Management Scholars Academy

Quality Management

PMBoK definition of Perform Quality Assurance:

Applying the planned systematic quality activities to ensure that the project employs all processes needed to meet requirements

The scene from Ramayana:

In Sundarakandam, there is a fine description of Pushpaka Vimana, an aerial car that is in possession with Ravana. After describing how spacious and neatly decorated the vimana is and how it can fly from one place to another on voice commands and how smoothly it lands etc. Valmiki says, “It was build by Vishwakarma, the divine architect, exactly as conceived in the mind of Brahma.” Again he says, “There was no part of the car that was not built with great effort, no part that was not significant, and no part that was not from the best material. (literal translation of the sloka)” Simply put it means, “Each and every part of the aerial car was considered significant and built with the best material available and with all required effort to make it perfect.”
Brahma gives it as a gift to Kubera. Ravana engages Kubera in a war and takes possession of the pushpaka vimana. After Ravana was killed Rama returns the vimana to Kubera.

How the scene maps to the process:

What captured my attention is the sentence ““It was build by Vishwakarma, the divine architect, exactly as conceived in the mind of Brahma.” This is the definition of quality. If it can be assured that the design and construction processes employed is such that the product turns out exactly as conceived by the customer in his mind, what more can the customer ask for?
Again, this sentence, “each and every part of the aerial car was considered significant and built with the best material available and with all required effort to make it perfect” sounds like the earliest definition of Total Quality Management.

Related posts:

1. Project Management in Valmiki Ramayana – 10
2. Project Management in Valmiki Ramayana – 4
3. Project Management in Valmiki Ramayana – 9
4. Project Management in Valmiki Ramayana – 5
5. Project Management in Valmiki Ramayana – 8