A project team is continually being asked by stakeholders to perform rework on their deliverables. The project manager discovers that this is due to poor initial quality. What should the project manager do?
A.
Host a team meeting and ask the team to fix any quality issues immediately since the stakeholders’ needs are the main focus.
B.
Request a subject matter expert (SME) from the project sponsor to identify and address the quality issues with the team.
C.
Facilitate a discussion and come to an agreement about what quality means for both the team and the stakeholders.
D.
Schedule a quality retrospective and discuss the challenges that resulted in poor initial quality with the team.
Repeated stakeholder-driven rework often indicates a mismatch between the team’s quality assumptions and stakeholder expectations. The project manager should first facilitate alignment on quality criteria (C) so everyone shares the same definition of acceptable deliverables, standards, and acceptance measures. This includes clarifying requirements, acceptance criteria, and any relevant quality metrics or tolerances. Once “what quality means” is agreed, the team can adapt processes (reviews, testing, inspections, checklists, peer validation) to prevent defects and reduce rework. Simply telling the team to fix issues immediately (A) is reactive and treats symptoms rather than root causes; it can also create overtime pressure and further defects. Bringing in an SME (B) may help, but it does not solve expectation gaps unless the stakeholder definition of quality is clarified and adopted. A quality retrospective (D) is valuable for continuous improvement, but without agreed-upon quality expectations, the retrospective may generate actions that still miss what stakeholders actually need. Aligning on quality up front establishes a stable acceptance baseline, improves stakeholder satisfaction, and reduces costly rework cycles.
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