Project Quality and Cost Management: Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

This report examines the concept of quality in project management, emphasizing its importance and how it is defined within a project. It explores various tools and techniques used for planning and managing project quality, such as cause and effect diagrams, control charts, and statistical sampling. The report highlights the relationship between project costs and quality, noting that while higher costs can often lead to better outcomes, it is not the only determinant. It also provides references to support the concepts discussed. The report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of quality management in projects and how different aspects of project management affects the quality of the final outcome.

Running Head: PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Project Planning and Budgeting
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Quality on a Project
Quality is defined as the attribute of a particular product or project that represents its
standard. In most projects, the success is defined by the quality of the final outcomes that have
been delivered as the end result of the project. Generally, the organisations conducting the
projects expect high quality of the deliverables and set the quality standards during planning
accordingly (Kerzner, 2017). If the quality or standard of the final project is not satisfactory and /
or does not meet the quality standard set during planning, the project is generally considered as a
failure.
In a project, the quality can be defined by analysing the overall quality of the final
outcome and ensuring the final outcome has successfully fulfilled the quality standard of the
organisation and / or project.
Project Quality Management Tools and Techniques
In project management, there are a number of different tools and techniques that are
utilised for quality management purposes. Initially, the quality standards and requirements are set
during the planning phase of the project and it is essentially required to meet these quality
standards in the project (Schwalbe, 2015). During the project, there are a number of quality
management tools used that are listed as follows.
Cause and Effect Diagrams
Control Charts
Flow-Charting
Histogram

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Pareto Chart and Pareto Analysis
Run Charts
Scatter Diagrams
Statistical Sampling
Inspection
Each of these tools and techniques has its own advantages and disadvantages and are
utilised depending on the nature and type of the project. Most of these tools and techniques
require detailed analysis including analysis of statistical data and hence, quality management is a
very complex process. In order to ensure proper use of these tools, the project manager is
required to possess high knowledge data analysis required for quality management in the project.
Effect of Project Cost on Poor Quality
Project cost has a very high impact on project quality. High cost of project often ensures
high quality of project outcome whereas low cost of project often results in poor quality
outcome. One major conception is that the quality of the outcome of the project is entirely
dependent on the project costs and hence, it is desired that the organisations must have a high
value of budget in order to ensure high quality of the project outcome. However, this conception
is not true and there are many evidences in real world projects against it (Hornstein, 2015). There
are many projects that have failed even after using up a huge amount of budget and there are
many projects that have delivered best quality outcome at low costs and investment. The quality
of outcome of the project, thus, is not solely dependent on the project costs. Rather, project cost
is only one aspect that affects the quality of the outcome whereas other aspects include the

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quality and nature of materials used, the quality of work provided by the workers and project
team members and others.

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References
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
291-298.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.