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8 - PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

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PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Most of the material in Section 8 of the PMBOK Guide is applicable to quality management for software
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projects. This section of the Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide presents additional considerations for
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managing software project quality. 8

According to the PMBOK Guide: Project Quality Management includes the processes and activities of the
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performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will
satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. This section of the Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide provides
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additional considerations for managing software project quality.
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Project Quality Management processes in the PMBOK Guide include:
• Plan Quality Management—The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the
project and its deliverables and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality
requirements.
• Perform Quality Assurance—The process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from
quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions
are used.

• Control Quality—The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to
assess performance and recommend necessary changes.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is an ongoing process that audits other software processes to ensure
that those processes are being followed (including but not limited to planning for and following software quality
management plans). SQA also determines the degree to which the desired results from software quality control
are being obtained. The charter of SQA typically includes examination of the degree to which all processes used to
develop and modify software are being followed; approaches for improving those processes may be recommended.
Guidance for conducting software quality audits are included in IEEE Std 1028 – Software Reviews and Audits [23].

Software Quality Control (SQC) is concerned with applying methods, tools, and techniques to ensure that the
software work products (including but not limited to software code) satisfy the quality requirements for a software
product under development or modification.

There are two levels of SQA and SQC in most organizations that develop software: internal SQA and SQC that
occur within the software development team, or teams; and external SQA and SQC that occur at the level of the
organizational unit in which a software project resides. A separate functional unit within an organization, which
may have two distinct units for SQA and SQC, typically conducts external SQA and SQC activities. Sometimes a
third level of independent quality control is applied to safety-critical software (i.e., independent verification and
validation).

©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition 139
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