Control and Quality Management
Controlling monitors performance and takes corrective action. Quality management ensures products and services meet or exceed customer expectations consistently.
Control Process
Steps: establish standards (targets, benchmarks), measure actual performance, compare with standards, and take corrective action. Controls can be feedforward (preventive), concurrent (real-time), or feedback (after the fact).
Control Tools
Budgets control financial resources. Balanced scorecard measures across financial, customer, process, and learning perspectives. Dashboards visualise key metrics. Audits verify compliance. Benchmarking compares with best-in-class.
Total Quality Management
TQM involves all employees in quality. Principles: customer focus, continuous improvement (Kaizen), employee involvement, process approach, data-driven decisions. Pioneers: Deming (14 points), Juran (quality trilogy), Crosby (zero defects).
Six Sigma
Reduces defects to 3.4 per million. DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) for existing processes. Belt system (Green, Black, Master Black Belt) certifies practitioners. Combines statistical rigour with project management.
ISO 9000
ISO 9001 specifies quality management requirements. Principles: customer focus, leadership, engagement, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decisions, relationship management.
Quality in IT
Software testing, code reviews, DevOps, SLA monitoring, CMMI. ITIL provides IT service management best practices. Agile retrospectives drive continuous improvement.
Summary
Control ensures plans are implemented effectively. TQM, Six Sigma, and ISO standards drive continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.