Chap 8: Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management Process includes

- Planning quality management - Performing quality assurance - Performing quality control

CMMI Processes

- Software Process: The logical organization of people, materials, energy, etc - Software Process Capability: The expected results - Software Process Performance: The actual results achieved - Software Process Maturity: a particular software process is explicitly and consistently defined, , managed, measured, controlled, and effectively used

Process Quality Metrics

-Control the defects introduced by the processes required to create the project deliverables -Can be used to improve software development or maintenance -Should focus on the effectiveness of identifying and removing defects or bugs

Performing quality assurance

-Quality assurance includes all the activities related to satisfying the relevant quality standards for a project -> Another goal of quality assurance is a continuous quality improvement -Benchmarking generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing organization -A quality audit is a structured review of specific quality management activities that help identify lessons learned that could improve performance on current or future projects

Planning Quality: Important to prevent defects by:

-Selecting proper materials -Training and indoctrinating people in quality -Planning a process that ensures the appropriate outcome

Quality Control Charts

-a graphic display of data that illustrates the results of a process over time -The main use of control charts is to prevent defects, rather than to detect or reject them -Quality control charts allow you to determine whether a process is in control or out of control

Standard deviation

-measures how much variation exists in a distribution of data -is a key factor in determining the acceptable number of defective units found in a population -sigma means standard deviation

Run Charts

-used for stratification, a technique that shows data from a variety of sources to see if a pattern emerges -Displays the history and pattern of variation of a process over time. -Perform trend analysis and forecast future outcomes based on historical results

Scope Aspects of IT Projects

1. functionality 2. features 3. system outputs 4. performance 5. reliability 6. maintainability

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

A process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes

Outputs of quality control

Acceptance decisions Rework Process adjustments

The Seven Run Rule

If seven data points in a row on a quality control chart are all below the mean, above the mean, or are all increasing or decreasing, then the process needs to be examined for nonrandom problems use quality control charts and the seven run rule to look for patterns in data

Planning Quality

Implies the ability to anticipate situations and prepare actions to bring about the desired outcome

Levels of Software Process Maturity

Level 1: Initial Level 2: Repeatable Level 3: Defined Level 4: Managed Level 5: Optimizing

Maturity Levels

Maturity levels lay successive foundations for continuous improvement Can measure the maturity of an organization's software process Can evaluate its software process capability Help prioritize improvement efforts

Performing quality control

Monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards

Mature Software Organization

Proactive and able to follow a set of disciplined processes throughout the software project. Software processes and the roles of individuals are defined explicitly and communicated throughout the organization. Software processes are consistent throughout the organization and continually improved based on experimentation or experiences. Quality of each software process is monitored so that the products and processes are predictable across different projects. Budgets and schedules are based on past projects so they are more realistic and the project goals and objectives are more likely to be achieved.

1. Quality Planning: Determining which quality standards are important and how they will be met. 2: Quality Assurance: Evaluating overall project performance to ensure quality standards are being met. 3.Quality Control: Monitoring the activities and results of the project to ensure that the project complies with the quality standards.

Project Quality Management Process

Who's Responsible for the Quality of Projects?

Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality management on their projects Several organizations and references can help project managers and their teams understand quality International Organization for Standardization (www.iso.org) IEEE (www.ieee.org)

Immature Software Organization

Reactive in nature - Managers continually "fight fires" Schedules & budgets are usually exceeded Functionality & quality often compromised to meet schedules Project success determined by who is or is not part of the project team No basis for judging quality Never seems to be enough time to address problem issues or improve the current processes

Six Sigma Projects Use Project Management

Six Sigma projects are done in teams; the project manager is often called the team leader, and the sponsor is called the champion

Histograms

a bar graph of a distribution of variables Each bar represents an attribute or characteristic of a problem or situation, and the height of the bar represents its frequency

Quality

an inherent or distinguishing characteristic; a property; having a high degree of excellence

Flowcharts

are graphic displays of the logic and flow of processes that help you analyze how problems occur and how processes can be improved They show activities, decision points, and the order of how information is processed

Project Quality Management

ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken

Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

trace complaints about quality problems back to the responsible production operations -Help you find the root cause of a problem -Also known as fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams -Can also use the 5 whys technique where you repeated ask the question "Why"

Project Quality Metrics

Focus on the control of the project management processes to ensure that the project meets its overall goal as well as its scope, schedule, and budget objectives

OPM3

OPM3 provides the following example to illustrate a best practice, capability, outcome, and key performance indicator: -Best Practice -Capability -Outcome -KPI

Performing quality assurance

Periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards

DMAIC

a systematic, closed-loop process for continued improvement that is scientific and fact based

Scatter diagram

helps to show if there is a relationship between two variables

Planning quality management

identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them A metric is a standard of measurement

Pareto Charts

is a histogram that can help you identify and prioritize problem areas is also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 percent of problems are often due to 20 percent of the causes

Checksheet

is used to collect and analyze data -Sometimes called a tally sheet or checklist, depending on its format

Six Sigma

"a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success. The target for perfection is the achievement of no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities Follow a five- phase improvement process called DMAIC

Verification and Validation

- Verification focuses on process-related activities to ensure that the products & deliverables meet specified requirements before final testing -Validation focuses on Product-oriented activities that attempt to determine if the system or project deliverables meet the customer or client's expectations & Testing

DMAIC stands for:

-Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process, and customer requirements -Measure: Define measures, then collect, compile, and display data -Analyze: Scrutinize process details to find improvement opportunities -Improve: Generate solutions and ideas for improving the problem -Control: Track and verify the stability of the improvements and the predictability of the solution

The Quality Movement

-Early humankind Quality = Survival -Craftsmanship

The IT Project Quality Plan

-Focus on customer satisfaction -Prevention not inspection -Improve the process to improve the product -Quality is everyone's responsibility -Fact-based management

Product Quality Metrics

-Focuses on the intrinsic quality of the deliverables and satisfaction of the customer, client, or sponsor with these deliverables -Attempt to describe the characteristics of the project's deliverables and final product

Scope Aspects of IT Projects

-Functionality: is the degree to which a system performs its intended function -Features: are the system's special characteristics that appeal to users -System outputs: are the screens and reports the system generates -Performance: addresses how well a product or service performs the customer's intended use -Reliability: is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under normal conditions -Maintainability: addresses the ease of performing maintenance on a product

Six Sigma Programs

-Master Black Belts: Have the highest level of technical and organizational experience and expertise who train Six Sigma Black Belts - Black Belts: Come from various disciplines, have a high degree of experience and expertise and are held in high esteem - Green Belts: Six Sigma leaders or project managers - Champions: an added role in many organizations. They are leaders who are committed to the success of the Six Sigma project, provide funding, and can ensure organizational barriers and obstacles are removed