Best Project Management Practices in the Implementation of an ISO 9001 Quality Management System

The implementation of ISO 9001 quality management systems in 21 organizations was studied through semi-structured interviews with the respective quality managers. In general, the organizations seem to look at the implementation of a quality management system as a project and they employ standard project management tools, albeit to a different extent and in different ways. The commitment and direct participation of management was a key factor for a successful implementation, as well as direct participation of the employees, and good preparation and goal setting. It can be concluded that organizations that planned for their internal cost of implementation, that is the cost of direct participation of the employees, were likely to implement their quality management systems in the time they expected—and their time of implementation was shorter than for organizations that didn’t look at this internal cost.