How efficient is your quality management system?

1 Define your quality objectives

The first step to evaluate your quality management system is to define your quality objectives. These are the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that you want to achieve in terms of quality. They should align with your customer expectations, organizational strategy, and project scope. You should also establish the criteria and indicators that will help you measure your progress and success. For example, you can use key performance indicators (KPIs), customer satisfaction surveys, defect rates, or quality audits.

2 Implement your quality plan

The next step is to implement your quality plan. This is the document that describes how you will achieve your quality objectives. It should include the roles and responsibilities, processes and procedures, resources and tools, and quality standards and controls that you will use to ensure quality. You should also document and communicate your quality plan to all the stakeholders involved in the project, product, or service. This will ensure that everyone is aware of the expectations and requirements and that they follow the same guidelines and best practices.

3 Monitor and control your quality activities

The third step is to monitor and control your quality activities. This is the process of collecting and analyzing data and information related to your quality performance. You should use the criteria and indicators that you defined in your quality objectives to measure your results and compare them with your baselines and targets. You should also use the tools and techniques that you specified in your quality plan to verify and validate your outputs and outcomes. For example, you can use checklists, inspections, tests, or reviews.

4 Identify and resolve quality issues

The fourth step is to identify and resolve quality issues. These are the problems or deviations that occur during your quality activities that affect your quality performance. You should use a systematic approach to detect, analyze, and correct quality issues as soon as possible. You should also document and report your quality issues to the relevant stakeholders and authorities. For example, you can use a quality register, a quality report, or a change request.

5 Evaluate and improve your quality system

The final step is to evaluate and improve your quality system. This is the process of reviewing and assessing your quality performance and identifying opportunities for improvement. You should use the feedback and lessons learned that you gathered from your quality activities, issues, and stakeholders to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your quality system. You should also use the best practices and standards that are relevant to your industry and domain to benchmark and enhance your quality system. For example, you can use the ISO 9001, the PMBOK, or the CMMI models.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?