Sandwich Sense (Part 3)

Sandwich Sense (Part 3) Craig Curran-Morton May 31, 2010

Process Improvement

As an instructor teaching courses on the PMBOK and the PMP exam, I have been exposed to a host of participants who have defined quality, quality management and quality control in many different ways. However, for most people, quality control is the step in the quality process that they seem to understand most because it is step they do it most frequently.

That’s because before we hand over our work/products to our boss or customer, we inspect them to make sure we are giving them a “quality” deliverable. Unfortunately, quality control is often mistaken for quality and quality management--and this can lead to serious problems for projects and for organizations. Using our Sub Shop example, we will examine the concept of quality control and look to better understand the role that it plays in the quality management process.

In my last two articles (Part I and Part II), we followed Bill on his walk to The Sub Shop to grab a quick bite for lunch. We looked at how The Sub Shop defined Bill’s quality requirements and planned how they would meet those requirements (quality planning).