W. Edwards Deming as a Guide for Reducing Risk in Project Management

W. Edwards Deming as a Guide for Reducing Risk in Project Management

Dennis Bialaszewski (Indiana State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 12
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4754-9.ch010

Abstract

There is a major difference between completing a project and completing a project that is judged as a project completed in a quality manner, it is not enough to just get something done!!! What is much more important is to complete a project what is judged as to be a work of quality. If one aims at quality at the onset one can maximize the probability of completing the project while reducing the risk of failure. One of the earliest pioneers in the field of QUALITY is W. Edwards Deming. Some consider Japan's post World War 2 economic recovery as truly miraculous and the person given much of the credit for guiding Japan to this recovery was an American named W. Edwards Deming. Deming did this by reinforcing the importance of applying principles of Total Quality Management through the recovery, The Prime Minister of Japan awarded Dr. Deming with one of the most prestigious awards that can be earned in Japan when he awarded Deming Japan's Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class. This article will detail the importance of these principles for reducing risk.
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Review And Discussion

This section discusses a specific project that was completed while demonstrating how the incorporation of TQM principles was integral to achieving the desired outcome upon project completion (Bialaszewski & Bialaszewski, 2010). There were several early pioneers in the development of the TQM approach. Aside from W. Edwards Deming (2014), other important figures in the development of this area included Joseph M. Juran, Philip B. Crosby, Walter A. Shewhart, Kaoru Ishikawa, and Armand V., Feigenbaum (Partington, Pellegrinelli, & Young, 2005), as well as others. However, we will focus on Dr. Deming’s work for the purpose of this study.

A recent survey has shown that many faculty members teaching at the college level believe that the area of project management should be taught to students early in their college program. However, many colleges are only introducing these important skills late in the curriculum, and some are not introducing these skills at all. This may be the result of the fact that only recently has the area of project management obtained frameworks, structure, systematic tools, and techniques to implement projects (Kwak, 2003). . Entrepreneurs and executives manage companies and projects on a daily basis, so it is critically important to employ project management skills and tools. Research has been completed in this area to demonstrate the importance of the project management area. However, too often, total quality management (TQM) is ignored as projects are completed.

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