Deming’s 14 Points And Quality Project Leadership
Quality is misunderstood by many who think of it only as it relates to the final deliverable, but a quality product is itself achieved only through quality processes focused on efficiency, innovation, and continual improvement, and these require a quality management culture not only in our projects but within our organizations. In chapter two of his 1986 book, Out of the Crisis, Edward Deming presented 14 principles that he believed could make industry more competitive by increasing quality.
Organizational improvements can begin with anyone. While it’s true that our professional domain as project managers is bounded by the project life cycle, our influence is often much greater than that, and quality management is one of those areas where skilled project managers are best suited to be instrumental change agents –first in the culture of their projects, and second, in the culture of their departments and organizations. As project managers, if we follow Deming’s principles, we can create project environments where quality thrives, not only benefiting our customers and projects but perhaps serving as a tipping point for effecting a quality management change within our organizations. cmveletrhy.