Selective laser melting is a widely used metal additive manufacturing method and can form complex metal parts. However, due to the limitations on technical principle, the selective laser melting metal surface still has large difference in forming quality when compared with machined surface, which further limits the application of this method. How to improve the forming surface quality is an important research direction in the field of selective laser melting. The principle of selective laser melting was introduced, the factors affecting the forming quality of selective laser melted metal surface were analyzed and the current quality control methods and related research progresses were summarized. It points out that reasonable position of the formed parts, avoiding setting the contour surface with high forming quality requirements as the third kind of surface, and optimization of scanning process parameters, are the main ways to improve the forming surface quality of the selective laser melting parts.