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8 - PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

8.2.3 Perform Quality Assurance: Outputs

The outputs for performing quality assurance in Section 8.2.3 of the PMBOK Guide are applicable outputs from
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performing quality assurance for software projects, with the indicated extension of Section 8.2.3.4.

8.2.3.1 Change Requests

See Section 8.2.3.1 of the PMBOK Guide.
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8.2.3.2 Project Management Plan Updates

See Section 8.2.3.2 of the PMBOK Guide.
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8.2.3.3 Project Documents Updates

See Section 8.2.3.3 of the PMBOK Guide.
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8.2.3.4 Organizational Process Assets Updates

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See Section 8.2.3.4 of the PMBOK Guide.
As described in Section 8.2.3 of the PMBOK Guide, the outputs of the Quality Assurance process are audit
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reports and change requests that provide inputs to the Perform Integrated Change Control process (see Section 4.5
of the PMBOK Guide and of this Software Extension). Audit reports and change requests may also show the need
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for changes in software project planning. These changes will be reflected in the software project team’s process
and product work activities.

The cost of corrective rework for software is often a significant percentage of the total cost of developing a
software product. Understanding the sources and cost of corrective rework can result in updates to organizational
process assets for software projects to reduce corrective rework.

Investment in quality improvement to prevent (or reduce) technical debt is closely related to the cost of quality.
Failure to find and fix defects early in a software project life cycle and deferring the fixing of known defects create
technical debts that are repaid later by the cost incurred for corrective rework. Accumulation of technical debt is
sometimes referred to as “mortgaging the future” because the interest rate on the mortgage can be excessive
for predictive software projects when defects are not discovered or corrected near the point of injection. These
defects become exponentially more expensive to fix the longer they persist. It is not uncommon in such projects
that a requirements defect not found until systems testing may cost, in time and effort, 100 times more to fix than
it would cost to find and fix it during a requirements review. Techniques such as prototyping, inspections, reviews,
and incremental development can control technical debt. Development and use of these techniques may result in
updates to organizational process assets.

154 ©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition
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