The relationship between total quality management and the focus of project management practices

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the influence of a total quality management (TQM) programme on the level of focus in project management practices.Design/methodology/approach – Prior literature was used to develop a construct indicating the degree of focus on customers, time/cost/quality (iron/golden triangle) and other stakeholders. A questionnaire was mailed to a random selection of UK organizations to obtain data on the degree of focus and on whether a TQM programme existed.Findings – The results from an analysis of completed questionnaires show that those in organizations with a TQM programme in place are more customer‐focused in their project management practices than those in organizations with no TQM programme. No such relationship was found between the level of iron/golden triangle and other stakeholder focus and a TQM programme.Research limitations/implications – Given the exploratory nature of the research reported in this paper there is the opportunity for further work on larger...