Chapter 7 - Quality from the ground up

Abstract

Quality and grade are two key components of the user's perception of quality, but they have distinctly different characteristics. Understanding the difference between quality and grade can help tremendously when working with users to define requirements and acceptance criteria. Quality is less expensive to plan into a project than to try to retrofit in once the project is underway, but there is always a tradeoff between the level of required quality and the cost to deliver that quality. Costs include the various efforts required to meet quality levels, including project work itself and quality monitoring and testing processes. The higher the level of required quality, the more rigorous the work, monitoring, and testing procedures must be, however, this always comes at a higher cost. The cost of poor quality must also be taken into account because this is often missed in the planning stages. The three key components to quality are planning, monitoring, and testing. Building quality into a project is of utmost importance, and using the defined Information Technology (IT) project management process described in this book is a major part of driving quality. Consistent, repeatable processes that help to do a better job at each step of the way is what IT project management is all about, this chapter teaches a methodology that will, by its very nature, help to deliver higher quality at a lower cost.