PMBOK 5th Ed. - Chapter 8 - Project Quality Management

Force Field Analysis

which are diagrams of the forces for and against change

Approved Change Requests

- As part of the Perform Integrated Change Control process a change control status update will indicate that some changes are approved and some are not. The timely implementation of approved changes needs to be verified - Include modifications such as defect repairs, revised work methods and revised schedule.

Histograms

- Special form of bar chart and are used to describe the central tendency, dispersion, and shape of a statistical distribution. Unlike the control chart, the histogram does not consider the influence of time on the variation that exists within a distribution. - Illustrates the most common cause of problems in a process by the number and relative heights of the bars

Control Quality

- The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes. - The key benefits of this process include: (1) identifying the causes of poor process or product quality and recommending and/or taking action to eliminate them; and (2) validating that project deliverables and work meet the requirements specified by key stakeholders necessary for final acceptance.

Tools & Techniques (8) Plan Quality Management

1 Cost-benefit analysis 2 Cost of quality 3 Seven basic quality tools 4 Benchmarking 5 Design of experiments 6 Statistical sampling 7 Additional quality planning tools 8 Meetings

Input (8) of Control Quality

1 Project management plan 2 Quality metrics 3 Quality checklists 4 Work performance data 5 Approved change requests 6 Deliverables 7 Project documents 8 Organizational process assets

Input (6) of Plan Quality Management

1 Project management plan 2 Stakeholder register 3 Risk register 4 Requirements documentation 5 Enterprise environmental factors 6 Organizational process assets

Output (8) of Control Quality

1 Quality control measurements 2 Validated changes 3 Validated deliverables 4 Work performance information 5 Change requests 6 Project management plan updates 7 Project documents updates 8 Organizational process assets updates

Tools & Techniques (3) of Perform Quality Assurance

1 Quality management and control tools 2 Quality audits 3 Process analysis

Output (5) of Plan Quality Management

1 Quality management plan 2 Process improvement plan 3 Quality metrics 4 Quality checklists 5 Project documents updates

Input (5) of Perform Quality Assurance

1 Quality management plan 2 Process improvement plan 3 Quality metrics 4 Quality control measurements 5 Project documents

Tools & Techniques (4) of Control Quality

1 Seven basic quality tools 2 Statistical sampling 3 Inspection 4 Approved change requests review

What 2 things does Project Quality Management provide?

1. Continuous process improvement 2. Assurance project requirements are met & validated

What are the 3 characteristics of Project Quality Management?

1. Implements the quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous process improvement activities conducted throughout, as appropriate. 2. Addresses the management of the project and the product of the project. 3. Applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their product.

What are 3 common process improvement models?

1. Malcolm Baldridge •2. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) •3. Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI®)

What are the 3 Project Quality Management processes?

1. Plan Quality Management 2. Perform Quality Assurance 3. Control Quality

Work Performance Data

Include: • Planned s. Actual technical performance • Planned s. Actual schedule performance • Planned s. Actual cost performance

Grade

A category assigned to products or services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics

Quality Checklists

A checklist is a structured tool, usually component-specific, used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed.Checklists range from simple to complex based on project requirements and practices

Validated Deliverables

A goal of quality control is to determine the correctness of deliverables. • The results of the execution quality control processes are validated deliverables. • Validated deliverables are an input to Verify Scope for formalized acceptance

Process Configuration

A graphic depiction of processes, with interfaces identified, used to facilitate analysis

Precision

A measure of correctness

Matrix diagrams

A quality management and control tool used to perform data analysis within the organizational structure created in the matrix. The matrix diagram seeks to show the strength of relationships between factors, causes, and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form the matrix.

Quality metrics

A quality metric describes a project or product attribute and how it will be measured. Some examples of quality metrics include: function points, mean time between failure (MTBF), and mean time to repair (MTTR).

Design of Experiments

A statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production

Approved Change Requests Reviews

All approved change requests should be reviewed to verify that they were implemented as approved

Process Metrics

Along with control limits, allows analysis of process efficiency

Failure Costs

Also called Costs of poor quality

Cause-and-effect diagrams

Also callled fishbone diagrams or as Ishikawa diagrams.

Tree diagrams

Also known as systematic diagrams and may be used to represent decomposition hierarchies such as the WBS, RBS (risk breakdown structure), and OBS (organizational breakdown structure). In project management, tree diagrams are useful in visualizing the parent-to-child relationships in any decomposition hierarchy that uses a systematic set of rules that define a nesting relationship. Tree diagrams can be depicted horizontally (such as a risk breakdown structure) or vertically (such as a team hierarchy or OBS). Because tree diagrams permit the creation of nested branches that terminate into a single decision point, they are useful as decision trees for establishing an expected value for a limited number of dependent relationships that have been diagrammed systematically.

Interrelationship digraphs

An adaptation of relationship diagrams. The interrelationship digraphs provide a process for creative problem solving in moderately complex scenarios that possess intertwined logical relationships for up to 50 relevant items. The interrelationship digraph may be developed from data generated in other tools such as the affinity diagram, the tree diagram, or the fishbone diagram.

Accuracy

An assessment of correctness

Validated Changes

Any change or repaired items are inspected and will be either accepted or rejected before notification of the decision is provided. Reject items may require rework

Output (4) of Perform Quality Assurance

Change requests 2 Project management plan updates 3 Project documents updates 4 Organizational process assets updates

Organizational Process Assets Updates

Completed checklists • Lessons learned documentation

Risk Register

Contains information on threats and opportunities that may impact quality requirements.

Project scope statement

Contains the project description, major project deliverables, and acceptance criteria. The product scope description will often contain details of technical issues and other concerns that can affect quality planning. The definition of acceptance criteria can significantly increase or decrease project costs and quality costs. Satisfying all acceptance criteria implies the needs of the customer have been met.

Quality Management Plan

Describes how the project management team will implement the performing organization's quality policy. It is a component or a subsidiary plan of the project management plan

Process Boundaries

Describes the purpose of processes, their start and end, their inputs/outputs, the data required, the owner, and the stakeholders

DOE

Design of Experiments

Schedule Baseline

Documents the accepted schedule performance measures including start and finish dates

Cost Baseline

Documents the accepted time phase used to measure cost performance.

Organizational Process Assets Updates

Elements of the organizational process assets that may be updated include, but are not limited to, the quality standards.

Perform Quality Assurance

Executing Process Group

Process Analysis

Follows the steps outlined in the process improvement plan to identify needed improvements. This analysis also examines problems experienced, constraints experienced, and non-value-added activities identified during process operation. Process analysis includes root cause analysis

Targets for Improved Performance

Guides the process improvement activities

Stakeholder Register

Identifies stakeholders with a particular interest in , or impact on quality.

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Identifies the deliverables, the work packages and the control accounts used to measure project performance.

Prioritization matrices

Identify the key issues and the suitable alternatives to be prioritized as a set of decisions for implementation. Criteria are prioritized and weighted before being applied to all available alternatives to obtain a mathematical score that ranks the options.

Change Requests

If the recommended corrective or preventive actions or a defect repair requires a change to the project management plan, a change request should be initiated in accordance with the defined Perform Integrated Change Control process

Cause and Effect Diagrams

Illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects

Basic Project Quality Management approach is meant to be compatible with.....

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Statistical Sampling

Involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection (for example, selecting ten engineering drawings at random from a list of seventy-five)

Benchmarking

Involves comparing actual or planned project practices to those of comparable projects to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance. These other projects can be within the performing organization or outside of it and can be within the same or in another application area

Quality Audit

Is a structured, independent review to determine whether project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures

Process Improvement Plan

Is a subsidiary of the project management plan. Details the steps for analyzing processes to identify activities which enhance their value

Quality Metrics

Is an operational definition that describes, in very specific terms, a project or product attribute and how the quality control process will measure it

Inspection

Is the examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to documented standards.

Product Quality

Measures and techniques that are specific to the type of product produced by the project.

Control Quality

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group

What is Prevention Over Inspection?

One of the fundamental tenets of modern quality management states that quality is planned, designed, and built in—not inspected in. The cost of preventing mistakes is generally much less than the cost of correcting them when they are found by inspection

Plan Quality Process Group

Planning Process Group

Activity network diagrams

Previously known as arrow diagrams. They include both the AOA (Activity on Arrow) and, most commonly used, AON (Activity on Node) formats of a network diagram. Activity network diagrams are used with project scheduling methodologies such as program evaluation and review technique (PERT), critical path method (CPM), and precedence diagramming method (PDM).

Project documents

Project documents may influence quality assurance work and should be monitored within the context of a system for configuration management.

Meetings

Project teams may hold planning meetings to develop the quality management plan. Attendees at these meetings may include the project manager; the project sponsor; selected project team members; selected stakeholders; anyone with responsibility for Project Quality Management activities namely Plan Quality Management, Perform Quality Assurance, or Control Quality; and others as needed.

What is a key benefit of the Plan Quality Management process?

Provides guidance and direction on how quality will be managed and validated throughout the project.

Characteristics of the Quality Management Plan

Provides input to the overall project management plan and includes quality control, quality assurance, and continuous process improvement approaches for the project. • May be formal or informal, highly detailed, or broadly framed. The style and detail is determined by the requirements of the project. • Should be reviewed early in the project to ensure that decisions are based on accurate information. • The benefits of this review can include reduction of cost and schedule overruns caused by rework

Change Requests

Quality improvement includes taking action to increase the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the policies, processes, and procedures of the performing organization. • Change requests are created and used as input into the Perform Integrated Change Control process to allow full consideration of the recommended improvements. • Change requests can be used to take corrective action or preventive action or to perform defect repair

Project Management Plan Updates

Quality management plan • Process improvement plan

When should Quality Planning be performed?

Quality planning should be performed in parallel with the other project planning processes.

Organizational Process Assets

Quality standards and policies • Standard work guidelines • Issue and defect reporting procedures and communication policies

What is Cost of Quality (COQ)?

Refers to the total cost of all efforts related to quality throughout the product life cycle. Project decisions can impact operational costs of quality as a result of product returns, warranty claims, and recall campaigns. Therefore, due to the temporary nature of a project, the sponsoring organization may choose to invest in product quality improvement, especially defect prevention and appraisal, to reduce the external cost of quality.

Statistical Sampling

Samples are selected and tested as defined in the quality plan

Examples of Quality Metrics

Some examples of quality metrics include on-time performance, budget control, defect frequency, failure rate, availability, reliability, and test coverage

What is Management Responsibility?

Success requires the participation of all members of the project team, but remains the responsibility of management to provide the resources needed to succeed

Quality management and control tools

The Perform Quality Assurance process uses the tools and techniques of the Plan Quality Management and Control Quality processes.

Affinity diagrams

The affinity diagram is similar to mind-mapping techniques in that they are used to generate ideas that can be linked to form organized patterns of thought about a problem. In project management, the creation of the WBS may be enhanced by using the affinity diagram to give structure to the decomposition of scope.

Lessons learned documentation

The causes of variances, the reasoning behind the corrective action chosen, and other types of lessons learned from quality control are documented so they become part of the historical database for both the project and the performing organization. - Lessons learned are documented throughout the project life cycle, but at a minimum, during project closure.

Completed checklists

The completed checklists become part of the project's records

Quality

The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Work performance information

The performance data collected from various controlling processes, analyzed in context and integrated based on relationships across areas.

What is Continuous Improvement?

The plan-do-check-act cycle is the basis for quality improvement as defined by Shewhart and modified by Deming. In addition, quality improvement initiatives undertaken by the performing organization, such as TQM and Six Sigma, should improve the quality of the project's management as well as the quality of the project's product

Perform Quality Assurance

The process of auditing the quality requirements and the results from quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used. - The key benefit of this process is that it facilitates the improvement of quality processes.

What is the Plan Quality Management process?

The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements.

What is Project Quality Management Knowledge Area ?

The processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.

Project management plan

The project management plan contains the quality management plan, which is used to control quality. - The quality management plan describes how quality control will be performed within the project.

Project management plan

The project management plan is used to develop the quality management plan. - The information used for the development of the quality management plan includes: • Scope baseline • Schedule baseline • Cost baseline • Other management plans

Who is responsible for managing tradeoffs to deliver both quality and grade?

The project manager and the project management team are responsible for managing the tradeoffs involved to deliver the required levels of both quality and grade

Process Improvement Plan

The project's quality assurance activities should be supportive of and consistent with the performing organization's process improvement plans.

Quality Management Plan

The quality management plan describes the quality assurance and continuous process improvement approaches for the project.

Quality Metrics

The quality metrics provide the attributes that should be measured and the allowable variations.

Quality Control Measurements

The results of quality control activities. They are used to analyze and evaluate the quality standards and processes of the performing organization

Seven basic quality tools

The seven basic quality tools are illustrated conceptually in Figure 8-7.

Quality management and control tools

These tools are used to link and sequence the activities identified.

Upper and Lower Control Limits

They reflect the maximum and minimum values allowed. There may be penalties associated with exceeding the specification limits

Brainstorming

This technique is used to generate ideas.

What is Customer Satisfaction?

Understanding, evaluating, defining, and managing expectations so that customer requirements are met. This requires a combination of conformance to requirements (to ensure the project produces what it was created to produce) and fitness for use (the product or service must satisfy real needs)

Quality Checklists Use

Used in the Quality Control Process

Quality Metrics Use

Used in the quality assurance and quality control processes.

Process decision program charts (PDPC)

Used to understand a goal in relation to the steps for getting to the goal. The PDPC is useful as a method for contingency planning because it aids teams in anticipating intermediate steps that could derail achievement of the goal.

Quality vs Grade

While a quality level that fails to meet quality requirements is always a problem, low grade may not be.

A measurement is a

actual value

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

compatible with proprietary approaches to quality management such as those recommended by Deming, Juran, Crosby, and others, and non-proprietary approaches such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), design reviews, voice of the customer, cost of quality (COQ), and continuous improvement

Tolerance

defines the allowable variations on the metrics. For example, a metric related to the quality objective of staying within the approved budget by ± 10% could be to measure the cost of every deliverable and determine the percent variance from the approved budget for that deliverable

Cost Benefit Analysis

he primary benefits of meeting quality requirements can include less rework, higher productivity, lower costs, and increased stakeholder satisfaction. A business case for each quality activity compares the cost of the quality step to the expected benefit.

Deliverables

is any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability that results in a validated deliverable required by the project.

Inspection

keeping errors out of the hands of the customer

Prevention

keeping errors out of the process

Quality Checklists

lists that help to verify that the work of the project and its deliverables fulfill a set of requirements.

Uses for Control Charts

monitor cost and schedule variances, volume, and frequency of scope changes, or other management results to help determine if the project management processes are in control

Scatter diagrams

plot ordered pairs (X, Y) and are sometimes called correlation charts because they seek to explain a change in the dependent variable, Y, in relationship to a change observed in the corresponding independent variable, X. The direction of correlation may be proportional (positive correlation), inverse (negative correlation), or a pattern of correlation may not exist (zero correlation).

Characteristics of Cause and Effect Diagrams

possible root cause can be uncovered by continuing to ask "why" or "how" . • "Why-Why" and "How-How" diagrams may be used in root cause analysis. • Cause and effect diagrams are also used in risk analysis

Tolerances

specified range of acceptable results

Cost of Quality (COQ)

st of quality includes all costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraising the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failing to meet requirements (rework).

Attribute Sampling

the result either conforms or does not conform

Variable Sampling

the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity

Control Limits

thresholds, which can indicate whether the process is out of control

Nominal Group Techniques

to allow ideas to be brainstormed in small groups and then reviewed by a larger group

Pareto diagrams

xist as a special form of vertical bar chart and are used to identify the vital few sources that are responsible for causing most of a problem's effects. The categories shown on the horizontal axis exist as a valid probability distribution that accounts for 100% of the possible observations. The relative frequencies of each specified cause listed on the horizontal axis decrease in magnitude until the default source named "other" accounts for any nonspecified causes. Typically, the Pareto diagram will be organized into categories that measure either frequencies or consequences.

Characteristics of Histograms

• A vertical bar chart showing how often a particular variable state occurred. • Each column represents an attribute or characteristic of a problem/situation. • The height of each column represents the relative frequency of the characteristic.

Project documents

• Agreements • Quality audit reports and change logs supported with corrective action plans • Training plans and assessments of effectiveness • Process documentation such as those obtained using either the seven basic quality tools or the quality management and control tools shown in Figures 8-7 and 8-10.

Checksheets

• Also known as tally sheets and may be used as a checklist when gathering data. •Used to organize facts in a manner that will facilitate the effective collection of useful data about a potential quality problem. They are especially useful for gathering attributes data while performing inspections to identify defects.

Seven basic quality tools

• Also known in the industry as 7QC Tools • Used within the context of the PDCA Cycle to solve quality-related problems.

Flowcharts

• Also refered to process maps • A graphical representation of a process showing the relationships among process steps

Additional Quality Planning Tools

• Brainstorming • Force field analysis • Nominal group technique • Quality management and control tools

The seven basic quality tools are:

• Cause-and-effect diagrams • Flowcharts • Checksheets • Pareto diagrams • Histograms • Control charts • Scatter diagrams

Quality and Project Management Disciplines both recognize the importance of...

• Customer satisfaction. • Prevention over inspection • Continuous improvement • Management responsibility • Cost of Quality (COQ)

Characteristics of DOE

• DOE should be used during the Plan Quality process to determine the number and type of tests and their impact on cost of quality. • DOE also plays a role in the optimization of products or processes. • DOE can be used to reduce the sensitivity of product performance to sources of variations caused by environmental or manufacturing differences. • One important aspect of this technique is that it provides a statistical framework for systematically changing all of the important factors, rather than changing the factors one at a time. • Analysis of the experimental data should provide the optimal conditions for the product or process, highlight the factors that influence the results, and reveal the presence of interactions and synergy among the factors

Control charts

• Determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance. • Upper and lower specification limits are based on requirements of the agreement. They reflect the maximum and minimum values allowed.

Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Governmental agency regulations; • Rules, standards, and guidelines specific to the application area; • Working or operating conditions of the project or its deliverables that may affect project quality; and • Cultural perceptions that may influence expectations about quality.

Objective of Quality Audits

• Identify all the good/best practices being implemented, • Identify all the gaps/shortcomings, • Share the good practices introduced or implemented in similar projects in the organization and/or industry, • Proactively offer assistance in a positive manner to improve implementation of processes to help the team raise productivity, and • Highlight contributions of each audit in the lessons learned repository of the organization

Failure Costs Categories

• Internal (found by the project) • External (found by the customer).

Organizational Process Assets

• Organizational quality policies, procedures, and guidelines. The performing organization's quality policy, as endorsed by senior management, sets the organization's intended direction on implementing its quality management approach; • Historical databases; and • Lessons learned from previous phases or projects.

Precision vs Accuracy

• Precise measurements are not necessarily accurate. • A very accurate measurement is not necessarily precise. • The project management team must determine appropriate levels of accuracy and precision.

Areas to Consider in the Process Improvement Plan

• Process boundaries • Process configuration • Process metrics • Targets for improved performance

Elements of Scope Baseline Use in Plan Quality

• Project scope statement • Work breakdown structure (WBS) • WBS Dictionary

Characteristics of Perform Quality Assurance

• Provides an umbrella for continuous process improvement, which is an iterative means for improving the quality of all processes. • Continuous process improvement reduces waste and eliminates activities that do not add value. • This allows processes to operate at increased levels of efficiency and effectiveness

Project Document Updates

• Quality audit reports • Training plans • Process documentation

Characteristics of Control Quality

• Quality control is performed throughout the project • Quality control is often performed by a quality control department or similarly titled organizational unit. • Quality control activities identify causes of poor process or product quality and recommend and/or take action to eliminate them • The project management team should have a working knowledge of statistical quality control, especially sampling and probability, to help evaluate quality control outputs.

Project Management Plan Updates

• Quality management plan • Scope management plan • Schedule management plan • Cost management plan

Requirements documentation

• Requirements documentation captures the requirements that the project shall meet pertaining to stakeholder expectations. The components of the requirements documentation include, but are not limited to, project (including product) and quality requirements. • The requirements are used by the project team to help plan how quality control will be implemented on the project.

Characteristics of Statistical Sampling

• Sample frequency and sizes should be determined during the Plan Quality process so the cost of quality will include the number of tests, expected scrap, etc. • There is a substantial body of knowledge on statistical sampling. In some application areas it may be necessary for the project management team to be familiar with a variety of sampling techniques to assure the sample selected actually represents the population of interest

Project Document Updates

• Stakeholder register • Responsibility assignment matrix • WBS • WBS Dictionary.

Cause-and-effect diagrams

• The problem statement placed at the head of the fishbone is used as a starting point to trace the problem's source back to its actionable root cause. The problem statement typically describes the problem as a gap to be closed or as an objective to be achieved. The causes are found by looking at the problem statement and asking "why" until the actionable root cause has been identified or until the reasonable possibilities on each fishbone have been exhausted. • Fishbone diagrams often prove useful in linking the undesirable effects seen as special variation to the assignable cause upon which project teams should implement corrective actions to eliminate the special variation detected in a control chart.

Characteristics of Inspection

• The results of an inspection generally include measurements and may be conducted at any level. • In some application areas, these terms have narrow and specific meanings. • Inspections are also used to validate defect repairs

Characteristics of Quality Audits

• The subsequent effort to correct any deficiencies should result in a reduced cost of quality and an increase in sponsor or customer acceptance of the project's product. • Quality audits may be scheduled or random and may be conducted by internal or external auditors. • Quality audits can confirm the implementation of approved change requests including corrective actions, defect repairs, and preventive actions

Characteristics of Flowcharts

• There are many styles, but all process flowcharts show activities, decision points, and the order of processing. • During quality planning, flowcharting can help the project team anticipate quality problems that might occur. • An awareness of potential problems can result in the development of test procedures or approaches for dealing with them

Characteristics of Control Limits

• Upper and lower control limits are set by the project manager and appropriate stakeholders to reflect then points at which corrective action will be taken to prevent exceeding specification limits. • For repetitive processes, the control limits are generally ± 3σ. • A process is considered out of control when a data point exceeds a control limit or if seven consecutive points are above or below the mean