Total Quality Management

Intro

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach that embeds quality awareness into all organizational processes. In EA and BPM, TQM supports consistent, customer‑focused outcomes across the enterprise.

Key points:

• Emphasizes continuous improvement and prevention of defects.
• Engages everyone in improving processes and services.
• Common use cases across EA/BPM/Data/App/Tech include process standardization, root‑cause elimination, and customer satisfaction tracking.
• Pitfall: focusing on documentation over measurable improvements.

Examples:

• Standard work instructions to reduce variation in service requests.
• Quality circles resolving recurring fulfillment errors.
• Voice of the Customer feedback driving process redesign.

In practice:

Integrate TQM with process modeling, KPIs, and governance to make quality improvements stick.

Related terms: Six Sigma; Key Performance Indicator; Voice of the Customer

FAQs:

Q: Is TQM a one‑time project?
A: No; it’s an ongoing management approach.

Q: Can TQM work with Agile?
A: Yes; both emphasize iterative, customer‑focused improvement.

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