You can deliver a project perfectly on time, under budget, and exactly to spec — and still have it deemed a failure if the stakeholders aren’t happy. Why? Because stakeholder management is the most critical, yet often overlooked, component of quality management. The Misconception of “Perfect” Execution We often measure project success by objective metrics:…
I spend a fair amount of time looking for key-person risk in projects. It took me an embarrassingly long time to spot the key-person risk in my own life. Me. For much of my career, I have worked as a contractor. I enjoy the independence, the variety and the satisfaction of being brought in to…
When a project goes wrong, the instinct is to fix the immediate problem and move on. But if you’re just treating the symptoms, you’re almost guaranteed to face the same issue again. The Problem with Surface-Level Fixes We’ve all been there: a critical deadline is missed, a deliverable fails testing, or a stakeholder is furious….
The champagne is popped, the project is officially “live,” and the team is ready to move on. But if you think your quality responsibilities end at Go Live, you’re setting your project up for a painful post-mortem. The Myth of the “Finished” Project Too often, Project Managers treat go-live as the finish line. The reality…
A quality committee shouldn’t just be a rubber stamp for documents. If your committee meetings feel like a formality, you are missing out on one of the most powerful governance tools a Project Manager has. The Problem with “Check-Box” Committees In many organisations, the quality committee exists only on paper or meets infrequently to sign…
There is a line item missing from most project budgets. It does not appear in the cost baseline, it is not tracked in the risk register, and it is rarely discussed in steering committee meetings. Yet it is often the most expensive item on the project. It is the cost of poor quality — and…
Your scope statement is your first quality document — and if it is weak, every quality decision that follows is built on sand. This post explains why scope and quality are the same conversation, and introduces the Quality Lens Review to strengthen your requirements before sign-off.
Most project managers treat Risk and Quality as separate disciplines. But every quality failure is a risk that was not managed — and every unmanaged risk is a quality failure waiting to happen. This post breaks down exactly where they intersect and introduces a practical tool to get them talking.
Ask ten project managers what “quality” means and you’ll get ten different answers. Some will point to the sign-off checklist. Some will say it’s about meeting the client’s requirements. A few will mention ISO 9001. And at least one will quietly admit they’re not entirely sure — they just know it when they see it….
