Project management as a catalyst for improved quality within organisations

Abstract

During the past decade, project management skills have become increasingly recognised as highly desirable for managers at all levels of organisations. Most people can benefit from the application of project management skills to some parts of their daily operations. The rapid growth of global markets and the introduction of total quality management, continuous improvement programmes and more recently, the drive to redesign business processes, all require some form of project management skills.

In spite of the obvious benefits from project management, research has shown that more often than not, the traditional practice of project management does exist within organisations. This then may lead to service failure; thus impacting adversely on the efficiency and image of the organisation. This dispensation also applies to projects undertaken by the Eskom, which will serve as objective of this research study.

The primary research objectives of this study are the following: To improve the quality of goods and services through the application of project management. To emphasise the importance of project management within an organisation. To demonstrate that project management, if used in conjunction with a quality management system, can improve service delivery.

It is anticipated that the research will lead to an improvement of the control of processes and the overall service or product quality delivered by Eskom.