Chapter 8 Project quality management

19. Which term is used when the project's processes and products meet written specifications? a. conformance to requirements b. fitness for use c. project feasibility d. benchmarking

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Conformance to requirements means that the project's processes and products meet written specifications. For example, if the project scope statement requires delivery of 100 computers with specific processors and memory, you could easily check whether suitable computers had been delivered.

34. Which process correct(s) or prevent(s) quality problems based on quality control measurements? a. process adjustments b. rework c. acceptance decisions d. decomposition

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Process adjustments correct or prevent further quality problems based on quality control measurements. Process adjustments often result in updates to the quality baseline, Organization process assets, and the project management plan.

36. Which chart helps users identify the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system? a. Gantt b. Pareto c. control d. tracking Gantt

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: A Pareto chart is a histogram that can help you identify and prioritize problem areas. The variables described by the histogram are ordered by frequency of occurrence. Pareto charts help you identify the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system.

45. Which test is done to test each individual component (often a program) to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible? a. integration b. unit c. user acceptance d. system

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: A unit test is done to test each individual component (often a program) to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible. Unit tests are performed before moving on to the integration test.

35. Which graphic display of data illustrates the results of a process over time? a. statistical sampling chart b. Pareto chart c. Six Sigma chart d. control chart

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: A control chart is a graphic display of data that illustrates the results of a process over time. Control charts allow you to determine whether a process is in control or out of control.

32. What process is used to generate 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. prototyping b. systems thinking c. mind mapping d. benchmarking

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: 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.

23. Which process is often associated with the technical tools and techniques of quality management, such as Pareto charts, quality control charts, and statistical sampling? a. quality planning b. quality certification c. quality assurance d. quality control

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: Controlling quality involves monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards while identifying ways to improve overall quality. This process is often associated with the technical tools and techniques of quality management, such as Pareto charts, quality control charts, and statistical sampling.

47. Which statement is one of Deming's 14 Points for Management? a. An organization should increase dependence on inspection to achieve quality. b. Award business based on price tag alone rather than on other considerations. c. Minimize total cost by working with multiple suppliers rather than a single supplier. d. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system.

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: Dr. W. Edwards Deming is known primarily for his work on quality control in Japan. One of Deming's 14 Points for Management states that an organization should remove barriers that rob people of workmanship and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.

52. Which term is used for a cost that relates to all errors not detected and not corrected before delivery to the customer? a. prevention cost b. appraisal cost c. internal failure cost d. external failure cost

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: External failure cost is a cost that relates to all errors not detected and corrected before delivery to the customer. Items such as warranty cost, field service personnel training cost, product liability suits, complaint handling, and future business losses are examples of external failure costs.

27. Which term is used for the degree to which a system performs its intended function? a. reliability b. validity c. maintainability d. functionality

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: Functionality is the degree to which a system performs its intended function. Features are the system's special characteristics that appeal to users. It is important to clarify what functions and features the system must perform, and what functions and features are optional.

24. Performing quality assurance is a subprocess of which project quality management stage? a. initiating b. closing c. benchmarking d. managing

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: Managing quality includes all of the quality assurance activities plus product design and process improvements.

53. Which process helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes? a. SQFD b. MTBI c. OPM3 d. CMMI

ANSWER: d RATIONALE: Feedback: The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is "a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization."

8. Products that are accepted by project stakeholders are considered to be validated deliverables.

ANSWER: True RATIONALE: Feedback: Acceptance decisions determine if the products or services produced as part of the project will be accepted or rejected. If they are accepted, they are considered to be validated deliverables.

26. Which technique helps identify variables that have the most influence on the overall outcome of a process? a. design of experiments b. backward pass c. activity-on-arrow d. crashing

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Design of experiments is a technique that helps identify which variables have the most influence on the overall outcome of a process. Understanding which variables affect outcome is a very important part of quality planning.

39. Which five-phase improvement process do projects that use Six Sigma principles for quality control normally follow? a. DMAIC b. weighted scoring model c. configuration management d. use case modeling

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Projects that use Six Sigma principles for quality control normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC.

30. What term is used for the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under normal conditions? a. reliability b. performance c. maintainability d. functionality

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Reliability is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under abnormal conditions. In discussing reliability for IT projects, many people use the term IT service management.

22. Which term is used for a standard of measurement in quality management? a. milestone b. metric c. merge d. matrix

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: A metric is a standard of measurement. Examples of common metrics include failure rates of products, availability of goods and services, and customer satisfaction ratings.

51. What cost is the price of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure that a project is error-free or within an acceptable error range? a. prevention cost b. appraisal cost c. internal failure cost d. external failure cost

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Appraisal cost is the cost of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure that a project is error-free or within an acceptable error range. Activities such as inspection and testing of products, maintenance of inspection and test equipment, and processing and reporting inspection data all contribute to appraisal costs of quality.

29. Which addresses how well a product or service performs the customer's intended use? a. reliability b. performance c. maintainability d. functionality

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Performance addresses how well a product or service performs the customer's intended use.

33. Which process is an action taken to bring rejected items into compliance with product requirements or specifications or other stakeholder expectations?

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Rework is action taken to bring rejected items into compliance with product requirements, specifications, or other stakeholder expectations. Rework often results in requested changes and validated defect repair, and it results from recommended defect repair or corrective or preventive actions.

21. The main outputs of which process are a quality management plan, quality metrics, project management plan updates, and project documents updates?

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: The main outputs of planning quality management are a quality management plan, a process improvement plan, quality metrics, quality checklists, and project documents updates.

9. A run chart is a bar graph that depicts data points and their order of occurrence.

ANSWER: False RATIONALE: Feedback: A run chart displays the history and pattern of variation of a process over time. It is a line chart that shows data points plotted in the order of occurrence.

The term sigma means median. a. True b. False

ANSWER: False RATIONALE: Feedback: An important concept in Six Sigma is improving quality by reducing variation. The term sigma means standard deviation.

15. In TQC, product quality is more important than production rates, and workers are allowed to stop production whenever a quality problem occurs.

ANSWER: True RATIONALE: Feedback: In Total Quality Control, product quality is more important than production rates, and workers are allowed to stop production whenever a quality problem occurs.

37. Which process involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection? a. statistical sampling b. conformance c. system testing d. fitness for use

ANSWER: a RATIONALE: Feedback: Statistical sampling is a key concept in project quality management.Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection.

20. Which term is used for the ability of a product to be used as it was intended? a. conformance to requirements b. fitness for use c. critical chain scheduling d. free slack

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Fitness for use means that a product can be used as it was intended.

50. Which system involves a three-part, continuous cycle of planning, controlling, and documenting quality in an organization? a. Seven run rule b. ISO 9000 c. Six Sigma d. ASQ

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: ISO 9000, a quality system standard developed by the ISO, is a three-part, continuous cycle of planning, controlling, and documenting quality in an organization.

38. Six Sigma's target for perfection is the achievement of no more than _____ defects, errors, or mistakes per million opportunities. a. 1.34 b. 3.4 c. 34 d. 13.4

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Six Sigma's target for perfection is the achievement of no more than 3.4 defects, errors, or mistakes per million opportunities.

48. Which statement is one of Juran's ten steps to quality improvement? a. An organization should minimize top management involvement in the achievement of individual employee goals. b. An organization should entrust improvement to individual employees rather than appointing teams or facilitators. c. An organization should build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement. d. An organization should avoid "keeping score" in order to achieve an overall atmosphere of quality improvement.

ANSWER: c RATIONALE: Feedback: Joseph M. Juran wrote the first edition of the Quality Control Handbook in 1974, stressing the importance of top management commitment to continuous product quality improvement. One of Juran's ten steps states that an organization should build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement.

25. Validated changes and validated deliverables are the outputs of the ____ subprocess of project quality management. a. initiating b. closing c. controlling d. executing

ANSWER: c RATIONALE: Feedback: Validated deliverables are an output of the project quality management controlling process.

55. The term _____ means a product can be used as it was intended.

ANSWER: fitness for use

7. Only in-house auditors can perform quality audits.

False RATIONALE: Feedback: In-house auditors or third parties with expertise in specific areas can perform quality audits; these quality audits can be scheduled or random.

18. Gantt charts cannot be used to aid project quality management. a. True b. False

RATIONALE: Feedback: Gantt charts can be created using project management software to help plan and track work related to project quality management.

43. What term is used for any instance where the product or service fails to meet customer requirements? a. defect b. yield c. deliverable d. variance

defect

28. What are the system's special characteristics that appeal to users? a. features b. outputs c. yields d. metrics

features

14. Integration testing involves testing of each individual component to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible. a. True b. False

ANSWER: False RATIONALE: Feedback: Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test functionally grouped components. It ensures that a subset or subsets of the entire system work together.

13. Testing as a stage is important only at the end of an information technology product development. a. True b. False

ANSWER: False RATIONALE: Feedback: Testing needs to be done during almost every phase of the systems development life cycle, not just before the organization ships or hands over a product to the customer.

44. Which is a measure of quality control equal to one fault in one million opportunities problems? a. ISO 9000 b. six 9s of quality rule c. seven run rule d. Six Sigma rule

ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Feedback: Six 9s of quality is a measure of quality control equal to 1 fault in 1 million opportunities. In the telecommunications industry, it means 99.9999 percent service availability or 30 seconds of downtime a year.

6. Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality management on their projects.

True RATIONALE: Feedback: It is important for all project stakeholders to work together to balance the quality, scope, time, and cost dimensions of the project. Project managers, however, are ultimately responsible for quality management on their projects.

5. Reliability is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under unusual conditions.

false RATIONALE: Feedback: Reliability is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under normal conditions.

17. Frameworks for helping organizations improve their processes and systems are called Six Sigma charts. a. True b. False

ANSWER: False RATIONALE: Feedback: These frameworks are maturity models which describe an evolutionary path of increasingly organized and systematically more mature processes.

11. The Six Sigma approach works best for a project where a quality problem is identified between the current and desired performance.

ANSWER: True RATIONALE: Feedback: The Six Sigma approach works best for a project where a quality problem is identified between the current and desired performance.

41. During which phase of the DMAIC process is the fishbone or Ishikawa diagram used? a. define b. measure c. analyze d. improve

ANSWER: c RATIONALE: Feedback: An important tool used in the analyze phase of the DMAIC process is the fishbone or Ishikawa diagram.