PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide, Third Edition (Certification Press)

Quality control should, first and foremost, result in quality improvement. The project manager and project team, based on the results of the tools and techniques to implement quality control, apply corrective actions to prevent unacceptable quality and improve the overall quality of the project management processes.

The corrective actions the project manager and the project team want to incorporate into the project may require change requests and management approval. The value and importance of the change should be evident so the improvement to quality is approved and folded into the project. In addition to quality improvement, there are other results of quality control:

• Acceptance decisions Results of work are either accepted or rejected. Rejected items typically mean rework.

• Rework Nonconformance to quality results in rework. Rework costs time and money and contributes to projects being late, over budget, or both. It is always more cost effective to do the work right the first time than to do it correct the second.

• Completed checklists If the project is using checklists to confirm the completion of work, then the completed checklists should become part of the project records. Some project managers require the project team member completing the checklist to initial the checklists as whole and complete.

• Process adjustments When results of inspections indicate quality is out of control then process adjustments may be needed to make immediate corrective actions or planned preventive actions to ensure quality improves. Process adjustments, depending on the nature of the adjustment, may qualify for a change request and be funneled through the Change Control System as part of integration management.