Quality Management

PMBOK Chapter 8

Project Quality Management• Quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for

which it was undertaken. (The product will ‘work’ the way the stakeholders want it to)

• Includes all of the activities required that determine; Quality policies, Quality objectives and Quality Responsibilities

• Quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements”

• Grade and Quality– High grade – lots of functionality– Low Grade – low functionality – Poor quality is always a problem– Project team determines required levels of Quality and Grade for

the project• Precision and Accuracy Example

– You measured the output of a process to three decimal place (high accuracy) and get a wide range of results (low precision)

Project Quality Management• Quality Management and Project Management both recognise:

– Customer satisfaction– Prevention over inspection– Continuous Improvement– Management Responsibility

Special Note• Quality is always important in projects• The PMBOK Guide also covers Quality Management theory• A lot of quality management theory is about improving repetitive

processes• In many long projects you may well have the need to improve

repetitive processes• So don’t be concerned if you can’t see the immediate application of the

theory to your projects

Modern View of Quality• Quality is everyone’s responsibility• Defects should be highlighted and corrected• Quality problems lead to cooperative solutions• Documentation is essential for “lessons learned” so mistakes are not

repeated• Improved quality saves money and increases business• Quality is customer focused• People want to produce quality products• Quality occurs at project initiation and must be planned for within the

project

(Quotes from Kerzner)

Quality Management Processes

8.1 Quality Planning (Inputs) • What Quality Standards are appropriate to produce

the product(s) of the project and how do we satisfy them

• Inputs

– Scope statement

• Product description

• Acceptance criteria

• WBS

– The Risk register may identify threats/opportunities that may impact quality requirements

– Organisational Assets

• Use the Company Quality Policy or the project team needs to develop the quality policy

• Lessons or historical databases

8.1 Quality Planning (Tools) • Tools and Techniques

– Cost-Benefit Analysis• Benefits – less re-work, lower costs, customer

satisfaction• Costs for Quality activities are a project expense

– Cost of Quality – see next foil

– Control charts

– Design of Experiments • A Design of Experiment (DOE) is a structured, organized method

for determining the relationship between factors (Xs) affecting a process and the output of that process (Y). (Very mathematical)

– Flowcharts can identify where quality problems may arise– Quality management methodology examples

• Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, Demming institute, etc

– Additional tools• Brainstorming• Force field analysis, etc

The Cost of Quality •Prevention

– Design review– Training– Quality Planning

•Appraisal– Inspection of product– Lab tests– In process testing– Design reviews

•Internal Failure Costs– Scrap– Rework– Repair– Downtime

•External Failure costs– Customer returns– Customer complaints– Costs of corrective actions CURRENT

100

40

60

80

20

Prevention

Total Quality Cost (Kerzner

Future

Prevention

AppraisalAppraisal

Internal Failure

Internal Failure

External Failure

External Failure

Savings

8.1 Quality Planning (Outputs) • Outputs

– Quality Management Plan• Describes how the project management team will

implement quality for the project

• Documents the planned approach for:– Quality Control

– Quality Assurance

– Continuous process improvement

• May be formal or informal

– Quality Metrics• Describes measurements to be used and tolerances.

• Examples– On time performance

– Budget control

– % of defects

• Quality Checklist

• Process improvement plan

8.2 Perform Quality Assurance• The process of auditing the quality requirements and

the results from quality control measures to ensure appropriate quality standards are used

• QA may be done by the organisation’s quality department

• QA provides the umbrella for continuous process improvement

• Tools and Techniques

– Quality audit – a structured, independent review of the project activities to see that they comply

– Process Analysis

• Examines process and problems

• Includes Root Cause Analysis

• Outputs

– Main output is change requests (recommended corrective actions, preventative actions, defect repairs

8.2 Perform Quality Assurance• Are we following the standards?

– Use measurements from quality control– Perform continuous improvement– Determine if project activities comply with organisational and

project policies, processes, and procedures – quality audit– Find good practices– Share good practices with others in the organisation.

8.2 Perform Quality Assurance• Tools and Techniques

– Quality Audits• Are we following procedures?• Usually done by the quality assurance department• Can be done by PM if no QA department exists

– Process analysis• Continuous improvement• Used in repeated activities (such as repeated software

installation on multiple PC’s)• Uses lessons learned.• Naturally occurring, however real process analysis occurs

at planned intervals

8.3 Perform Quality Control • Monitoring specific project results to:

– Determine that they comply with relevant quality standards

– Eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance• Inputs

– As shown• Tools and Techniques

– The Seven Basic tools of Quality1. Cause and Effect

2. Control Charts

3. Flowcharting

4. Histogram

5. Pareto chart – 80/20 rule – 80% of the problems are due to 20% of the causes

6. Run chart – a chart showing data points collected over a period of time

7. Scatter diagram

• Outputs– As Shown

8.3 Perform Quality Control • Are we meeting the standards?

– Measure quality– Identify quality improvements– Validate deliverables– Complete checklists– Update lessons learned– Submit change requests– Update the project management plan and project documents

Cause and Effect Example

Cause and Effect

• Also known as a Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram• Think:

– Is it better to fix a defect or get to the root cause of the defect?

• Cause and Effect diagrams help identify the root cause of the problem

• Helps stimulate thinking, organise thoughts, and generates discussion

• Can also be used to explore factors of a desired outcome

Control Chart

• Runs – When several successive points line up one side of the centre line this is a “run”. Rule of thumb – seven points is a run indicating an abnormality in the run

• Trend – continued raise or fall in a series of points• Hugging the centerline – points are all close to the centerline. There is

an abnormality• Out of control – points exceed the upper or lower control limits• In control – no obvious abnormalities

Control Chart• Set up in the Plan Quality process• Utilized in the Perform Quality process• Help determine if a process is within acceptable limits

– Think a manufacturer of doors, not all doors will be the same height, width, weight etc; there is a range.

– Samples are taken and plotted on the control chart – shows whether the samples are within the limit

• Upper and Lower control limits– Measured in sigma or standard deviation– Data points within this range are “in control”

• Specification limits– Customers expectations or contractual requirements– Performing organisations control limits must be less than the

specification limits (assumption for exam)

Control Chart• Out of control

– A data point is outside the upper or lower control limit– There are nonrandom datapoints – these may be within the

control limits

• Rule of Seven– Rule of thumb– Nonrandom data points grouped together in a series of seven

on one side of the mean.– Although none are outside the control limits, they are not

random and may be out of control– The Project Manager should investigate this type of situation

to find a cause

Pareto Chart

Pareto Chart• Arranges results from most frequent to least frequent• Helps identify which root causes are resulting in the

most problems• Joseph Juran’s 80/20 principle – 80% of the problems

are due to 20% of root causes• Helps identify best root causes to address• Remember for exam:

– Help focus attention on the most critical issues– Prioritise potential “causes” of the problem– Separate the critical few from the uncritical many

3 or 6 Sigma• Level of quality• Used to calculate upper and lower control limits in a

control chart

• Memorise:– Sigma is taken from both sides of the mean. Half the curve is

to the right of the mean, half is to the left.– +/- 1 sigma (1 SD) is equal to 68.26% (percentage of

occurrences which fall between the control limit)– +/- 2 sigma (2 SD’s) is equal to 95.46%– +/- 3 sigma (3 SD’d) is equal to 99.73%– +/- 6 sigma (6 SD’s) is equal to 99.99985%

8.3 Perform Quality Control • Terms to know for the exam

– Mutual exclusivity

• Two events that cannot occur at the same time (eg flipping a coin cannot result in heads and tails)

– Statistical independence

• The probability of one event occurring does not affect the probability of another occurring (eg rolling a die)

– Standard Deviation (or Sigma)

• Measure of how far you are from the mean