PMP 8: Project Quality Management

Affinity Diagrams

used to visually identify logical groupings based on natural relationships

Process Metrics

Along with control limits, allows analysis of process efficiency

Force Field Analysis

which are diagrams of the forces for and against change

Cause and Effect Diagrams

Also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagram. Illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects

Statistical Sampling

Samples are selected and tested as defined in the quality plan

Prevention and Appraisal costs

(cost of conformance) include costs for quality planning, quality control (QC), and quality assurance to ensure compliance to requirements (i.e., training, QC systems, etc.).

Failure Costs

(cost of non-conformance) include costs to rework products, components, or processes that are non-compliant, costs of warranty work and waste, and loss of reputation.

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

Process Configuration

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

Flowcharting/process maps

A graphical representation of a process showing the relationships among process steps

Design of Experiments/DOE

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

Pareto Chart

Also referred to as a Pareto diagram, is a specific type of histogram, ordered by frequency of occurrence. It shows how many defects were generated by type or category of identified cause

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

Quality Control Measurements

Are the documented results of quality control activities in the format specified during quality planning

Cause-and-effect diagrams

Cause-and-effect diagrams

Risk Register Use in Plan Quality

Contains information on threats and opportunities that may impact quality requirements

Scope Statement Use in Plan Quality

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.

Control Charts

Control charts are used to determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance, using upper and lower specification limits, which are based on requirements of the contract

Cost of Quality (COQ)

Cost 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)

Failure Costs

Costs of poor quality

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

Schedule Baseline Use in Plan Quality

Documents the accepted schedule performance measures including start and finish dates

Cost Performance Baseline Use in Plan Quality

Documents the accepted time phase used to measure cost performance

Perform Quality Assurance: Organizational Process Assets Updates

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

Targets for Improved Performance

Guides the process improvement activities

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

Cost and Schedule Performance: Trend Analysis

How many activities per period were completed with significant variances

Technical Performance: Trend Analysis

How many errors or defects have been identified, and how many remain uncorrected

Stakeholder Register Use in Plan Quality

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

WBS Use in Plan Quality

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

Perform Quality Control: 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

Control Charts Use in Perform Quality Control

Illustrate how a process behaves over time and when a process is subject to special cause variation, resulting in an out-of-control condition

Histogram

Illustrates the most common cause of problems in a process by the number and relative heights of the bars

Project Results

Include deliverables and project management results, such as cost and schedule performance

Approved Change Requests

Include modifications such as defect repairs, revised work methods and revised schedule.

Quality Standards

Include project processes and product goals

Project Quality Management

Includes 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

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

Trend Analysis

Involves mathematical techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical results

Standard deviation

Is a distance of measurement from the mean or, the square root of the average of the squares of deviations (about) the mean of a set of data. Standard deviation is a statistical measure of spread or variability

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.

Fishbone diagrams

Ishikawa / Cause and Effect Diagrams

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

Quality Audit is Technique used in

Perform Quality Assurance process

Work Performance Information Use in Perform Quality Assurance

Performance information from project activities is routinely collected as the project progresses. Performance results which may support the audit process include, but are not limited to: • Technical performance measures, • Project deliverables status, • Schedule progress, and • Costs incurred.

When should Quality Planning be performed?

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

Scatter Diagram

Shows the relationship between two variables

Run Chart

Similar to a control chart without displayed limits, a run chart shows the history and pattern of variation

Examples of Quality Metrics

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

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

WBS Dictionary Use in Plan Quality

The WBS dictionary defines technical information for WBS elements.

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

Cost Benefit Analysis

The 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

Process Improvement Plan Use in Perform Quality Assurance

The process improvement plan details the steps for analyzing processes to identify activities which enhance their value

Plan Quality

The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and product, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance

Perform Quality Assurance

The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project, product and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance

Perform Quality Control

The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes

Quality Management Plan Use in Perform Quality Assurance

The quality management plan describes how quality assurance will be performed within the project

Quality Control Measurements Use in Perform Quality Assurance

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

Proprietary Quality Management Methodologies

These include Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Quality Function Deployment, CMMI®, etc. Many other methodologies exist

Upper and Lower Control Limits

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

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)

Flowcharting Use in Perform Quality Control

Used during Perform Quality Control to determine a failing process step(s) and identify potential process improvement opportunities. Flowcharting is also used in risk analysis

Quality Checklists Use

Used in the Quality Control Process

Quality Metrics Use

Used in the quality assurance and quality control processes.

Work Performance Measurements Use in Perform Quality Control

Used to produce project activity metrics to evaluate actual progress as compared to planned progress. These metrics 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

Root Cause Analysis

a specific technique to identify a problem, discover the underlying causes that lead to it, and develop preventive actions

Survey of the entire population yields

accurate data

A measurement is a

actual value

Gold-plating

certain features are added to the deliverable which were not asked for by the customer, to earn customer appreciation. It is not a recommended project management practice

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

Prevention Costs

costs incurred by an organization to create high quality products in order to avoid failures. They include cost of training, cost of documenting processes, cost of equipment, etc.

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

Quality Metric is not used for

determining process improvements

Pareto's Law

holds that a relatively small number of causes will typically produce a majority of the problems or defects. This is commonly referred to as the 80/20 principle i.e. 80% of the problems are due to 20% of the causes

Tolerances

specified range of acceptable results

Inspection

keeping errors out of the hands of the customer

Prevention

keeping errors out of the process

Product Quality

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

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

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

Standard Normal Distribution

shows standard deviation (sigma) as distance of the measurement from the mean value

Accuracy

that the measured value is very close to the true value

Quality Metrics are used in

the Perform Quality Assurance and Perform Quality Control processes

Quality

the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements

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

Precision

the values of repeated measurements are clustered and have little scatter

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

Matrix Diagrams

which include two, three, or four groups of information and show relationships between factors, causes, and objectives. Data in a matrix is organized in rows and columns with intersecting cells that can be filled with information that describes the demonstrated relationship between the items located in the row and column

Prioritization Matrices

which provide a way of ranking a diverse set of problems and/or issues (usually generated through brainstorming) by their importance

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

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.

Characteristics of Scatter Diagrams

• Allows the quality team to study and identify the possible relationship between changes observed in two variables. • Dependent variables versus independent variables are plotted. • The closer the points are to a diagonal line, the more closely they are related

Approved Change Requests Use in Perform Quality Control

• 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

Additional Quality Planning Tools

• Brainstorming • Affinity Diagrams • Force Field Analysis • Nominal Group Techniques • Matrix Diagrams • Prioritization Matrices

Perform Quality Control: Organizational Process Assets Updates

• Completed checklists. The completed checklists become part of the project's records • 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.

Project Management Plan Use in Perform Quality Control

• 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

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

Crosby

• Doing It Right First Time (DIRFT) • Quality is Conformance to Requirements • System of quality is Prevention • Performance standard is Zero Defects • Measurement of quality is the price of non-conformance

Plan Quality: Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Governmental agency regulations • Rules, standards, and guidelines specific to the application area • Working/operating conditions of the project/product which may affect project 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 /Costs of poor quality Categories

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

Characteristics of a Run Chart

• Is a line graph that shows data points plotted in the order in which they occur. • Show trends in a process over time, variation over time, or declines or improvements in a process over time. • Trend analysis is performed using run charts and involves mathematical techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical results

Characteristics of Project Quality Management

• It implements the quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous process improvement activities conducted throughout, as appropriate. • Addresses the management of the project and the product of the project. • It applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their product.

Process Improvement Models

• Malcolm Baldridge • Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) • Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI®)

Plan Quality: Organizational Process Assets

• Organizational quality policies, procedures and guidelines • Historical databases • Lessons learned from previous projects • Quality policy, as endorsed by senior management, which sets the intended direction of a performing organization with regard to quality.

Juran

• Pareto Principle • Juran Trilogy: Planning, Control and Improvement • Defines quality as fitness for use

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

Plan Quality: Project Document Updates

• Project documents that may be updated include, but are not limited to: • Stakeholder register, and • Responsibility Assignment Matrix

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

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

Perform Quality Assurance: Project Document Updates

• Quality audit reports • Training plans • Process documentation

Characteristics of Perform Quality Control

• 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.

Perform Quality Assurance: 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

Perform Quality Control: Project Management Plan Updates

• Quality management plan • Process improvement plan

Project Management Plan Use in Perform Quality Assurance

• Quality management plan • Process improvement plan

Perform Quality Assurance: Project Management Plan Updates

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

Perform Quality Control: Project Document Updates

• Quality standards

Perform Quality Control: Organizational Process Assets

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

Characteristics of Pareto Charts

• Rank ordering is used to focus corrective action. • The project team should address the causes creating the greatest number of defects first. • Pareto diagrams are conceptually related to Pareto's Law • Pareto diagrams can also be used to summarize various types of data for 80/20 analyses.

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

Trend Analysis is often used to monitor

• Technical Performance • Cost and Schedule Performance

Characterisitics of Control Charts

• The appropriate data is collected and analyzed to indicate the quality status of project processes and products. • They graphically answer the question: "Is this process variance within acceptable limits?" • The pattern of data points on a control chart may reveal random fluctuating values, sudden process jumps, or a gradual trend in increased variation. • By monitoring the output of a process over time, a control chart can help assess whether the application of process changes resulted in the desired improvements. • When a process is within acceptable limits it is in control and does not need to be adjusted. • Conversely, when a process is outside acceptable limits, the process should be adjusted. • Seven consecutive points above or below the central line indicate a process that is out of control. • The upper control limit and lower control limit are usually set at ±3σ, where 1σ is one standard deviation

Quality Policy Use in Plan Quality

• The quality policy of the performing organization for their products often can be adopted "as is" for use by the project. • If the performing organization lacks a formal quality policy, or if the project involves multiple performing organizations (as with a joint venture), the project management team will need to develop a quality policy for the project. • Regardless of the origin of the quality policy, the project management team must ensure that the project stakeholders are fully aware of the policy used for the project through the appropriate distribution of information

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 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

Quality vs Grade

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

Failure Costs include

• costs to rework products, components, or processes that are non-compliant; • costs of warranty work and waste; and • costs due to loss of reputation

Characteristics of Flowcharting

• display the sequence of steps and the branching possibilities that exist for a process that transforms one or more inputs into one or more outputs. • show the activities, decision points, branching loops, parallel paths, and the overall order of processing by mapping the operational details of procedures that exist within a horizontal value chain of a SIPOC model. • may prove useful in understanding and estimating the cost of quality in a process. •This is obtained by using the workflow branching logic and associated relative frequencies to estimate expected monetary value for the conformance and nonconformance work required to deliver the expected conforming output.

Deming

• increase quality and reduce costs by practicing continuous process improvement • Deming Cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act, Analyze

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