Total Quality Project Management Training Lecture Notes for Graduates

Quality as a concept is difficult to grasp and much confusion surrounds it. This is accessioned by the fact that quality is usually used in a contextual manner and it is meant to distinguish one organization event service or a process from another. These differing definitions cause confusion and misunderstanding when two parties are attempting to determine what is required of a product or service. Thus a definition of quality in management is that quality is the degree to which inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. Characteristics refer to a distinguishing feature. For example it may be a physical feature or functional. A physical feature is that which is amenable to the sensory system i.e. can be seen felt and so on. For instance one may want to see a certain feature such as colour in a product. Quality from the perspective of both the producer and the customer. The producer’s eyes see quality as the extent to which a product and/or service conforms to design. This involves doing things right. However the customer sees quality as the degree to which the design of a product/or service achieves its purpose. This is what is referred to as doing the right things.