Supporting the 7 Quality Management Principles with a QMS

What determines whether a project delivers results or failures? In many developed industries, especially in complex engineering, the answer lies in the strength of the organization’s quality management. In this article, we discuss how ECLIPSE Software Suite supports the seven quality management principles set by ISO

The 7 Principles of Quality Management

One of the challenges with quality management is that it changes over time. This is due to new technologies, theories, principles, and regulations constantly being developed. Yet the principles behind quality management stay relatively the same.

ISO has given seven quality management principles as a basis for quality management.

The seven quality management principles are :

• QMP 1 – Customer focus
• QMP 2 – Leadership
• QMP 3 – Engagement of people
• QMP 4 – Process approach
• QMP 5 – Improvement
• QMP 6 – Evidence-based decision making
• QMP 7 – Relationship management

Let’s look at each principle and see how ECLIPSE Software Suite supports them.

QMP 1 – Customer focus

The customer is king when it comes to project success. Because a project’s success is not defined by how well it is built, but by how well it meets the requirements and needs of its customers.

Customer focus means understanding who the customers are, what they need, and ensuring the project consistently delivers value to them.

In a project context, this includes identifying both direct and indirect customers, translating their needs into clear requirements, communicating those needs across the team, and monitoring satisfaction throughout the lifecycle.

Customer focus is so important because even a “technically” successful project can fail if it does not meet user expectations or mission objectives.

Customer focus through requirement management

ECLIPSE supports customer focus by providing a structured environment where customer needs can be captured, formalized, and continuously managed. Requirements management ensures that expectations are clearly defined and traceable to design, verification, and delivery, while integrated workflows help communicate these needs across all stakeholders. In addition, features such as reviews, reporting, and status tracking enable teams to monitor progress, validate outcomes against expectations, and maintain strong relationships with customers and other interested parties throughout the project.

QMP 2 – Leadership

The quality management battle can’t be won with weak leadership.

Leadership means that management establishes a clear direction, aligns people with the organization’s goals, and creates an environment where quality can be achieved.

When applied, this includes communicating the mission, vision, and strategy, promoting a culture of trust and integrity, and ensuring that people have the resources, authority, and motivation to contribute effectively.

Strong leadership ensures alignment across the project, reduces confusion, and drives consistent decision-making and accountability.

Leadership through overviews, insights, and management tools

Within ECLIPSE, leadership is enabled through transparency, structure, and control over project information and processes. Managers can monitor progress using dashboards, reports, and review statuses, while clearly defined roles, permissions, and workflows help assign responsibility and accountability. By providing a single source of truth and visibility across the project, the platform helps leaders guide teams, support collaboration, and reinforce a culture focused on quality and performance.

QMP 3 – Engagement of people

Engagement is the difference between showing up and actually making an impact.

You want all team members to have a proper role and voice within the group, because they may have solutions. Next to this, they will also get more motivated, responsible, and in general contribute better results. A great addition to any project.

For projects, this includes actively promoting collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing. It also means recognizing contributions and enabling people to take initiative.

Engaging people will help because projects are all about the skills, motivation, and active participation of people; engaged people are more innovative, responsive, and committed to quality outcomes.

Project participation is enabled on all levels

ECLIPSE facilitates this engagement by providing a collaborative environment where stakeholders can actively participate in project activities. Features such as document reviews, commenting, action tracking, and shared workspaces support open discussion and knowledge exchange across teams and organizations. At the same time, clear task ownership, visibility of contributions, and structured workflows help individuals understand their role, take responsibility, and contribute confidently throughout design, development, testing, and review phases.

QMP 4 – Process approach

The process approach means managing activities as interconnected processes that function together as a coherent system.

This involves objectives, assigning responsibilities, understanding dependencies between processes, and ensuring that resources, information, and risks are properly managed.

A process approach is important because treating work as a system rather than isolated tasks leads to more consistent results, better efficiency, and improved control over project outcomes.

Integrated processes and workflow management

ECLIPSE supports ECSS processes and is built for space project environments where structured ways of working are essential.It structures engineering and management activities into connected modules that function as one system. Requirements Management defines mission and system objectives and keeps them aligned across design, verification, and validation processes. Workflow Builder and Workflow Management ensure that reviews, approvals, and engineering steps follow a clear and consistent flow with defined roles and responsibilities.

Review Management supports formal project milestones by enabling structured feedback and verification in line with space review processes. Non-Conformance Management captures deviations during design, manufacturing, and testing, ensuring they are assessed, tracked, and resolved within a controlled process.

By connecting these elements, ECLIPSE gives teams control over process dependencies across the full engineering lifecycle. It supports consistent execution, clear verification, and continuous improvement in line with space industry practices.

QMP 5 – Improvement

Improvement means continuously enhancing processes, products, and performance to achieve better results over time.

Here it’s about setting improvement objectives, training people, implementing improvement projects, tracking results, and integrating lessons learned into future work.

Improvement is key because projects operate in changing environments, and continuous improvement helps prevent recurring issues, increases efficiency, and strengthens overall project performance.

Continuous improvement and removing anomalies

ECLIPSE supports improvement of products, processes and projects by giving a way to identify, track, and manage issues and actions. The main way is through Non-Conformance Management, with ECLIPSE, you can control deviations with a fixed process. Action Tracking is also possible through the whole project lifecycle, which ensures actions are assigned, monitored, and completed.

In addition, audit trails provide visibility into changes and decisions. This allows teams to monitor progress and evaluate results. It also ensures that improvements are properly implemented and closed.

By integrating these modules with ongoing activities, ECLIPSE supports continuous improvement. It embeds this approach into design, development, testing, and project close-out.

QMP 6 – Evidence-based decision making

Evidence-based decision making means that decisions are based on the analysis of reliable data and information rather than assumptions alone.

You will want to define and monitor key performance indicators, ensuring data is accurate and accessible, and using appropriate methods to analyse and evaluate information.

Evidence based decision making is fundemental because well-informed decisions reduce uncertainty, improve risk management, and increase the likelihood of achieving project objectives.

Automatic evidence collection for decision-making

ECLIPSE supports evidence-based decision-making by providing access to your project data in a clear and accessible way. Not only do can you create dashboards and reports for a clear project status. But across ECLIPSE traceability is a key component.

Relevant project data can be linked to each other. Requirements, risks, actions, reviews, and non-conformances are accessible within a few clicks if they are related to each other.

Moreover, information is centrally available, controlled, and auditable by management. It allows the right people to analyse performance and base decisions on current project data. As a result, decision-making around reviews, changes, risks, and testing are improved.

QMP 7 – Relationship management

Relationship management means identifying and managing relationships with all relevant interested parties, such as customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders.

Important for this is understanding needs, prioritizing key relationships, sharing information and resources, and collaborating on improvement activities.

Relationship management is key because project success almost always depends on effective cooperation across the supply chain and stakeholder network, balancing short-term results with long-term partnerships.

Stakeholder alignment through shared data and workflows

Relationship management works best through direct human interaction. ECLIPSE supports this by providing a structured environment for collaboration and controlled communication across teams and partners.

Access level management ensures that each stakeholder sees the information relevant to them. Shared workspaces enable teams to work together efficiently. Reviews allow stakeholders to give feedback and stay aligned. Action tracking keeps responsibilities clear and ensures proper follow-up.

This strengthens cooperation, increases transparency, and supports consistent project quality.

Supporting Quality Management with ECLIPSE

Quality management is not a single activity. It is a structured approach that connects people, processes, and information across the project lifecycle. The seven ISO principles provide a strong foundation for consistent and reliable results.

ECLIPSE Software Suite supports these principles by bringing structure, transparency, and control. It helps teams capture requirements, manage processes, and support collaboration. It also enables improvement and data-driven decision-making.

By combining these capabilities in one environment, ECLIPSE helps embed quality into daily project work. This leads to better alignment, improved performance, and a higher chance of project success.

If you would like to learn more about how ECLIPSE can support your specific project with quality management, contact us to get a free demonstration.