project, then this plan is the blueprint that provides guidance of quality management throughout the execution.

Before you make your quality management plan, it would be helpful to go through the construction project management checklist. After that, you can proceed to this article discussing the 7 essential ingredients of a quality management plan. Also, we have a downloadable ebook, The Circle of Productivity, to help you improve your productivity in the construction site.