Management Elements and Methods
What to know
This domain covers how the organization is built and run: structure, systems, standards, finances, projects, and measurement.
Structures: functional (deep expertise, slow cross-functional response), product or divisional (clear accountability, duplicated resources), and matrix (weak, balanced, strong - strength is set by where the project manager's authority sits). Flatter structures shorten decision paths but strain span of control.
Management systems and standards: know ISO 9001's process-approach architecture and the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle; do not confuse it with ISO 14001 (environmental) or ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety). Audits are first-party (internal), second-party (you auditing a supplier, or a customer auditing you), and third-party (independent certification).
Cost of quality is high-yield. Prevention and appraisal costs are the investment side; internal and external failure costs are the loss side. Scrap and rework are internal failure; warranty, returns, recalls, and liability are external failure. Total cost of quality is the sum of all four, and the classic curve says spend more on prevention to drive failure costs down.
Also know project basics (charter, scope, work breakdown structure, Gantt, critical path, risk register), operating versus capital budgets, and improvement methods: DMAIC for problem solving, Lean tools (value stream mapping, 5S, kaizen, poka-yoke, kanban), and the eight wastes.
Worked example
A field-service team logs $120,000 in warranty repairs. A candidate calls it internal failure because the defects originated in the plant. The correct classification is external failure - the customer felt it.