Assignment

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400-600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

According to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fifth Edition, quality is a subset of management actions required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. Quality Planning typically achieves the least attention and yet is the most critical element of Project Quality Management. This lack of attention primarily occurs due to insufficient understanding about quality and how it is an integral part of a project. Project Quality Management is divided into three parts. Quality Planning is done first, while Quality Assurance and Quality Control are done concurrently. As the project progresses, the Quality Planning process may be repeated, prompted by changes in the project circumstances - An iterative process that is influenced by scope, schedule, budget, procurement changes. The lack of an adequate Quality Plan inhibits the success of Quality Assurance and Quality Control efforts. (2013)

Alternately, a project manager wears many hats. Every one of these roles involves dealing with people. If a project manager has these roles (leader, communicator, negotiator, problem solver, influencer, integrator), it obviously means they must develop the skills in these areas. That is why soft skills for project managers are absolutely critical. A project manager spends 90% or more of his or her time communicating. According to the PMBOK Guide, human resources management is "the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with the project" (2013).

• Why is quality important in a project? Who should be in charge of quality on any given project?

• Discuss how you would go about developing a quality management plan for the course project you have been working on. What quality assurance tools would you use? Why? How would you measure and monitor quality control?

• For your given course project, discuss how you would go about obtaining the human resources needed to complete the project (both material and people)?

Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

• Will your sponsor or stakeholders accept your project, if it does not meet their quality expectations?

• If you do not specify the quality standards for a work package or single activity, how would know if it met your expectations? You have to have a quality baseline established.

• To staff your project with people, would you acquire those employees from within or outside the organization? Why?

• How would you determine whether to buy or make the material or service you need on a project?

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Reference

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fifth Edition. Project Management Institute, Inc. 2013.

Other Information

Instructions:

CTU Model Answer:

• One of the success criteria for any project is stakeholder acceptance. Quality management ensures the project meets or exceeds stakeholder expectations. The CEO or the president of an organization should be the one in charge of quality in the organization. For a project, the project manager is the person in charge of quality for the overall project.

• Students should discuss the parts of their project they want to ensure quality for and how they plan on planning, assuring, and monitoring and controlling quality for those identified components. There are various tools you can use to develop a quality assurance plan, one of which are simple checklists. The students' answers may vary.

• To obtain resources, students should discuss acquiring their project team or material for their chosen project. The discussion should focus on acquiring, developing, and managing people.

Instructor's Comments:

Correctly APA formatted References, and correctly APA formatted Citations in your text to those references, are required.