Plan Quality Management decides which quality standards apply and how the project will satisfy them — both the quality of deliverables and the quality of the processes producing them. It produces the quality management plan and concrete, measurable quality metrics that make good enough objective.
The emphasis is on building quality in and prevention over inspection, weighing the cost of quality (prevention and appraisal) against the cost of poor quality (rework and failures). The acceptance criteria defined here drive later validation and control.
Common pitfalls. Vague quality goals with no measurable metrics; planning to inspect quality in at the end rather than build it in; gold-plating beyond what stakeholders need; and standards copied from elsewhere that don’t fit the project.
Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs
Inputs
- Project charter
- Project management plan
- Project documents
- Enterprise environmental factors
- Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
- Expert judgment
- Data gathering
- Data analysis
- Decision making
- Data representation
- Test and inspection planning
- Meetings
Outputs
- Quality management plan
- Quality metrics
- Project management plan updates
- Project documents updates
How This Process Connects
Every process hands artifacts to other processes. Follow the flow of this one:
Where its inputs come from
- Develop Project Charterproduces: Project charter
- Develop Project Management Planproduces: Project management plan
More in Project Quality Management
In the Domains & Principles View
The PMBOK® Guide frames this work through performance domains and principles:
In the Eighth Edition
This process describes the framework as set out in the Sixth and Seventh Editions. The Eighth Edition reorganized it into 6 principles, 7 performance domains and 40 processes.