Managing Project Quality

Quality

• According to PMBOK, project quality is defined as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.”

Importance of Quality

• Determined by industry or tolerance for error

• Critical: health or safety related

Quality Within Project Management

• Required in all stages– Initiation and closure

• Goals and level of achievement (lessons learned)

– Planning• Determine ways to control quality

– Execution and control• Feedback mechanisms to monitor and adjust

Quality

• Can Be Applied To:– The project team

• Sets performance expectations

– Processes• Identifies ways to control quality

– Success level• Allows team to determine the level of quality attainment

Pioneers in Quality Management

• Deming– 14 points of quality

• Juran– Pareto Principle (80/20 rule)

• Ishikawa– Cause and effect diagram (Fishbone diagram)

Balanced Scorecard

• Developed by Kaplan & Norton

• 4 views of organizational activity– Learning and Growth

– Business Process

– Customer

– Financial

Quality Standards• ISO9000

– Quality management focus• Customer quality requirements

• Regulatory requirements

• Enhance customer satisfaction

• Continual improvement

– www.iso.org

• Six Sigma – To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more

than 3.4 defects per million opportunities

– Champion, Master Black Belt, Black Belt, Green Belt proficiency designations

Certificates/Awards• Baldridge National Quality Program

– Designed to encourage organizations increase their competitiveness by focusing on:

• Delivering ever improving value to customers

• Improving overall organizational performance

– http://www.quality.nist.gov/

• Total Quality Management (TQM)– A description of the culture, attitude, and organization of a

company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs

– Emphasizes processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations

Quality

• Where do you focus?

• How do you measure?

• What is the return on investment?

Quality Planning

• Quality planning– The process of identifying relevant quality standards and

developing a plan to ensure the project meets those standards

Quality Planning – Inputs

• Enterprise factors – Government regulations

– Standards or rules specific to organization’s product or service

• Organizational process assets– Quality policies/procedures/guidelines

– Lessons learned

• Project scope statement

• Project management plan

Quality Planning – Techniques• Cost/benefit analysis

– An evaluation of the costs and benefits of alternative approaches to a proposed activity to determine the best alternative

• Benchmarking– Study of a competitor’s product or business practices in

order to improve the performance of one’s own company

• Capability Maturity Model (CMM)– Used to determine an organization’s capability with respect

to best practices within a specific industry

Capability Maturity Model

Quality Planning – Techniques (cont.)

Quality Planning – Techniques (cont.)

• Design of experiments– Application of selected statistical techniques to test the

efficiency of certain project management approaches by testing factors that may influence a specific variable

• Cost of quality analysis (COQ)– Cost to improve or ensure quality measures, as well as the

cost associated with a lack of quality

Design of Experiments

• What is the research question?• Characteristics that are not part of the study still need

to meet requirements.• Make sure experimental measurement is reliable (and

valid).• Use statistics and principles up front.• Be aware of known and unknown issues/problems.• Be aware of what goes on during testing.• Analyze results…statistically and graphically.

Types of Quality Costs

Types of Cost Examples

Cost of conformance

Prevention costs Costs of training staff in design methodologies

Appraisal costs Code inspection and testing

Cost of non-conformance

Internal failure costs Costs of rework in programming

External failure costs Costs of support and maintenance

Reducing Quality Costs

• Avoiding any failure costs by driving defects to zero

• Investing in prevention activities to improve quality

• Reducing appraisal costs as quality improves

• Continuously evaluating and altering preventive efforts for more improvement

Quality Planning – Outputs• Quality management plan

– A plan specifying how quality measures will be implemented during a project

• Quality metrics– Operational definitions of specific, processes, events, or

products, as well as an explanation of how they will be measured in terms of quality

• Quality checklists– Tools used to ensure that a specific set of actions has been

correctly performed

Quality Planning – Outputs (cont.)

• Process improvement plan– A plan specifying how to identify wasteful and non-value

added activities

• Quality baseline– The basis for which project quality is measured and

reported

• Updates to project management plan– Incorporation of quality management plan outputs into

project management plan

Quality Assurance

• The process of ensuring that the project meets the quality standards outlined during the quality planning phase

Quality Assurance – Inputs

• Quality management plan

• Quality metrics

• Process improvement plans

• Work performance information

• Approved change requests

• Quality control measures

• Implemented – change requests

– corrective actions

– defect repairs

– preventive actions

Quality Assurance – Tools & Techniques

• Quality planning tools and techniques can be applied

• Quality audits– Structured and independent review activities designed to

review other quality management procedures and to identify potential lessons learned

• Process analysis– Examines how a process is performed

Quality Assurance – Outputs

• Requested changes

• Recommended corrective actions

• Updates to organizational process assets

• Updates to the project management plan

Quality Control

• The monitoring of project activities in order to determine if specified quality standards are being met

Quality Control – Inputs

• Quality management plan

• Quality metrics

• Quality checklists

• Organizational process assets

• Work performance information

• Approved change requests

• Deliverables

Work Performance Information

• Status summaries of:– Project deliverables

– Any collected performance measures

– Implemented changes from the original project management plan

Quality Control – Tools & Techniques

• Cause and effect diagrams (Ishikawa)

• Control charts

• Pareto charts

• Flowcharts

• Histogram

• Run chart

• Scatter diagram

• Statistical sampling

• Inspection review

• Defect repair review

Ishikawa (fishbone) Diagram Sample

Control Chart Sample

Pareto Chart

Quality Control – Outputs• Quality control measurements

• Validated defect repair

• Updates to the quality baseline

• Recommended correction actions

• Recommended preventative actions

• Requested changes

• Recommended defect repair

• Updates to organizational process assets

• Validated deliverables

• Updates to project management plan

Questions?