16.2 Quality Control and Success Criteria

APM Project Management Qualification PMQ

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 Current Exam Facts 1.2 Exam Format & Question Types 1.3 How to Study for APM PMQ

2 Life Cycles

2.1 Linear Life Cycles and Why Work Is Phased 2.2 Iterative and Hybrid Life Cycles 2.3 Project Life Cycles and Extended Life Cycles 2.4 Choosing a Life Cycle: Context, Culture, Strengths and Limitations

3 Governance Arrangements

3.1 Functional, Matrix and Projectised Structures 3.2 Governance Frameworks, Policies and Delegated Responsibility 3.3 Life-Cycle Impact on Governance and Limits of Financial Authority 3.4 Project Roles and Responsibilities 3.5 Project Manager and Project Sponsor Through the Life Cycle 3.6 Linking Projects to Organisational Objectives

4 Sustainability

4.1 Sustainability Responsibilities, Principles and Impact 4.2 Monitoring and Reporting Sustainability Measures

5 Business Case

5.1 Business Case Fundamentals and Analysis Tools 5.2 The Business Case as Baseline and Reviewing Change

6 Procurement

6.1 Procurement Strategy: Purpose and Contents 6.2 Supplier Selection and Negotiation 6.3 Features of Different Contractual Relationships 6.4 Supplier Reimbursement Methods

7 Reviews & Assurance

7.1 Reviews, Decision Gates, Benefits Reviews and Audits 7.2 What Gets Reported and Informing Decisions 7.3 Why Activities Are Re-Planned After a Review 7.4 Project Assurance

8 Transition & Benefits Management

8.1 Transition Requirements and Business-as-Usual Readiness 8.2 Knowledge Transfer and Agreeing the Transition Plan 8.3 Benefits Management: Identification to Realisation 8.4 Aligning and Communicating Benefits

9 Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

9.1 Stakeholder Analysis, Influence and Engagement 9.2 The Communication Management Plan and Its Benefits 9.3 Managing Stakeholder Expectations 9.4 Communication Methods and Tailoring the Message 9.5 Factors That Help and Hinder Communication

10 Conflict Resolution

10.1 Sources and Impacts of Conflict 10.2 Addressing Conflict and the Thomas-Kilmann Model

11 Leadership

11.1 Leadership, Motivation and Team Performance 11.2 Changing Leadership Styles for the Situation 11.3 Coaching, Mentoring and Emotional Intelligence

12 Team Management

12.1 Team Development Stages and Models 12.2 Characteristics and Benefits of Effective Teams 12.3 Leading Virtual and Hybrid Teams

13 Diversity & Inclusion

13.1 Diversity Characteristics and the Equality Act 13.2 Incorporating Diversity and Diverse Thinking 13.3 Conscious and Unconscious Bias and Fair Treatment

14 Ethics, Compliance & Professionalism

14.1 Continuing Professional Development and Competence 14.2 Sources of Specialist Advice and Standards 14.3 The Legal and Regulatory Landscape

15 Requirements & Solutions

15.1 Establishing Scope Through Requirements Management 15.2 Managing Scope Through Configuration Management 15.3 Solutions Development and Prioritisation

16 Quality Management

16.1 Quality Planning, Indicators and the Business Case 16.2 Quality Control and Success Criteria

17 Integrated Planning

17.1 The Integrated Project Management Plan: Format and Contents 17.2 Why an Integrated Plan Matters

18 Schedule Management

18.1 Defining Scope and Breakdown Structures 18.2 Dependencies and What Drives the Schedule 18.3 Re-Estimating and Schedule Optimisation

19 Resource Management

19.1 Determining Resource Requirements and Availability 19.2 Organisational Breakdown Structure and RACI 19.3 Categorising and Allocating Resources 19.4 Resource Smoothing and Resource Levelling

20 Budgeting & Cost Control

20.1 Creating a Budget and Cost Types 20.2 Earned Value and Cost Forecasting 20.3 Monitoring and Reporting Financial Performance 20.4 Closing Down Project Finances

21 Risk & Issue Management

21.1 Benefits of Risk and Issue Management and Contingency Planning 21.2 The Risk and Issue Management Processes 21.3 Proactive and Reactive Risk Responses 21.4 Governance in Risk and Issue Management

22 Change Control

22.1 The Change Control Process and Its Stages 22.2 What a Change Request Must Capture 22.3 Assessing Options and the Impact of a Change 22.4 Recommending Decisions and Updating Plans

16.2 Quality Control and Success Criteria

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Success criteria define what a successful project looks like overall; acceptance criteria define what a specific deliverable must meet to be accepted.

Both must be agreed in advance, or acceptance becomes a negotiation at the point of handover when leverage rather than evidence decides.

Quality control techniques include inspection, testing, peer and technical review, and statistical sampling where full inspection is impractical.

Quality planning defines the standard, quality control checks the deliverable against it, and quality assurance checks that the processes producing it are adequate.

Quality control finds defects; it does not by itself prevent them, which is why planning and assurance matter alongside it.

Last updated: August 2026

Outcome 18b requires knowledge of how quality control techniques are used to determine whether success criteria are met . Two things are being tested at once: the techniques themselves, and the discipline of measuring against criteria that were agreed in advance rather than argued about at handover.

Success criteria and acceptance criteria

Be precise with language in exam answers:

Success criteria — measures that define whether the project (or a major outcome) is successful, often including time, cost, quality, benefits readiness, or compliance goals agreed with the sponsor.

Acceptance criteria — specific conditions a deliverable or requirement must meet to be accepted by the customer/user/operations.

Quality control determines whether outputs meet acceptance criteria and, aggregating evidence, whether quality-related success criteria are being met.

• Level Example
• Success criterion "Go-live with zero critical defects open and user training ≥95% complete by 30 Sept"
• Acceptance criterion "Payment API rejects unauthenticated calls with HTTP 401 in 100% of security test cases"
• Quality control techniques

Quality control is the set of activities that determine whether products meet required standards and success/acceptance criteria . Techniques should be selected for product type, risk, and life-cycle stage.

Inspection

Inspection examines a product or material against a specification — visually or with instruments. Common in construction, manufacturing, and document checks (for example inspecting a completed installation against drawings, or inspecting goods received).

• Strengths: concrete verification of physical or documented attributes
• Limits: can be late if only end-point; may miss latent defects not visible at inspection time
• Planning need: checklists, standards, competent inspectors, quarantine of non-conforming items
• Testing

Testing exercises the product under controlled conditions to see whether it behaves as required. Includes unit, integration, system, user acceptance, performance, security, and factory/site acceptance tests depending on domain.

• Strengths: reveals functional and performance failures before full live use
• Limits: tests only what is designed to be tested; poor requirements produce poor tests

Planning need: test strategy, cases traced to requirements, environments, data, entry/exit criteria, defect management

Reviews

Reviews are structured examinations of documents, designs, plans, or code by peers or stakeholders (walkthroughs, technical reviews, inspections of documents, gate reviews). They catch defects early when cheaper to fix.

• Strengths: early detection; knowledge sharing; improves requirements and design quality
• Limits: effectiveness depends on preparation, skill, and psychological safety to raise issues
• Planning need: review types, checklists, exit criteria, action tracking
• Sampling

Sampling checks a statistical or selected subset when inspecting or testing 100% is impractical or destructive. Used in manufacturing lots, large document populations, or high-volume transactions.

• Strengths: efficient control for large populations
• Limits: sample risk — defects outside the sample may escape; needs sound sampling design
• Planning need: sample size/method, acceptance quality limits, response when samples fail

• Technique Typical question it answers Example
• Inspection Does this item conform to the specified attributes? Cable termination torque and labelling check
• Testing Does it behave correctly under defined conditions? UAT script for booking a clinic appointment
• Review Is this design/document adequate before we proceed? Design review of interface specification
• Sampling Is the batch/population likely within quality limits? Random sample of 50 welded joints from 2,000

Often techniques combine: review the test plan, inspect the test environment build, run tests, sample production transactions after go-live.

Determining whether success criteria are met

QC does not exist for its own sake. Evidence from inspections, tests, reviews, and sampling is compared to planned criteria :

• Define criteria in quality planning (from requirements and success measures)
• Execute control activities and record results
• Judge pass/fail against criteria and severity rules
• Raise non-conformances/defects; correct or concede with authority
• Re-verify fixes
• Report status to governance (can we pass the gate / accept the product?)

If criteria are unmet, options include rework, de-scope with change control, delay acceptance, or — if residual risk is accepted by the proper authority — conditional acceptance with known limitations. The project manager must not silently redefine "success" to make a failing product look green.

Scenario C — choosing techniques

A bridge bearing delivery: inspection and certificates for materials; sampling of torque checks; review of installation method statements; load testing as specified. A mobile app: peer review of critical code; automated and manual testing ; limited beta sampling of real user sessions; accessibility inspection against standards. Technique choice follows risk and product type.

Scenario D — success criteria vs wishful acceptance

Success criteria require fewer than five high-severity defects at go-live. Testing still shows twelve. Pressure mounts to "accept and fix live." Appropriate quality control governance: report the evidence, quantify residual risk and benefits impact, and escalate for a decision to delay, reduce scope, or add hypercare — not to hide results.

Quality planning vs control vs assurance (brief distinction)

• Focus Core question Example activity
• Planning What quality will we achieve and how? Write quality management plan and acceptance criteria
• Control Does this product meet criteria? Run UAT; inspect welds; sample batches

Assurance Are quality processes adequate and followed, giving confidence to stakeholders? Process audit; independent compliance check of the quality system; PMO health check on whether reviews actually happen

Assurance and control support each other: assurance may find that testing processes are weak; control produces the product evidence sponsors need. On the PMQ, if asked about determining whether success criteria are met, emphasise control techniques and evidence ; if asked about confidence in management of quality, bring in assurance .

Answer pattern for LO18 long responses

When a scenario shows defects, failed go-live, or arguments about "good enough":

Define quality as fitness for agreed requirements/purpose, not perfectionism.

Show quality planning contents: standards, criteria, indicators, methods, roles, timing.

Link indicators and criteria to the business case and benefits assumptions.

Select QC techniques (inspection, testing, reviews, sampling) suited to the product and risk.

Explain how evidence judges success/acceptance criteria , with governance options if failed.

Briefly separate QA if the question asks about process confidence or independent checks.

That structure demonstrates professional quality management aligned to APM PMQ LO18 rather than a vague promise to "ensure high quality."