IS5540 Project Management & Quality IS5540 Project Management & Quality AssuranceAssurance

Week 7 - Project Quality ManagementWeek 7 - Project Quality Management

Schwalbe: Managing Information Technology Projects, Chapter 8Schwalbe: Managing Information Technology Projects, Chapter 8

Adapted by Janet Yu, Frank LoAdapted by Janet Yu, Frank Lo

PMI Framework: 9 Knowledge Areas

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Integration

ScopeTime Cost

Quality

PeopleCommunication Risk

Procurement

Learning Objectives Define project quality management and

understand how quality relates to various aspects of information technology projects

Understand quality planning and the components of a Quality Assurance / Management Plan

Describe what quality assurance is Describe what quality control is Understand the tools and techniques for quality

control, such as Pareto analysis, statistical sampling, Six Sigma, quality control charts, and testing

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What Is Project Quality?The International Organization for Standardization

(ISO) defines quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements” (ISO9000:2000)

Other experts define quality based on:

Conformance to requirements: the project’s processes and products meet written specifications

Fitness for use: a product can be used as it was intended

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What Is Project Quality Management?

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

Processes include:Plan quality: identifying which quality standards are relevant

to the project and how to satisfy themPerform quality assurance: periodically evaluating overall

project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards

Perform quality control: monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards

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Quality Planning

Quality is planned, designed, and built-in.

Quality is not inspected in.

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The Cost of QualityTotal cost to produce the product or service of the

project according to the quality standardsThe cost of quality is the cost of conformance

plus the cost of nonconformanceConformance means delivering products that meet

requirements and fitness for useCost of nonconformance means taking responsibility

for failures or not meeting quality expectationsThere is no free lunch!

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Cost of QualityPrevention costs

Keeping defects out of the hands of customersIncludes things like quality planning, training,

design reviews

Appraisal costsExpended to examine the product or process and

make certain the requirements are being metLike inspection and testing, buying test equipment

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Cost of Quality

Failure costsWhat it costs when things don’t go according to plan2 types

Internal failure costproduct is still in the control of the organization Include corrective action, rework, scrapping and downtime

External failure costProduct has reached the customer Include inspections at the customer site, returns, and customer

service costs

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Plan Quality

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Plan Quality

What quality standard?How to achieve that?

TrainingWalkthroughsReviewsQuality audits

How to make things better – process improvement?Who is responsible for what?Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality

management on their projects

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How Do you Measure Quality of IT Systems?

No. of bugsPerformance

Response time Volume of data and transactions system should be capable

of handlingUsabilityReliability

The ability of a product or service to perform as expected under normal conditions

Availability Mean time between failure (MTBF), mean time to recover

(MTTR)

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Quality Assurance/Management Plan-Sample

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1.0 Draft Quality Assurance Plan1.1 Introduction1.2 Purpose1.3 Policy Statement1.4 Scope

2.0 Management2.1 Organizational Structure2.2 Roles and Responsibilities

2.2.1 Technical Monitor/Senior Management2.2.2 Task Leader2.2.3 Quality Assurance Team2.2.3 Technical Staff

3.0 Required Documentation4.0 Quality Assurance Procedures

4.1 Walkthrough Procedure4.2 Review Process

4.2.1 Review Procedures4.3 Audit Process

4.3.1 Audit Procedures4.4 Evaluation Process4.5 Process Improvement

5.0 Problem Reporting Procedures5.1 Noncompliance Reporting Procedures

6.0 Quality Assurance Metrics

Focus on these things in your

report

Perform Quality Assurance

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Perform Quality Assurance

Determining whether standards are being met

Identifying improvementsE.g. recommend certain practices or

equipmentFocus on the process

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Tools Used in Quality Assurance

Benchmarkingcomparing specific project practices or product

characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing organization

Quality auditSee if you are complying with the standards and

proceduresCan be done by internal staff (e.g. from QA department)

or outsiderCan be scheduled or ad-hoc

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Perform Quality Control

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Perform Quality Control Looks at specific measurements to see if project

and its processes are in control Study the product/result

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Basic Tools of Quality

1. Cause & Effect Diagram2. Control Chart3. Run Chart4. Scatter Diagram5. Histogram6. Pareto Diagram7. Flowchart

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Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

Cause-and-effect diagrams trace complaints about quality problems back to the responsible production operations

They help you find the root cause of a problemAlso known as fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams

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Figure 8-2: Sample Cause-and-Effect Diagram

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Quality Control ChartsA control chart is 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

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The Seven Run RuleYou can use quality control charts and the seven

run rule to look for patterns in dataThe seven run rule states that if

seven data points in a row are all below the mean, above the mean, or are all increasing or decreasing

then the process needs to be examined for nonrandom problems

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Figure 8-3: Sample Quality Control Chart

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Run ChartA run chart displays the history and pattern of

variation of a process over timeIt is a line chart that shows data points plotted in

the order in which they occurCan be used to perform trend analysis to

forecast future outcomes based on historical patterns

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Figure 8-4: Sample Run Chart

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Scatter DiagramA scatter diagram helps to show if there is a

relationship between two variablesThe closer data points are to a diagonal line, the

more closely the two variables are related

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Figure 8-5: Sample Scatter Diagram

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HistogramsA histogram is a bar graph of a distribution of

variablesEach bar represents an attribute or characteristic

of a problem or situation, and the height of the bar represents its frequency

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Figure 8-6: Sample Histogram

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Pareto ChartsA Pareto chart is a histogram that can help you

identify and prioritize problem areas

Pareto analysis is also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 percent of problems are often due to 20 percent of the causes

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Figure 8-7: Sample Pareto Chart

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FlowchartsFlowcharts 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

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Figure 8-8: Sample Flowchart

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Quick Quiz – Which Tool?1. I want to know whether younger users take less time to

learn the system.

2. I want to know the day of the week where the workers’ productivity is the highest.

3. The system is getting slower and slower. I want to know the possible causes.

4. The error rate of the order fulfillment process is increasing. I want to know which step(s) may have problem.

5. I want to prioritize the problems so that I can tackle the most severe problems first.

6. I have just adopted a new process. I want to know if the new process produces desirable results.

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Other Quality Management Concepts & Approaches

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Statistical Sampling

Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection

The size of a sample depends on how representative you want the sample to be

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Standard Deviation= sigma (σ)If I just tell you the average mark is 70, do you

know anything about the mark distribution?Standard deviation measures how much

variation exists in a distribution of dataSmall

data clusters closely around the middlelittle variability among the data

LargeData is spread out around the middle Greater variability

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Six Sigma & Standard DeviationIn a normal distribution

1 sigma = 68.27% of the population2 sigma = 95.45%3 sigma = 99.73% (2.7m defects out of 1b)6 sigma = 99.9999998% (2 defects out of 1b)

Six SigmaImprove quality by reducing variationAims to eliminate defects

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Figure 8-9: Normal Distribution and Standard Deviation

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Motorola – Adoption of Six Sigma

Motorola, Inc. pioneered the adoption of Six Sigma in the 1980s

Why? To stay in business among Japanese competitors

Chairman set a goal of 10 times improvement in defect reduction every two years (i.e. 100 times in 4 years)

Result: excellent growth and profitability in 1980s and 1990s

Estimated to have saved about $14 billion

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ISO StandardsISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality

management systems that include:procedures keeping records checking output monitoring and reviewing processesfacilitating continual improvement

See www.iso.org for more information

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CMMICapability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)

From Software Engineering Institute (SEI, Carnegie-Mellon University)

www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmiDefines levels of different competencies in project

deliveryAs of 2003, the distribution is (1343 organizations)

Level 1 13.3%

Level 2 43.5%

Level 3 25.6%

Level 4 8.5%

Level 5 9.2%43

CMMI

Level 1Performed

No prescribed process

Level 2Managed

Project Management established

Level 3Defined

System Development process integrated

Level 4Quantitatively Managed

Measurable goalsestablished

Level 5Optimizing

Continuous monitoring & Improving

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Revision

Cost of quality Prevention costs Appraisal costs Failure costs

Internal Vs external

Quality Management Plan Walkthroughs Reviews Quality metrics

Quality Assurance Benchmarking Quality audit

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Quality Control Cause & Effect

Diagram Control Chart Run Chart Scatter Diagram Histogram Pareto Diagram Flowchart

Standard deviation / Sigma

Six Sigma ISO 9000 CMMI