SIMS - Our purpose is to..
give voice to the collective wisdom of the organization,
and
to be a catalyst for translating that wisdom into positive action.
SIMS Quality Management System (QMS) Consulting & Training
ISO 10006 Project
Management
ISO
10006,
Quality
management
—
Guidelines
to
quality
in
project
management,
claims
to
provide
"guidance
on
quality
system
elements,
concepts
and
practices
for
which
the
implementation
is
important
to,
and
has
an
impact
on,
the
achievement
of
quality
in
project
management."
In
our
opinion,
application
of
this
document
is
more
likely
to
have
the
opposite
effect:
if
attention
is
given
to
the
items
identified
in
the
standard
at
the
expense
of
others
critical
to
project
management,
the
result
could
very
well
be a
poorly
managed
and
unnecessarily
costly
project
that
is
compliant
with
the
standard.
Strong
words,
perhaps,
but
let
us
look
at
some
of
guidance
the
standard
provides,
and
you
can
draw
your
own
conclusion.
First
of
all,
ISO
10006
does
seem
to
cover
the
right
subjects
—
scope,
cost,
time,
risk,
and
so
on.
In
fact,
it
identifies
virtually
the
same
set
of
project
management
processes
and
knowledge
areas
as
A Guide
to
the
Project
Management
Body
of
Knowledge.
Not
much
of a
surprise
since
the
ISO
committee
used
a
draft
of
that
document
as a
key
input
during
the
development
of
their
document.
There
are,
however,
some
notable
omissions:
There are no quality management processes. By failing to include the quality management processes, ISO 10006 implies that these critical processes are outside the scope of project management. How does one ensure quality without quality management?
There is no project execution process. Lots of planning processes, lots of controlling processes, but no place to actually do the work of the project. This omission regrettably reinforces the notion that project management is limited to planning and controlling.
ISO 10006 limits its discussion of scope to developing "a description of the project product." In doing so, it minimizes the importance of project scope, of defining the work of the project. Hardly a recipe for quality in project management.
SIMS Quality Management System (QMS) Consulting & Training
