ISO 10 006: a vehicle for successful project execution

To verify your project’s quality procedures, the ISO 10006 standard offers a comprehensive, qualitative framework. It provides numerous notions to help implement your project, as well as advice for handling them better and even improving on them. This 34-page manual has the advantage of being applicable to projects that are very different from each other, whether in terms of size, duration or field. The ISO 10006 standard – or Quality management systems – Guidelines for quality management in projects, for those who are unfamiliar with it – was published most recently in 2017 by the International Organization for Standardization.

To successfully manage a project, the project leader will focus their work on two major considerations and be guided by 10 processes. When faced with arising issues, expertise will also play a role.

The two main motivations of ISO 10 006 project management

The need to implement effective project management becomes significant in relation to two elements:

• Organisation: this remains flexible, and the company’s various sections/trades benefit from better communication and easier collaboration.
• Project leadership and monitoring: thanks to key performance indicators, or KPI, it is possible to monitor the project’s progress, readjust where necessary, and ensure that objectives are achieved.

When these two points are followed, the project team and leader deliver quality work.

Five potential challenges in project management

• Project leaders will need to combine charisma and authority, and, more importantly, find the ideal balance for their team. Team members will strive to work according to the plan and technical framework that are imposed on them.
• For the best possible cohesion, management will support the project from day one and clearly set out the tasks each team member has to perform.
• As the project will potentially undergo changes, knowing how to adapt to these is necessary.
• The project will need to be handled in parallel to other ongoing work, and all company departments will need to make allowances for it in their schedule.
• If the project is to reach greater heights, evaluating it is a key step.

The 10 processes at work

Project management requires the implementation of 10 different processes from the ISO 10 006 standard. To make this easier for you, we outline the key objectives below:

• 1. Strategy: give the project specific directions to follow and ensure the project’s other processes are well coordinated and managed.
  2. Coordination: ensure all activities required by the project are carried out consistently and logically.
  3. Content: understand customer requests and any potential partnerships and translate these into feasible actions to achieve the intended goal. Encourage team members to deliver work that is in line with project requirements.
  4. Time frames: determine the movements between each project activity, anticipate how long they will take and endeavour to deliver the finished product on time.
  5. Costs: to avoid your budget evaporating before your eyes, it is better to anticipate the expenses involved in successful execution of the project and follow cash flow recommendations.
  6. Resources: in line with the preceding point, any financial obstacles that might arise should be anticipated, thus keeping your budget under control.
  7. Personnel: agree on the structure of the project and improve employees’ skills by offering a tailored training programme.
  8. Communication: monitor the flow of information relating to the project as well as outcomes. If these are positive, assess how they were achieved and use this to guide other projects.
  9. Risks: keep an eye out for negative events or misgivings that might affect implementation of the project. Aim for continuous improvement by taking advantage of any opportunities that arise.
  10. Purchases: regulate these, whether for immediate use or storage.

When a company wants to improve performance, managing a project undeniably has a strategic side to it and produces positive effects. Once all the necessary skills have been acquired, competitiveness is significantly improved.