Quality Council

A Quality Council is composed of the organization’s top executive and his or her direct reports. It may also be referred to as an Executive Council. The Quality Council acts as the steering group to develop the organization’s mission, vision, goals, values, and quality policy.

These serve as critical input to process mapping, planning, measurement, etc. Some large companies opt for more than one level of Quality Council. When multiple levels exist, each organization’s mission and vision tie into that specified by the top council. Specifically, the Quality Council: Initiates and personally commits to the quality management philosophies and practices. Incorporates this decision into the strategic planning process, allocating resources in the budget for the deployment of quality management and ensuring resources are available for both ongoing and upcoming IT projects and internal process improvement projects.

Establishes committees at lower levels to focus on functional and cross-functional improvement efforts, develop or revise processes, and to oversee and manage the quality management process on a daily basis. They may develop charters to serve as job descriptions for the committees, or approve the committees’ charters.