Assignment: PMBOK Ch# 8 Project Quality Management

Submitted to: Sir Shahid Naseer

Submitted by: M Saad Sarfraz

Date: 21-4-2017

1
Table of Contents
Purpose of CH#8:.................................................................................................................................4
1. Plan Quality Management...............................................................................................................4
1.1 Inputs.............................................................................................................................................5
1.1.1 Requirements Documentation....................................................................................................5
1.1.2 Risk Register................................................................................................................................5
1.1.3 Stakeholder Register...................................................................................................................5
1.1.4 EEF..............................................................................................................................................5
1.1.5 Project Management Plan..........................................................................................................5
1.2 Tools & Techniques........................................................................................................................5
1.2.1 Cost Benefit Analysis...................................................................................................................5
1.2.2 Statistical Sampling.....................................................................................................................5
1.2.3 Seven Basic Quality Tools...........................................................................................................5
1.2.4 Additional Quality Tools..............................................................................................................6
1.3 Outputs..........................................................................................................................................6
1.3.1 Quality Metrics...........................................................................................................................6
1.3.2 Quality Checklist.........................................................................................................................6
1.3.3 Quality Management Plan..........................................................................................................6
1.3.4 Process Improvement Plan.........................................................................................................6
2. Perform Quality Assurance..............................................................................................................7
2.1 Inputs.............................................................................................................................................7
2.1.1 Quality Metrics...........................................................................................................................7
2.1.2 Process Improvement Plans........................................................................................................7
2.1.3 Quality Control Measurements..................................................................................................7
2.2 Tools and Techniques....................................................................................................................7
2.2.1 Quality Audit...............................................................................................................................7
2.2.2 Quality Management and Control Tools.....................................................................................7

2
2.2.3 Process Analysis..........................................................................................................................8
3. Control Quality................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Inputs.............................................................................................................................................8
3.1.1 Quality Metrics...........................................................................................................................8
3.1.2 Project Management Plan..........................................................................................................8
3.1.3 Quality Checklist.........................................................................................................................8
3.1.4 Work Performance Data.............................................................................................................8
3.1.5 Deliverables................................................................................................................................8
3.2 Outputs..........................................................................................................................................8
3.2.1 Quality Control Measurements..................................................................................................8
3.2.2 Validated Changes......................................................................................................................9
3.2.3 Verified Deliverables...................................................................................................................9
3.2.4 Work Performance Information..................................................................................................9

3
Purpose of CH#8:
Ch # 8 Project Quality Management talks about how to cover quality aspect in project.

When the project is ready as per client requirements, we say project has good quality. Quality is related
to fulfilling customer’s requirements.

If you make lehnga for customer and customer requirements were fulfilled but you have use bad quality
cloth then we say you have used low grade cloth to make Lehnga.

Chinese mobiles copies of iphone are good quality as they meet requirements but have low grade
performance.

Quality is related to requirements where as Grade is related to product features such as durability,
Sustainability, Reliability and security.

Quality assurance has no relation with product of project rather assurance is related to the process used
to make that product.

If right resources, right machine, right material are correct ( Quality assurance) then we will be able to
verify the product ( Quality control) before handing over to customer.

We will control not to handover the bad product to customer.

Prevention is better than cure hence during the making of product we do QA.

To bring quality, we need to invest money. We need to invest money on QA and QC.QA and QC are
mandatory for PM.

Higher management helps PM who is responsible for quality by supporting him with budget.

Quality is related to fulfilling customer’s requirements whereas grade is that deliverables having same
functional use but different technical characteristics.

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is the basis for quality improvement.

1. Plan Quality Management

This process is the process of identifying quality requirements and standards for the project and
deliverables and documenting how project will demonstrate compliance with relevant quality
requirements.

Key benefit of this process is that it gives directions as in how quality will be managed and validated
throughout the project.

4
1.1 Inputs

1.1.1 Requirements Documentation

To make checklist, we need requirements from requirements documentation. Requirements
documentation contains project and quality requirements. These requirements will be used by project
team to plan in quality management plan that how quality control will be implemented in the project.

1.1.2 Risk Register

This is one input because we know risks and hence PM will know clearly the cost of quality.

1.1.3 Stakeholder Register

This is one input because quality is related with stakeholder’s requirements that can have impact on
quality.

1.1.4 EEF
EEF is input because it contains latest standards being used in industry and government regulations.EEF
contains information about the working and operating conditions of project / deliverables that may
affect project quality. For example in china, a company managed to increase the production just by
increasing the light in workshop. Cultural perceptions may influence expectations about quality. Most
successful organizations have supportive cooperative culture as reason for their project success.

1.1.5 Project Management Plan

This plan is input because it contains 3 baselines. Scope baseline has acceptance criteria mentioned in
‘Project Scope Statement’ that may increase or decrease quality costs. Failure costs are also called cost
of poor quality. We need to satisfy acceptance criteria to ensure customer/sponsor needs are met.

1.1.6 OPA
OPA is one critical input here because it contains the organizational policies which have to be
implemented.

5
1.2 Tools & Techniques

1.2.1 Cost Benefit Analysis

You weigh the benefit against the cost from quality perspective. Don’t do huge investment on QA and
QC that even rework would have required fewer budgets.

1.2.2 Statistical Sampling

You will not check entire batch of calculators rather you will take a sample.

1.2.3 Cost of Quality

Cost of quality includes all the costs incurred over the life of product by investment in

 Preventing non conformance to requirements

 Appraising product or service for conformance to requirements
 Rework in case product does not meet requirements

Failure costs are called cost of poor quality .Internal failures costs such as rework are identified by
project and external failures such as warranty work are found by customers.

1.2.3 Seven Basic Quality Tools

Seven basic quality tools are used to solve quality related problems.

1. Fishbone/Ishikawa Diagram
2. Flow Chart
3. Check Sheet
4. Bar Chart/Histogram
5. Pareto Chart
6. Control Chart
7. Scattered Diagram

Cause and Effect diagrams are also known as ishikawa diagrams. If there is a certain variation in control
chart associated with a root cause resulting in undesirable effect, then we can use fishbone diagram to
trace that root cause and implement corrective actions.

Check Sheets which are also known as tally charts are used as checklist when gathering data. They are
especially useful when gathering data about defects during inspection. Check sheets can be used to
collect data about frequencies or consequences of defect and later they can be plotted using pareto
chart.

Flow charts which are also known as process maps may prove useful in understanding and estimating
cost of quality on project. This is obtained by using the workflow branching logics available from flow
charts to estimate monitory value for conformance and non conformance work.

6
Data about frequencies of defects in check sheet are often displayed in Pareto Diagram. Pareto charts
are used as special form of vertical bar charts and are used mainly to identify vital few sources that are
causing most of problem’s effects. The relative frequency of sources causing problem decreases in
magnitude as you go along x-axis. The last source is named as usually “ other” to account for non
specified causes.

Unlike Control chart, histogram does not consider the influence of time on variation that exists within
distribution. It contains frequency of defects on y-axes whereas name of defects on x-axis. Remember
regarding Bar chart “ A picture speaks thousand words” .

Control charts are used to determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance.
A process is considered unstable if (1) when data exceeds a control limit (2) seven consecutive points are
above or below mean. Control charts are used to track activities that are repetitive. Upper and lower
control limits are different from specification limits.

Specification limits are the targets set for the process/product by customer or market performance or
internal target. In short it is the intended result on the metric that is measured.

Control limits on the other hand are the indicators of the variation in the performance of the process. It
is the actual values that the process is operating on. It is the real time value

Correlation in scattered diagram plot can be proportional (positive), inverse (negative) or zero .Idea is to
understand how a change in independent variable will influence the dependant variable.

The scatter diagram is used to find the correlation between these two variables. This diagram helps you
determine how closely the two variables are related. After determining the correlation between the
variables, you can then predict the behavior of the dependent variable based on the measure of the
independent variable. This chart is very useful when one variable is easy to measure and the other is
not.

For example, you are analyzing the pattern of accidents on a highway. You select the two variables:
motor speed and number of accidents, and draw the diagram.

Once the diagram is completed, you notice that as the speed of vehicle increases, the number of
accidents also goes up.

7
1.2.4 Benchmarking
Benchmarking identifies best practices to be followed by comparing actual project practices to those of
comparable projects.

1.2.5 DOE
DOE is a statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product
under development.

DOE (Design of Experiments) is used to determine the number of tests required and their impact on cost
of quality. Analysis of experimental data will suggest the optimal conditions for product or process,
highlight factors that influence cost e.g. Royals Royce use this technique to determine the best combo of
tires and suspension that will produce desirable smooth ride.DOE plays a good role in optimizing
products or processes.

1.2.6 Additional Quality Tools

 Nominal group technique allows ideas to be brainstormed in small groups and then reviewed by
large group.
 Brain storming to generate ideas
 Force Field analysis are diagram of forces for and against the change

1.3 Outputs

1.3.1 Quality Metrics

These metrics are used in QA and QC process and describes a project or product attribute and how the
control quality process will measure. e.g MacDonald’s planned to provide hot coffee with temperature
between 180 F and 190 F.

8
Quality Metrics provide you with hard numbers that are related to quality being achieved. Quality
control will need to carry out physical inspections, measure these metrics and report if these metrics are
being met.

AGA 8 standards and ISO 9001 standards which we use in our project are example of Quality metrics.

1.3.2 Quality Checklist

If you are making a product, you will have a checklist of product to check its features. Quality checklist is
used to check if final product is meeting the requirements of client.

1.3.3 Quality Management Plan

This plan describes how organizational policies will be implemented. This plan also contains information
about which team members to be selected for quality and what will you be doing in QA and QC process.

1.3.4 Process Improvement Plan

Project manager believes in continuous improvement of processes hence we need process improvement
plan. It includes that process which was used before and how can they be improved. Kaizan Example-If
you were writing the code of the software, you will try to optimize the code next time so that software
takes less time for query.

Another example vendor will upgrade its standards to iso 9001 which is coming in October 2017.

Process improvement plan can considers areas such as process metric which along with control limits ,
allows analysis of process efficiency.

2. Perform Quality Assurance

QA process ensures that future output or an unfinished output will be completed as per requirements.

Perform QA Is the process of auditing the quality requirements and results from quality control
measurements to ensure appropriate quality standards are being used. Key benefit of this process is the
improvement of quality process thus Perform QA Process provides umbrella for continuous process
improvement by eliminating activities that do not add value.

Please note that Perform QA process is in execution phase and used data from both planning and
control quality processes.

9
2.1 Inputs

2.1.1 Quality Metrics

Quality metrics provide the attributes of product or process that should be measured against the
allowable variation.

2.1.2 Process Improvement Plans

These plans will tell you that standards you were using in historical projects are obsolete now hence
used new standards in execution phase.

2.1.3 Quality Control Measurements

These measurements are result of ‘Perform Quality Control’ and are used to results to analyze the
ongoing quality of the processes being used in projects against the standards of the performing
organization or the requirements specified.

2.2 Tools and Techniques

2.2.1 Quality Audit

Quality audit is independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational
policies and procedures. For example currently during audit sngpl metering, one point was raised that
sops are not followed in performing activities.

Quality audit is that if one company says it is 9001 certified then quality audit would be to check the
company is actually following the processes and procedures as advised by iso 9001.E.g if you want to
make software for bank then there is a standard that data should be encrypted. Quality audit would be
to ensure with verification that data is encrypted.

Quality audit can confirm the implementation of approved change requests including updates,
corrective and preventive actions.

2.2.2 Quality Management and Control Tools

Affinity diagram is used to generate ideas to form organized patterns of thoughts about problem. The
tool is commonly used within project management and allows large numbers of ideas stemming from
brainstorming to be sorted into groups, based on their natural relationships, for review and analysis. In
PM, creation of WBS may be enhanced by using affinity diagram by giving a structure to the
decomposition of scope.

PDPC is a toll used to understand goal in relation with steps needed to achieve that goal. PCDC Process
Decision Program Charts is useful method used for contingency planning because it helps team in
anticipating intermediate steps that could derail achievements of goal. A useful way of planning is to
break down tasks into a hierarchy, using a tree diagram. The PDPC extends the tree diagram a couple of
levels to identify risks and countermeasures for the bottom level tasks. Different shaped boxes are used
to highlight risks and identify possible countermeasures

10
Interrelationship Digraph show cause and effect relationship and helps to analyze natural links between
different aspects of complex issues that posses intertwined logical relationships up to 50 relevant items.

In Prioritization Matrix, criteria are prioritized and weighted before being applied to all alternatives to
obtain a mathematical score that ranks options. These are helpful in identifying key issues.

Activity network diagram is one of quality management and control tool used in quality assurance
process. The Purpose is to help people sequentially define, organize, and manage a complex set of
activities

Matrix Diagram is quality management and control tool used to perform data analysis within the
organized structure created in the matrix. For example schedule of group matches in epic center
Moscow are shown using matrix diagrams.

Tree diagrams also known as systematic diagrams can be used to represent decomposition hierarchies
such as WBS, RBS and OBS. Purpose if to break down categories into finer and finer levels.

2.2.3 Process Analysis

Process analysis follows the steps outlined in process improvement plans to identify the much needed
improvements. Process analysis may also examine problems and constraints experienced. Process
analysis includes root cause analysis to identify a problem, find its causes and suggest the preventive
action. Process analysis identifies the improvements needed.

2.3 Outputs

2.3.1 Change Requests

Change requests are used to take corrective action, preventive action or to perform defect repair.

3. Control Quality
Control Quality is the process of monitoring and recording the results of executing the quality activities
to assess performance and recommend necessary changes.

Key benefits include:

Identifying the cause of poor process or product quality and recommending or taking actions to
eliminate them

Validating that final project deliverables and work met the requirements specified by the key
stakeholders necessary for final acceptance

Quality assurance should be used during project planning and execution phase to ensure and provide
confidence that stakeholder’s requirements will be met meanwhile Control Quality is done during
execution and closing phase to formally demonstrate with reliable that stakeholder’s or customer
requirements have been met.

11
3.1 Inputs

3.1.1 Quality Metrics

Now in Control, we will check if the final product made is as per standards defined. For example
checking the sample of road to ensure this quality metric meets the standards set, else correction action
will be required by PM. Quality metrics describe a project or product attribute and how it will be
measured.

Some quality metrics include product attributes such as Mean Time between Failure (MTBF) and Mean
time to repair (MTTR).

3.1.2 Project Management Plan

This is input because it contains Quality management plan and 3 baselines. Quality management plan
contains information regarding how quality control will be performed throughout the project.

3.1.3 Quality Checklist

This will help to verify that the work of project and deliverables are fulfilling a set of requirements.

3.1.4 Work Performance Data

This data will contain actual vs planned performance data for cost, technical and schedule.

3.1.5 Deliverables
Deliverables are to be verified hence they are in input.

3.1.6 Approved Change Requests

Timely implementation of suggested approved change requests need to be verified. Approved change
requests may include modifications such as defect repairs and revised work methods.

3.1.7 OPA
OPA is one input because it contains Organizational quality standards and policies.

3.2 Tools and Techniques

3.2.1 Seven Basic Quality Tools

These seven tools which are described in planning process above are used for identification of problems.

12
3.2.2 Inspection
Inspections also known as review, peer reviews, audits or walkthroughs are used for the examination of
work product to determine if it confirms to documented standards.

3.2.3 Statistical Sampling

3.2.3 Approved Change requests reviews

All approved change requests should be reviewed to verify that they were implemented as approved.

3.3 Outputs

3.3.1 Quality Control Measurements

These measurements are the results of control quality activities are used as input to QA process.

3.3.2 Validated Changes

Approved changes are inspected and then either gets rejected or accepted. Rejected items may require
rework.

3.3.3 Verified Deliverables

Goal of control quality process is to determine the correctness of deliverables. Verified deliverables are
input to validate scope and thus final acceptance.

3.3.4 Work Performance Information

This is the work performance data collected from various controlling processes, analyzed and integrated.
Example includes information about project requirements fulfillment such as causes for rejections and
reworks required.

3.3.5 OPA updates

When checklists are used and their work has been done, they become part of OPA.

3.3.6 Change Requests

Change requests may be generated if correction or preventive action is necessary in case of defect
repairs.

13
14