Project Quality Management Chapter 8

Overview Take Notes:

Project quality is the “Totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to
satisfy stated or implied needs”. Every Project has anticipated level of quality for the
project deliverables. Project quality Management is the process of ensuring that the
project fulfills its obligations of satisfying the project’s needs. As projects vary, so too
will the anticipated level of quality.

Quality is defined as the degree to which the project fulfills its requirements. Project
quality management, is compatible with ISO 9000 and ISO 10000 quality standards and
guidelines. ISO 9000 is not a quality system, but an enforcement system. The ISO
9000/10000 principles compel an organization to follow its established policies and
procedures by implementing and enforcing those policies on a day-to-day basis.

Definition of Quality Management: Quality management includes creating and

following policies and procedures to ensure that a project satisfies the requirements
established by the customer. Quality management includes the processes of Plan
Quality, Perform Quality Assurance, and Perform Quality Control.

Quality and grade: They are not the same. Quality is the sum of a product’s
characteristics that enable it to meet the demands of the project. Grade is a rank
assigned to entities having the same functional use but different technical
characteristics.

Quality Theorists The following people are known for their theories on quality:
Joseph Juran: He developed the 80/20 principle, advocated top management
involvement, and defined quality as "fitness for use."
 W. Edwards Deming: He developed 14 Steps to Total Quality Management and
advocated the “Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle” as the basis for quality improvement.
Philip Crosby: He popularized the concept of the cost of poor quality, advocated
prevention over inspection, and "zero defects." He believed that quality is
"conformance to requirements."

Quality management and project management have similar characteristics:

Customer Satisfaction: The project must satisfy the customer requirements by
delivering what it promised to satisfy the needs of the customer.
Prevention: Quality is planned into a project, not inspected into it. It is always more
cost-effective to prevent mistakes than to correct them.
Management Responsibility: The project team must work towards the quality goal, but
management must provide the needed resources to deliver on the quality promises.
Kaizen is a quality management philosophy of applying continuous small improvements
to reduce costs and ensure consistency or project performance.
Marginal analysis: This theory studies the cost of the incremental improvements to a
process or product and compares it against the increase in revenue realized from the
improvements.
Total Quality Management (TQM): This philosophy encourages companies and their
employees to focus on finding ways to continuously improve the quality of their
business practices and products.

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Take Notes:
Inputs
Scope baseline
Stakeholder register
Cost performance baseline
Schedule baseline
Risk register
8.1 Plan Quality Enterprise environmental
factors
Organizational process assets
Project management plan
8.2 Perform
Quality Assurance Quality metrics
Work performance information
Quality control measurements
Project management plan
Quality metrics
Quality checklists
Work performance
measurements
Approved change requests
8.3 Perform
Quality Control Deliverables
Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
Cost-benefit analysis
Cost of quality
Control charts
Benchmarking
Design of experiments
Statistical sampling
Flow charting
Proprietary quality
management methodologies
Additional quality planning
tools
Plan quality and Perform
Quality Control tools and
techniques
Quality audits
Process analysis
Cause and effect diagrams
Control charts
Flow charting
Histogram
Pareto chart
Run chart
Scatter diagram
Statistical sampling
Inspection
Approved change requests
review
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Outputs
Quality management plan
Quality metrics
Quality checklists
Process improvement plan
Project document updates
Organizational process asset
updates
Change requests
Project management plan
updates
Project document updates
Quality control measurements
Validated changes
Validated deliverables
Organizational process assets
updates
Change requests
Project management plan
updates
Project document updates
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8.1 Plan quality Take Notes:

The Plan Quality process is applied to determine which quality standards are applicable to
the project and then find out how to satisfy them. Quality planning is often applied in
parallel with other processes during project planning. Plan a strategy for the project team
to deliver on-time, within budget, and has satisfied all scope requirements.

The project must comply with any applicable external standards (enterprise
environmental factors) as well as organizational and departmental policies, standards, and
procedures (organizational process assets). Organizational process assets are the result of
lessons learned on previous projects and the performing organization's idea of the best
way to accomplish work.

In addition, the project manager must plan the project so it meets the customer's quality
standards. Examples of such standards are the number of software bugs per module
acceptable, the minimum strength of concrete, or the average time allotted per
installation. These types of measures of quality will help the project manager determine
when the project is out of control and when to then request changes, corrective action as
well as preventive action (to prevent the problem from reoccurring).

Once the existing standards are identified, the project manager must create any additional
standards needed by the project, standards that are not covered by any other guidelines.
When all standards have been identified or created, the Plan Quality process involves
determining the t work that needs to be done to meet those standards. The project
manager determines the specific measurements to be made each week, each month, or
for each deliverable to ensure compliance with all standards.
The Plan Quality process results in additions or changes to the iterating project
management plan and project documents to make sure the standards are met. Work can
be added to the WBS, resources can be changed, and extra actions by the project manager
can be added to the project management plan.

The following tools and techniques are used in the Plan Quality process. The objective of
using these tools and techniques in Plan Quality is to determine the requirements and
the standards for the project and product.

Cost Benefit Analysis: In this technique, the project manager weighs the benefits versus
the costs of meeting quality requirements.
Cost of Quality (COQ): This technique helps to ensure the project is not spending too
much to assure quality. Cost of quality involves looking at what the costs of conformance
and nonconformance" to quality will be on the project and creating an appropriate
balance. The following diagram depicts those differences in greater detail.

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Take Notes:

Control charts are SET UP in the Plan Quality process as part of

the effort to determine what will be quality on the project.
They are UTILIZED in Perform Quality Control, where they help
determine if a process is within acceptable limits.

Quality Management Plan

A good quality management plan will specifically address each of the following:
 Design control
 Document control
 Purchased material control
 Material identification and control
 Inspections
 Test control
 Measuring and testing equipment control
 Corrective actions
 Quality assurance records
 Quality Audits
 Process Improvements

Benchmarking, is a technique to take what the project manager has planned or experienced
regarding quality and compare it to another project to see how things measure up. The current
project can be measured against any other project—not just projects within the performing
organization or within the same industry. The goal of benchmarking is to evaluate the differences
between the two projects and then to make corrective actions to the current project.
Benchmarking can also be used as a measurement against industry standards, competitors’
pricing, or competitors’ level of performance.
The design of experiments approach relies on statistical what-if scenarios to determine what
variables within a project will result in the best outcome. This type of approach is most often used
on the product of the project rather than the project itself. The goal of design of experiments is to
isolate the root cause of an effect and then make adjustments to that cause to eliminate the
unacceptable results.

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Operational definitions, also known as metrics, are the quantifiable terms and values to
measure a process, activity, or work result. Operational definitions are clear, concise Take Notes:
measurements. Designating that 95 percent of all customer service calls should be
answered by a live person within 30 seconds is a metric. A statement that all calls should
be answered in a timely manner is not.
Checklists are simple approaches to ensure work is completed according to the quality
policy. It’s usually a list of activities that workers will check off to ensure each task has
been completed.
One of the goals of quality project management is continuous process improvement. The
process improvement plan looks to improve the project, not just the end result of the
project. Its aim is to identify and eliminate waste and non-value added activity.
Specifically, this plan aims to accomplish the following:
 Increase customer value by eliminating waste within the project.
 Establish process boundaries.
 Determine process configuration.
 Process metrics within the project.
 Establish targets for performance improvement.

8.2 Perform Quality Assurance

Quality assurance (QA) is the sum of the planning and the implementations of the plans
the project manager, the project team, and management does to ensure the project
meets the demands of quality. QA is not something that is performed only at the end of
the project, but before and during the project. In some organizations, the Quality
Assurance department or another entity completes the QA activities. QA is interested in
finding the defects and then fixing the problems. While there are many approaches to
QA, (depending on the quality system the organization or project team has adapted),
there are only two basic types of QA:
Internal QA: Assurance provided to management and the project team
External QA: Assurance provided to the external customers of the project

Quality assurance tools and techniques include:

Plan Quality and Perform Quality Control Tools and Techniques: The tools and
techniques of the Plan Quality and Perform Quality Control processes are used as part of
the Perform Quality Assurance process.

Quality Audits are performed to see if the project and project team are complying with
company policies, standards, and procedures and to determine whether the policies,
standards, and procedures being used are efficient and effective. This process is not all
negative. A good quality audit recognizes new lessons learned and good practices that
the project is able to contribute to the performing organization.
Process Analysis is a part of continuous improvement and identifies improvements that
might be needed in processes.

Outputs of Perform Quality Assurance:

 Change requests, including recommended corrective and preventive actions and
defect repair
 Updated standards and processes
 Updated project management plan and project documents

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8.3 Perform Quality Control

Take Notes:
Quality control (QC) requires the project manager, to monitor and measure project
results to determine that the results satisfy the demands of the quality standards. If the
results are unsatisfactory, root cause analysis follows the quality control processes. The
project manager uses toot cause analysis to determine the cause of unsatisfactory
results, and then applies the appropriate corrective actions. On the whole, QC occurs
throughout the life of a project, not just at its end. QC is also not only concerned with
the product the project is creating, but with the project management processes. QC
measures performance, scheduling, and cost variances.
The project team should do the following to ensure competency in quality control:
 Conduct statistical quality control, such as sampling and probability
 Inspect the product to keep errors away from the customer
 Perform attribute sampling to measure conformance to quality on a per unit
basis.
 Conduct variable sampling to measure the degree of conformance.
 Study special causes to determine anomalies to quality.
 Research random causes to determine expected variances of quality.
 Check the tolerance range to determine if the results are within, or without, an
acceptable level of quality.
 Observe control limits to determine if the results are in, or out, of quality
control

Few Statistical definitions

Mutual Exclusivity: Two events are said to be mutually exclusive if they cannot both occur
in a single trial. For example, flipping a coin once cannot result in both a head and a tail.
Probability: This term refers to the likelihood that something will occur. Probability is
usually expressed as a decimal or a fraction, on a scale of zero to one.
Normal Distribution: A normal distribution is the most common probability density
distribution chart. It is in the shape of a bell curve and is used to measure variations.
Statistical Independence is the probability of one event’s occurring does not affect the
probability of another event’s occurring (i.e., the probability of rolling a six on a die is
statistically independent from the probability of getting a five on the next roll).
Standard Deviation (or Sigma) a measure of a range is its standard deviation. This
concept is also sometimes stated as a measure of how far you are from the mean (not
the median). ((P - 0)/6 is the three-point estimate formula for standard deviation).
3 or 6 Sigma 3 or 6 sigma represents the level of quality that a company has decided to
try to achieve. 3 Sigma is used to calculate the upper and lower control limits in a
control chart.
Sigma, 2 Sigma, 3 Sigma and 6 Sigma are 4 values representing normal distributions:
 +/– 1 sigma 68.26 percent
 +/– 2 sigma 95.46 percent
 +/– 3 sigma 99.73 percent
 +/– 6 sigma 99.99 percent

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Cause and Effect diagrams illustrate the relationship between the variables within a
process, as well as the way how those relationships can contribute to inadequate Take Notes:
quality. This diagram can help to organize both the process and team opinions, as well
as to generate discussion on finding a solution to ensure quality. These diagrams are
also known as Ishikawa diagrams and fishbone diagrams.

The flowcharts illustrate the flow of a process through a system, such as a project
change request through the change control system, or work authorization through a
quality control process. It is graphical representation of process flow. For example:

Control charts illustrate the performance of a project over time. They map the results of
inspections against a chart. Control charts are typically used in projects, or operations,
where there are repetitive activities—such as manufacturing, a series of testing, or help
desks.

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Take Notes:

Specification
Limits

The outer limits of a control chart are set by the customer requirements called as
Specification limits. Within the customer requirements are the upper control limits (UCL
s) and the lower control limits (LCL s). The UCL is typically set at +3 sigma, while the LCL
is set at –3 sigma. Sigma results show the degree of correctness.

The mean in a control chart represents the expected result, while the sigma values
represent the expected spread of results based on the inspection.

Over time, the results of testing are plotted in the control chart. Whenever a result of
testing is plotted beyond the upper or lower control values, it is considered to be “out
of control.” When a value is out of control, there is a reason why—it’s called an
assignable cause.
Another assignable cause is “the Rule of Seven.” The Rule of Seven states that
whenever seven consecutive results are all on one side of the mean, this is an assignable
cause. Thus, there’s been some change that caused the results to shift to one side of the
expected mean. Again, the cause must be investigated to determine why the change
happened.
Control charts can also be applied to project management. Consider the number of
expected change requests, delays within a project, and other recurring activities. A
control chart can plot out these activities to measure performance, positive and
negative results, and track corrective actions.

A Pareto diagram is somewhat related to Pareto’s Law: 80 percent of the problems

come from 20 percent of the issues. This is also known as the 80/20 rule. A Pareto
diagram illustrates the problems by assigned cause from smallest to largest. The project
team should first work on the largest problems and then move onto the smaller
problems.

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Take Notes:

A histogram is a bar chart showing the frequency of variables within a project. Within
project management a common histogram is a resource histogram that shows the
frequency of resources used on project work.

A run chart is a line graph that shows the results of inspection in the order in which
they’ve occurred. The goal of a run chart is to first demonstrate the results of a process
over time and then use trend analysis to predict when certain trends may re-emerge.
Based on this information, an organization can work to prevent the negative trend, or
work to capitalize on an identified opportunity.

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Take Notes:

Trend analysis is the science of taking past results to predict future performance. The
results of trend analysis allow the project manager to apply corrective action to
intervene and prevent unacceptable outcomes. Trend analysis on a project requires
adequate records to predict results and set current expectations. Trend analysis can
monitor the Technical Performance, Cost, and Schedule performance.

Results of Quality control

The project manager and project team, based on the results of the tools and techniques
to implement quality control, apply corrective actions to prevent unacceptable quality
and improve the overall quality of the project management processes.
In addition to quality improvement, there are other results of quality control:
Deliverables Acceptance Decisions: The work results are either accepted or rejected.
Rejected items typically mean rework.
Rework: Nonconformance to quality results in rework. Rework costs time and money
and contributes to projects being late, over budget, or both.
Process Adjustments: When results of inspections indicate quality is out of control, then
process adjustments may be needed to make immediate corrective actions or planned
preventative actions to ensure quality improves. Process adjustments, depending on the
nature of the adjustment, may qualify for a change request and be funneled through the
Change Control System as part of integration management.
Recommendations: The project manager and the project team can also make
recommendations for additional defect repair, preventative actions, corrective actions,
and even additional change requests.

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