Quality Management in Project Management

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Quality Management in Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
Any project demands the maintenance of a particular quality standard that must be
fulfilled at any cost. During the planning phase of most of the projects, the project manager
develops certain guidelines regarding the project standard or quality required. Again, these
guidelines are mainly derived from the client requirements and irrespective of schedule and
budget, these standards have to be followed. In small and medium case projects, the project
managers as well as the project stakeholders have generally clear idea about the quality
requirements of the project. However, mostly in case of complex projects, in spite of setting
suitable quality standards, the project stakeholders may not have clear idea regarding the same
and also what to achieve in the project. Again, there arises a situation when, although the project
requirements and the quality standards are clear to the stakeholders, the project starts to move out
of scope and beyond control of the project manager. In this case, the project manager introduces
certain changes in order to bring back the project under control. These changes may include
termination of contract and hiring new contractor, reallocation of budget, extension of final time,
recruitment of new workers and others. While some of the changes work perfectly, others do not
and the project continues to go out of control of the project manager. This is mainly because the
project manager fails to determine whether the changes were applicable to the project or whether
the changes actually aided the restraining forces on the project. Again, this happens because
these project managers rely on their own knowledge and instincts to propose and implement the
changes to immediately address the highlighted issues. However, this does not ensure high
percentage of success and often leads the project to failure. One technique that can aid the
project managers in this case is the force field analysis technique. This technique allows the

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT
project manager to accurately identify the actual driving and restraining forces of the project and
take suitable actions accordingly. Additionally, the project managers can monitor the progress of
the progress and at certain intervals, they determine whether the quality is maintained or changes
are required. Based on the analysis, the project is controlled and change management is
introduced if the project manager determines that the project is not maintaining a sufficient
quality standard. The project managers can also determine the quality standard of the ongoing
project or a particular operational system by determining the driving and restraining forces that
are associated with the project and prepare suitable strategy following the priorities of the
changes of forces as determined from the force field analysis. Again, in order to determine
whether equilibrium is reached, the project manager can use statistical data regarding the driving
and restraining forces that he can easily gather from the project itself.
This report has been developed in order to conduct a detailed literature review on force
field analysis and its impact on the project and additionally apply the technique on the ongoing
light rail project in Malaysia in order to determine the driving and restraining forces that are
acting on the project.
2. Literature Review
Force field analysis is a decision making tool that is mainly utilized for taking major
decisions after considerations of both driving and restricting forces. In other words, this analysis
is utilized to determine what factors will be there to ensure success and what factors will act
against the progress of a particular action. Although this analysis tool was first utilized in the
field of psychology by Kurt Lewin, it finds use in various fields like research project,
construction project and other common activities.

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT
According to Emmrich et al. (2015), force field analysis is an important tool in
determining all the positive and negative forces acting on a particular system or activity. The
main focus of an observant is to ensure that the driving forces and restraining forces affect the
system in such a way that a balance or equilibrium is generated on the system.
Arnott and Pervan (2016) discussed the tool with the help of a single and simple example.
As per the authors, let a boy sits on a chair. With the help of force field analysis, it needs to be
determined what forces are there to keep the boy seated and not make him fall. As per the results
of force analysis, it can be said that there is one driving force and one restraining force acting on
him. Gravity (driving force) lets the boy sit on the chair and not drift away and the opposing
force of the chair (restraining force) lets the boy to remain in the sitting position. These two
forces are so well balanced that the boy perfectly sits on the chair without any other major
impacts of forces. It is important for the systems to maintain equilibrium and establish balance
between the driving and restraining forces. However, as per the authors, although this case is an
equilibrium, this might not be same in all systems i.e. the driving and restraining forces are not
equal in nature and thus the desired equilibrium is not achieved. Considering similar example of
sitting on a chair, let the weight of the boy be such that the pull of gravity is much higher than
the restraining force of the chair. As a result, the chair breaks and the boy falls on the ground.
Kaiser and Schulze (2018) used the same technique in systems of much larger scale, for
instance, a business. According to the authors, a business is also a system that is formed by the
equilibrium between driving and restraining forces. While business is benefitted from the greater
driving force than the restraining force, it faces obstacle when the restraining forces are high.
Some examples of driving forces in business are quality of product or service, low
manufacturing or service cost and others while some restraining forces are low market demand,