How to Build a Quality Management Plan (2025 Guide)

What Is a Quality Management Plan?

A Quality Management Plan outlines the standards, procedures, metrics, and activities that ensure project deliverables meet quality expectations.

It covers:

• Quality standards
• Quality assurance (QA)
• Quality control (QC)
• Acceptance criteria
• Testing and validation procedures
• Roles and responsibilities
• Continuous improvement methods

The QMP is typically created during the Planning phase and approved by the project sponsor or PMO.

Why a Quality Plan Is Essential in 2025

Quality failures are responsible for a large percentage of project rework and budget overruns. Common causes include uncontrolled scope, rushed timelines, poor requirements, and unclear expectations.

Benefits of a strong Quality Management Plan:

• Reduces rework by defining quality upfront
• Sets clear expectations for what “good” looks like
• Standardizes testing and verification
• Provides transparency for sponsors and stakeholders
• Identifies defects early before they impact operations

Quality planning is no longer optional — especially in technology, healthcare, finance, government, and regulated industries.

Components of a Quality Management Plan

A complete QMP includes these components:

• Quality objectives
• Quality standards & requirements
• Quality assurance processes
• Quality control processes
• Acceptance criteria
• Quality metrics
• Testing plan
• Roles & responsibilities
• Continuous improvement
• Quality review and audit strategy

Step-by-Step: How to Build a Quality Management Plan

Step 1: Define Quality Objectives

These are the benchmarks for what the project must achieve. Quality objectives should be:

• Clear
• Measurable
• Tied to project goals

Step 2: Identify Quality Standards

These may include:

• Regulatory standards (HIPAA, OSHA, FDA, ISO)
• Industry standards
• Organizational standards
• Technical standards

Step 3: Develop Quality Assurance (QA) Procedures

QA focuses on preventing defects.

• Peer reviews
• Design walkthroughs
• Standards training
• Process audits
• Vendor SLA review

Step 4: Develop Quality Control (QC) Procedures

QC focuses on detecting defects.

• Testing
• Inspections
• Validation checks
• Checklists

Step 5: Define Acceptance Criteria

This ensures stakeholders agree on what “done” looks like.

Step 6: Establish Quality Metrics

Metrics may include error rates, performance thresholds, uptime, response times, accuracy, or compliance scores.

Step 7: Define Roles & Responsibilities

Typical roles include QA lead, PM, business owner, SMEs, testers, and operations.

Step 8: Create the Testing & Validation Strategy

Define what will be tested, how, and by whom.

Step 9: Add Continuous Improvement

Quality should improve throughout the project using retrospectives, lessons learned, and performance trend tracking.

Template: Quality Management Plan

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control: What's the Difference?

A strong QMP requires both.

Common Mistakes in Quality Planning

• Missing or unclear acceptance criteria
• Insufficient testing
• Failure to involve SMEs
• Skipping quality audits
• Relying only on QC and ignoring QA
• Not planning for vendor quality issues

Quality issues discovered late are exponentially more expensive to fix.

Modern 2025 Quality Management Best Practices

1. AI-Driven Defect Prediction

Tools like perch base can analyze project documentation to detect quality gaps early.

2. Shift-Left Testing

Testing earlier in the lifecycle to catch issues sooner.

3. Automated Testing & Continuous Integration

Especially important for IT and software projects.

4. Quality Scorecards

Tracking quality indicators weekly improves transparency.

5. Stakeholder Acceptance Workshops

A rapid way to gain clarity before development begins.

Using perch base to Build a Quality Plan

perch base’s Quality Management Plan generator helps PMs:

• Create quality standards
• Define QA and QC processes
• Build acceptance criteria
• Assign quality responsibilities
• Generate exportable DOCX & PDF plans

Build Your Quality Plan in perch base

Final Thoughts

Quality is the foundation of customer satisfaction and project success. A strong Quality Management Plan not only ensures compliance and accuracy — it reduces rework, increases team confidence, and protects the project from hidden risks.

Using the templates and steps in this guide, along with perch base’s project planning tools, you can build quality plans that meet stakeholder expectations and stand up to audits and reviews.