Overview

Guidelines for applying quality management in projects, covering both quality management in projects and quality management systems in projects. It is not a guide to project management itself.

ISO 10006:2017 gives guidelines for the application of quality management in projects. It applies to projects of varying complexity, small or large, of short or long duration, whether standalone or part of a programme or portfolio, in different environments and irrespective of the kind of product, service or process involved. Its stated intent is to satisfy project interested parties by introducing quality management into projects.

What it is not. ISO 10006 states explicitly that it is not a guide to project management. It does not tell an organization how to plan, schedule or control a project. It addresses quality in the project management processes — that is, how quality management principles and practices apply to the way a project is run. For project management practice itself, ISO 21502 gives guidance on project management, ISO 21500 sets out the context and concepts for project, programme and portfolio management, and the ISO 21500 series covers programme, portfolio and governance topics.

Two concepts. The standard distinguishes and addresses both quality management in projects — applying quality principles such as customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making and relationship management to project work — and quality management systems in projects, meaning how a project relates to the quality management system of the originating organization. This second theme matters because projects are usually delivered inside a permanent organization that already has a QMS, and the interface between temporary project processes and permanent organizational processes is a common source of quality problems.

Structure. The guidance is organized around project processes including strategic considerations, resource-related processes, personnel-related processes, interdependency management, scope, time, cost, communication, risk and purchasing, and measurement, analysis and improvement. For each, it describes how quality management applies. The standard notes that it is flexible and may require tailoring to suit a particular project rather than being adopted verbatim.

Certification. ISO 10006 is a guidance standard with no certification scheme. Organizations certify their quality management system to ISO 9001; ISO 10006 is one of the ISO 10000-series supporting documents used to apply that system in specific contexts, alongside ISO 10005 on quality plans. ISO 10006:2017 replaced ISO 10006:2003 and was aligned with the quality management principles underpinning ISO 9000:2015 and ISO 9001:2015.

Purpose

To give guidance on applying quality management to projects and to the relationship between project processes and the organization's quality management system, so that project interested parties' requirements are consistently met.

Key Benefits

• Clarifies how ISO 9001 quality management applies inside temporary project organizations
• Addresses the interface between project processes and the organizational QMS
• Applicable to projects of any size, duration, sector or delivery approach
• Supports consistent quality outcomes across a portfolio of projects
• Complements ISO 21500 and ISO 21502 without duplicating project management guidance
• Flexible and intended to be tailored to the individual project

Key Requirements

• Apply the quality management principles to project processes
• Define the relationship between the project and the originating organization's QMS
• Address strategic and planning processes for the project
• Manage resource, personnel and competence processes for the project
• Manage interdependency, scope, time, cost, communication, risk and purchasing processes
• Establish measurement, analysis and improvement for project processes
• Capture and apply lessons learned across projects
• Tailor the guidance to the complexity and context of the individual project

Who Needs This Standard?

Quality managers in project-based organizations, project and programme managers working within an ISO 9001 system, engineering and construction contractors, PMO leads, and organizations that deliver their products or services primarily through projects.

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