CH 8: Project Quality Management

Six Sigma's target for perfection is the achievement of no more than _____ defects, errors, or mistakes per million opportunities.

3.4

Which statement is one of Juran's ten steps to quality improvement?

An organization should build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement.

Which statement is one of Deming's 14 Points for Management?

Eliminate the annual rating or merit system.

Frameworks for helping organizations improve their processes and systems are called Six Sigma charts.

False

Gantt charts cannot be used to aid project quality management.

False

The term sigma means median.

False

Which chart helps users identify the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system?

Pareto

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

True

During which phase of the DMAIC process is the fishbone or Ishikawa diagram used?

analyze

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?

appraisal cost

Which technique helps identify variables that have the most influence on the overall outcome of a process?

design of experiments

Which term is used for a cost that relates to all errors not detected and not corrected before delivery to the customer?

external failure cost

Which addresses the ease of performing maintenance on a product?

maintainability

Performing quality assurance is a subprocess of which project quality management stage?

managing

What term is used for a bell-shaped curve that is symmetrical regarding the average value of the population (the data being analyzed)?

normal distribution

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

planning quality management

Which process correct(s) or prevent(s) quality problems based on quality control measurements?

process adjustments

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

rework

Which test is done to test each individual component (often a program) to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible?

unit

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?

CMMI

Who wrote Quality Is Free in 1979 and is best known for suggesting that organizations strive for zero defects?

Crosby

Which five-phase improvement process do projects that use Six Sigma principles for quality control normally follow?

DMAIC

Integration testing involves testing of each individual component to ensure that it is as defect-free as possible.

False

Only in-house auditors can perform quality audits.

False

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

False

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

False

The design of experiments technique cannot be applied to project management issues such as cost and schedule trade-offs.

False

Change requests and verified deliverables are the outputs of the controlling quality process.

True

Customer requirements are an important aspect of the quality planning process.

True

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

True

Managing quality includes all of the quality assurance activities plus product design and process improvements.

True

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

True

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

True

Using Six Sigma principles is an organization-wide commitment and all employees must embrace its principles.

True

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?

benchmarking

Which term is used when the project's processes and products meet written specifications?

conformance to requirements

Which graphic display of data illustrates the results of a process over time?

control chart

Validated changes and validated deliverables are the outputs of the ____ subprocess of project quality management.

controlling

What term is used for any instance where the product or service fails to meet customer requirements?

defect

Which phase of the DMAIC process includes tools such as a project charter, a description of customer requirements, process maps, and Voice of the Customer (VOC) data?

define

What are the system's special characteristics that appeal to users?

features

Which term is used for the ability of a product to be used as it was intended?

fitness for use

Which term is used for the degree to which a system performs its intended function?

functionality

Which term is used for a standard of measurement in quality management?

metric

Which addresses how well a product or service performs the customer's intended use?

performance

Which process is often associated with the technical tools and techniques of quality management, such as Pareto charts, quality control charts, and statistical sampling?

quality control

What term is used for the ability of a product or service to perform as expected under normal conditions?

reliability

Which is a measure of quality control equal to one fault in one million opportunities problems?

six 9s of quality rule

Which process involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection?

statistical sampling

Which testing involves an independent test performed by end users prior to accepting the delivered system?

user acceptance

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

False

DeMarco and Lister's study on organizations and productivity found direct correlations between productivity and programming language, years of experience, and salary.

False

Which system involves a three-part, continuous cycle of planning, controlling, and documenting quality in an organization?

ISO 9000