The Definitive Guide to Project Management: The fast track to getting the job done on time and on budget (2nd Edition)

The ISO 9000 and related series, available by electronic download from http://www.iso.ch/, is the definitive reference material for the ISO 9000 quality standard, much of which can be valuable in projects. The elements in the series that are most relevant to project quality management are:

• ISO 9000 Quality management systems Fundamentals and vocabulary

• ISO 10005 Quality management systems Guidelines for quality plans.

The following in the ISO 9000 series may be highly relevant to some projects:

• ISO 9001 Quality management systems Requirements

• ISO 9004 Quality management systems Guidelines for performance improvements.

All ISO standards are published by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, Switzerland.

See also the following books:

• Coram, R., 2002. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War. New York: Little Brown.

• Crosby, P. B., 1979. Quality is Free. New York: New American Library.

• Deming, W. E., 1982. Out of the Crisis. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Harry, M. and Schroeder, R., 2000. Six Sigma. New York: Random House.

• Imai, M., 1986. Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. New York: McGraw-Hill.

• Ishikawa, K., 1986. Guide to Quality Control. Quality Resources.

• Juran, J.M., 1992. Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services (revised edition). New York: Free Press.

For a quite different view of the Six Sigma movement, see Marsh, Peter, 'When boring beats buccaneering', Financial Times, London, 7 June 2006. This is an interview with David Farr, chief executive of Emerson. It can be downloaded from http://www.ft.com/; payment may be necessary.