Assessment 2

Martina Lascialanda
August 2020

1) Why is it important to communicate with project stakeholders?

Stakeholders are the people and organizations whose attitudes and actions have an impact on
the success of your project or your company. Your stakeholders include employees, labour
unions, suppliers, customers, business partners, investors and shareholders, the local
community, government authorities and regulators. Different stakeholders have different
interests, attitudes and priorities. Effective communication ensures that they receive
information that is relevant to their needs and builds positive attitudes to your company or
project.
Standards to communicate with stakeholders should include:
• Regular communication
• Structured communication
• Documented communication (Creation of reports after the meeting/call)

These standards seek to reach some objectives which could include:

• Effective message transmission
• Efficient usage of time
• Continuous flow of information between relevant stakeholders

2) What is the purpose of a quality metric?

Quality Metrics is measurement of quality, where companies measure performance against

quality standards to determine whether they are meeting expectations. By tracking quality
metrics, we can reveal the weakness in a process or product which notifies a business of the
necessity to correct areas of deficiency quickly.
Quality metrics uses different tools to address the objective of measuring quality. They serve
the purpose of structuring and achieving a better organization of the quality. Setting targets and
tracking measures will also help the industry to keep on track of the plan designes to achieve
goals.
Quality metrics are used to directly translate customer needs into acceptable performance
measures in both products and processes. Project managers must be able to assess the progress,
efficiency, and performance of their projects and metrics are the means which allow project
managers to do this.

3) What is the purpose of quality management tools, techniques and

methodologies?

Quality management includes planning, processes, and acceptable, organized outcomes. If

quality in any project is not considered or analysed, outcomes could be problematic, inefficient
or incorrect. By using quality management tools, you’ll have better outcomes with fewer
delays. Some quality management tools help identify problems or processes and provide a way
to analyse negativity or ineffectiveness. Others are used to prioritize, and some list causes and
effects of elements in a project or process that will affect outcomes.
One good Quality Control technique might be a Cause and Effect Diagram. They are a fishbone
where the heard of the fish is the effect and the bones which branch are the causes. This is very
graphic to illustrate how does it work.
A useful tool can be a flowchart, where the quality is designed in a way where the Flowcharts
show the logical steps in a process and how various elements within a system are related. They
can be used to determine and analyse potential problems in quality planning and quality control.
A methodology is a systematic approach to develop Quality Control. In this sense, tools and
techniques can be used to develop a methodology, which could be a statistical quality control,
where advanced statistical techniques are used to track the quality control of the product.

4) Explain why it is important for team members and stakeholders need to

be aware of quality requirements

To adhere to any requirements and contribute to the success of the project and the goal and
deliverables. It define targets of project work, so this state must be achieved with the level of
quality to be gotten. It's about safety, delivering on a promise and meeting the very basics of
customer expectations. But, by meeting quality standards, companies often reap better profits
and reduce losses. Those that exceed quality standards stand out above their competitors and
further their potential for profit and consumer loyalty.
Stakeholders need to be trained and able to know the quality requirements. Usually, the
managers rt up the standards and the distribution of the tasks falls under the team’s plate. A
project is successful when it achieves its objectives and meets or exceeds the expectations of
the stake-holders. The project sponsor, generally an executive in the organization with the
authority to assign resources and enforce decisions regarding the project, is a stakeholder. The
customer, subcontractors, suppliers, and some-times even the government are stakeholders.
The project manager, project team members, and the managers from other departments in the
organization are stakeholders as well. It’s important to identify all the stakeholders in your
project upfront. Leaving out important stakeholders or their department’s function and not
discovering the error until well into the project could be a project killer.

5) Why are quality requirements and metrics effective tools to use when
measuring performance?

Quality metrics are crucial in project management. It is defined as the description of the
attributes of the product or project. It also aims to measure the attributes defined by the project
manager.
The measurement generated in this particular project management tool is an actual value. It
also sets a tolerance value that defines the allowable variations on the metric. For instance, if
the objective stays within the budget by ± 20%, the quality metric is used to measure the cost
of the deliverable to determine the percentage variance from the budget.
The tools and techniques most commonly used in Quality management and process
improvement, among others, are:

• Cause and effect diagram

• Control Charts
• Histogram
• Pareto Charts
• Flow chart
The use of quality metrics in the control quality process and quality assurance. Examples of
the quality metrics include cost control, on-time performance, failure rate and defect frequency.
There are several control methods, tools and techniques which might be used. For example,
control charts measure the results of processes over time and display the results in the form of
a graph. By using control charts one can determine whether process variances are in control or
out of control. A control chart is works on sample variance measurements, from the samples
chosen and measured, the mean and standard deviation are determined.
The quality policy is a guideline created by the top management that describes what quality
policies should be adopted by the project team, in line with other companies. These tools and
techniques are very helpful for a project manager to understand it and incorporate it and deliver
a quality product.
Several tools can be utilized as well as Affinity Diagrams, PDPC or Interrelationship Diagrams
(Among others).
Affinity diagrams are used to organize large numbers of ideas for review and analysis. It is an
excellent tool for organizing large amounts of ideas and data into meaningful groups by finding
relationships between the ideas. Process Decision Program Charts (PDPC) helps to identify the
steps necessary to reach a goal. It also enables analysis of the incremental steps required,
thereby facilitating identification of potential problems or pitfalls before they are encountered.
An interrelationship diagraph is a visual display of the cause-and-effect relationships between
multiple variables, complex problems, or desired outcomes.

6) Define what quality assurance is and give an example

Quality assurance can be defined as "part of quality management focused on providing

confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled." The confidence provided by quality
assurance is twofold—internally to management and externally to customers, government
agencies, regulators, certifiers, and third parties.
Example: QA Process in an automotive factory. When the parts for the car come out of the
machine, there is a particular process with some specialized workers which aim to control that
the part meets the quality standards (Moulds and matrixes, for example), before imputing them
in the car.

7) Why is quality control useful?

Quality control is essential to building a successful business that delivers products that meet or
exceed customers' expectations. It also forms the basis of an efficient business that minimizes
waste and operates at high levels of productivity. A major aspect of quality control is the
establishment of well-defined controls. These controls help standardize both production and
reactions to quality issues. Limiting room for error by specifying which production activities
are to be completed by which personnel reduces the chance that employees will be involved in
tasks for which they do not have adequate training.
QC is a process that measures whether the product/service meets the required quality
specification and there are several ways in which it can be done. Sometimes a checklist,
sometimes a control panel, sometimes a flowchart might help to track quality control. Quality
control implies that our bran will inspire respect, loyalty. It will also help us get better products
and reliable ones.

8) Give an example of why variance needs to be corrected, minimised and/or

otherwise tackle
In the project management world, variance is a measurable change from a known standard or
baseline. In other words, variance is the difference between what is expected and what is
actually accomplished. This is a different definition of variance compared to statistics where
variance is defined as the squared deviation from the mean! You need to understand what kind
of variance is referred to since there is a huge difference between these two concepts of
variance. Variance tracking is key to project management and needs a logical approach. The
project mangers identify the variance thresholds and develop a plan in case it happens.
If the variance is due to estimating errors or estimating assumptions that have not held up, you
should update your estimates and assumptions based on your actual experiences, and use this
new information as the basis for the revised baseline.
Take corrective actions the preferred option, whenever possible, is to understand the root cause
of the variance and then implement action steps to get the variance corrected. When
performance measurement is frequent, it is more likely that action can be taken that will make
a difference.
To identify the variance within a project, there are some steps which can be followed:
A well structured variance analysis should include the following aspects.

• Address why the variance is occurring

• Compare similar scenarios in the past and address the differences
• Try to conduct a managed test
• Try to examine a counterfactual example

Once you find out and isolate the cause of the variance you need to take a step forward to
eliminate this cause. But if you do this before knowing the real source of variance, you might
risk making a mistake which might be even worst.

9) Why is information management important in quality management

terms?

Good information management ensures that our information assets are visible and useable
across service delivery verticals, which enables citizens to receive joined up services and derive
the maximum value possible from them. It helps dictate how businesses form strategies, and
implement processes based on them. It is at the heart of business growth, which is why so much
effort and resources are pumped into it developing efficient information management systems,
and qualified professionals to help implement them.
In information management there are several important issues to be addressed:
• Storage record method
• Storage record periodicity
• Password setting for files
• Access level to certain documents
• Approval hierarchy
• Sign off for budget approvals

10) Why should you review project outcomes against performance

requirements?
Project performance reviews, held frequently during the life of a project, are the primary means
to continuous improvement. Project performance reviews acknowledge and uncover positive
accomplishments, and valued parts of the process and they confront the flaws in our
performance and processes. To make the most of the benefits that the project can deliver,
however, you also need to check to see if further improvements will deliver still greater benefit.
You also need to ensure that the lessons learned during the project are not forgotten. You can
more effectively design and execute future projects when you take advantage of lessons learned
through the experience of previous projects.
The reviewing of project outcomes is very important to be contrasted with performance
requirements. This is crucial to determine how effective were the measures in terms of the goals
set by the own management. In this sense, if this succeeds, quality management policies and
procedures will be considered effective if the variance to the goals is low enough.

11)
a. When is the best time to document lessons learned?

The best place and time to capture lessons learned is in the moment that the project is
happening. Even though people may be busy and overwhelmed just working on the project,
someone should be working to capture those items that might turn into lessons learned at the
end of the project. Record keeping is a tool for professional practice and one that should help
the care process. It is not separate and not an optional extra to be fitted in if circumstances
allow.
A record should be made as soon as possible after the patient is seen or the procedure is
complete. It’s important that accurate record is made in the patient’s notes and should include
interventions and any response to the interventions.
Lessons learned is the knowledge gained from the process of conducting a project. This
includes the positives and negatives. The idea is to repeat the positives aspects and not repeat
the mistakes. To identify the mistakes the company could:
• Organise one on one meetings
• Develop brainstorming sessions
• Carry on a quiz on lessons learned

Once all this is documented, there should be actions taken:

• Do not wait long enough to miss some details on the project
• Keep records daily
• Contrast the records with the manager and the team members involved
• Review them as a group and always organise a close up session

b. How often should documentation occur?

They should be documented as early as possible. If possible, it should be done while the project
moves forward to keep good track.
Lessons learned will come at the end of the project but there might be middle instances.
 c. Who is responsible for documenting the lessons learned?

The Project Manager is responsible as he is the head of the project and has the overall view.
As a conclusion of the full project, then they should implement a lessons learned to incorporate
a better understanding of the task done and improve for the next challenge.

The roles could be distributed as follows:

Role Task
Project manager Lead the record keeping
Team members Participate in meetings and provide the
information relevant to the project
Team supervisor Organise meetings and sessions
Quality and Record responsible Manage the file and create a way to access it
in a simple way. He needs to get the access
levels approved.