PMP - Chapter 8 – QUALITY Management

 

Knowledge Areas	Major Processes	Primary Inputs		Tools & Techniques	Primary Outputs
QUALITY	The quality 3-Pack.   (3 PAC)
Quality Planning	Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them.		1. Enterprise environmental factors 2. Organizational Process Assets 3. Project Scope Statement 4. Project Management Plan	1. Cost-Benefit analysis 2. Benchmarking 3. Design of experiments 4. Cost of quality (COQ) 5. Additional quality Planning Tools	1. Quality management plan 2. Quality Metrics 3. Quality Checklists 4. Process Improvement Plan 5. Quality Baseline 6. Project Management Plan (updates)
Perform Quality Assurance	Applying the planned   systematic quality activities to ensure that project employs all processes needed to meet requirements		1. Quality management plan 2. Quality Metrics 3. Process Improvement Plan 4. Work performance Information 5. Quality control Measurements 6. Approved Change Requests 7. Implemented Corrective Actions 8. Implemented Preventive Actions 9. Implemented Change Requests 10. Implemented Defect Repair	1. Quality planning tools and techniques 2. Quality audits 3. Process analysis 4. Quality control tools and techniques	1. Requested Changes 2. Corrective Actions 3. Organization process assets (updates) 4. Project management plan  (updates)
Perform Quality Control	Monitoring specific project results to determine whether they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.		1. Quality management plan 2. Quality Metrics 3. Quality Checklists 4. Organization process assets 5. Work performance Information 6. Approved Change Requests 7. Deliverables	1. Cause and effect diagram 2. Control charts 3. Flow-charting 4. Histogram 5. Pareto chart 6. Run Chart 7. Scatter diagram 8. Statistical sampling 9. Inspection 10. Defect repair review	1. Quality Control Measurements 2. Validated Defect Repair 3. Quality Base line (updates) 4. Recommended Corrective Actions 5. Recommended Preventive Actions 6. Requested Changes 7. Recommended Defect Repair 8. Organization process assets (updates) 9. Validated deliverables 10. Project management plan  (updates)

Approach is compatible with ISO.

Quality Planning Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them. Although it usually occur during planning phase, it can occur during execution if there is a change.

Quality Assurance Applying the planned, systematic quality activities to ensure that the project employs all processes needed to meet requirement. (e.g. evaluating overall project performance regularly)

Quality Control Monitoring specific project results to determine whether they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.

Project Quality Management – processes, procedures, policies required and followed to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.

Quality the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements. Quality is planned, designed and built in – not inspected in.

Input: Major input to quality management is to turn stakeholder needs wants and expectations into requirements through Stakeholder analysis performed during Project Scope Management.

 

Grade is a category assigned to products or services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics. (a limited number of features). Low Grade is not a problem - low quality (many bugs) is a problem

 

Precision – Consistency is value of repeated measurements having fine cluster and little scatter. Accuracy is a correctness of how close is measured value to true value.

4 Pillars of Quality Management:  customer satisfaction, Prevention over inspection, Management responsibility, Continuous Improvement.

 

Quality - Is planned, designed and built in, not inspected in.

Joseph Juran – Quality - Fitness of Use

Edward Deming – Quality Improvement – “14 steps to TQM”, Plan, Do, Check and Act

Philip Crosby – Quality – COPQ, “Conformance to requirements”, Advocated Prevention over inspection and “Zero Effects”.

 

Action for ensuring Quality

1. Review the project charter and project scope statement
2. Ask customer what is his definition of quality
3. Identify any quality standards that are applicable to the project
4. Identify the desired levels of performance in the product
5. Identify level of control for the project
6. Set standard to reach to that level of performance
7. Decide what will you to to ensure processes are followed and standards are met
8. Meetings, reports, measurements, calculations.
9. Perform QA
10. Perform QC

 

Quality Planning: Key inputs are Quality Policy, rules, govt regulation, procedures, scope statement etc. Project Scope statement provide info on major project deliverables, project objectives, requirements, thresholds and acceptance criteria. If thresholds are exceeded it will require action from the project management team. Acceptance criteria include performance requirement and essential condition that must be achieved before project deliverables are accepted. The result of deliverables satisfying all acceptance criteria implies that the needs of the customer have been met and further formal acceptance during scope verification validates that the acceptance criteria have been satisfied.

 

TT of Quality Planning:

 

1.       Cost Benefit Analysis

2.       Benchmarking: Comparing practices of other projects. Provides a standard to measure performance (time consuming). (e.g. investigating quality standards that other companies are using)

3.       Cost of quality - All work to ensure conformance to requirements + nonconformance to requirements. Like audit, training, rework, COPQ. It is total cost incurred in preventing NCs to requirements, appraising the product etc. It includes Prevention Costs (training), Appraisals Costs (inspection/testing) and Internal (scrap, rework)/External (warranty) Failure costs

4.       Additional Quality tools: like brainstorming, affinity diagram, force field analysis, nominal group techniques, matrix diagrams, flowcharts, and prioritization matrices.

5.       Design of experiments - is a statistical method that helps identify which factors might influence specific variables. A statistical method to identify the factors which influences specific variables of a product/process and optimizes the product/process.  The aspect of this technique is to provide a statistical framework for systematically changing all the important factors

Output of Quality planning

1.       Quality Management Plan – it describes how the PM team will implement the performing organization’s quality policy. Provides input to the overall project management plan and must address Quality Control, Quality Assurance and continues process improvement for the project.

2.       Process improvement Plan – Subsidiary of PMP, it details the steps for analyzing processes that will facilitate the identification of waste and non value added activity, it includes: 1. Process boundaries (describes the purpose, start and end of processes, input/output, owner and stakeholder) 2.Process configuration (flowchart of the process) 3.Process metric (maintain control over status of the processes) 4.Targets for improved performance.

3.       Quality Metrics – Defines what something is and how to measure it.

4.       Quality Baseline: records quality objective of the project.

 

Perform Quality Assurance:  

Inputs: QMP, Quality metrics, PIP, Work performance information, Quality control measurements.

TT: Quality Planning TT, Quality Audits, process anal, Quality Control TT

Quality Audit: objective is to identify ineffective policy, procedure, processes in use on the project, performed by auditors and can confirm implementation of approved CRs, CA, PA and defect repairs. It also creates LLs

Process analysis: follows PIP to identify needed improvement and create preventive. It includes root cause analysis

Checklist: Used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed in quality control process

 

Perform Quality Control: involves monitoring specific project results to determine whether they comply with relevant QMS and are in control and identify ways to eliminate the causes of unsatisfactory results.

Project management team should have working knowledge of statistical quality control, especially sampling and probability to help evaluate QC outputs.

Following pairs useful to know:

·         Prevention (keeping errors out of the process) and inspection (keeping errors out of the hands of the customer).

·         Attribute Sampling Measures whether or not the results conform to specifications and Variable Sampling is the result on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity.

·         Variable Sampling Are characteristic you want to measure (size, shape, weight, etc…). An attribute is what you are measuring. The result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity

·         Special Cause Unusual event, Random Cause Normal process variation also know as common cause.

·         Tolerance is the result is acceptable if it falls within the range specified by the tolerance. Control limit is the process in control if the result falls within the control limits

Inputs: QMP, Quality Metric, Checklists, Work Performance Information, Deliverables.

TT: Seven basic tools of quality - C&E diagram, control chart, flowcharting, histogram, Pareto chart, run chart, scatter diagram, Statistical Sampling, inspection, defect repair review.

Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone)

(1)     Creative way to look at actual causes and potential causes of a problem

(2)     Process of constructing helps stimulate thinking about an issue; helps to organize thoughts; generates discussion

(3)     Used to explore a wide variety of topics

(4)     Also known as Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram

Control Chart Help determine whether the project is out of control (in order to verify quality level). Used for bother project and product life cycle processes such as schedule variance, volume and frequency of scope changes, and errors in project documents.
“Out of Control” points that are beyond control limits or non-random still within the upper and lower control limit

(1)            Upper and Lower Control Limit on a Control Chart Acceptable range of variation of a process, 3 sigma. [The control limits are determined from data obtained from the process itself.]

(2)            Assignable Causes Data point on a control chart that requires investigation

(3)            Specification Limit Shows customer’s expectations for quality (on a control chart). Fixed by the customer

(4)            Rule of Seven – Based on Heuristics, seven random data points grouped together in a series with in control limit. It represents that they are not random and should be investigated.

Flow chart Help analyze how problems occurs, A diagramming technique shows how various elements of a system are interrelated.

Histogram: it’s a bar chart showing a distribution of variables. Its helps identify the cause of problems in a process by the shape and width of the distribution.

Pareto Diagram – Histogram, ordered freq of occurrence, take corrective action & 80 prob/20 causes. Used to identify and evaluate NCs. Rand ordering is used to guide CA.

Run chart:  shows the history and pattern of variation. It is a line graph that shows data points plotted in the order in which they occur (over time). Trend analysis involves using mathematical techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical results.

Scatter Diagram: shows pattern of relationship between two variables.

Statistical sampling - Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection. Appropriate sampling can reduce cost of quality.

Inspections -  are variously called reviews, product reviews, audits, and walkthroughs. It is examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to standards. It is also used to validate defect repairs.

Defect Repair review.

 

Output

Validated Deliverables, recommend CA and PA, defect repair, Validated Defect Repair, quality baseline (updates),

Quality Control Measurements – Results of QC activities that are fed back to QA to reevaluate and analyze the quality standards and processes for performing organization.

 

PM is ultimately responsible for quality.  Senior management has the overall responsibility and 85% of costs of quality are due to them.

Operational definitions are also called metrics

Quality function deployment – provide better product definition and product development. Its main feature are to capture the customer’s requirements, ensure cross functional teamwork, and link the main phases of product development.

Rework – action taken to bring a non-conforming item into compliance. Rework is a frequent cause of project overruns.

Marginal Analysis – Optimal Quality is reached at the point where the increased revenue from improvement equal incremental cost to secure it.

Gold Plating – Giving Customers extras, it is not recommended.

 

Quality Variable	A quality characteristic that is measurable
Quality Attribute	A quality characteristic that is classified as either conforming or nonconforming
Inspection	Prevent errors from reaching the customer before delivery to the customer. Can be done throughout product development.
Ishikawa	Made popular Pareto Chart, Cause-and-Effect Diagram and Control Chart
Taguchi Method	Is used to estimate the loss associated with controlling or failing to control process variability. If you select good design parameters, you can produce products that are more forgiving and tolerant. The tool helps determine the value or break-even point of improving a process to reduce variability.
ISO 9000	Provides a basic set of requirements for a quality system, without specifying the particulars for implementation.
“Statistically Independent”	Determine if problems are related before planning what to do about them, one can use scatter diagram or regression anal to know that.
Mutually Exclusive	If two events cannot both occur in a single trial
Conformance			Non-Conformance (most accurate)
Planning			Scrap
Training			Rework and repair
Process Control			Additional Material
Design and process validation			Repairs and service
Test and evaluation			Complaints
Quality audits			Liability
Maintenance and calibration			Product recalls
Inspection			Field service
Field testing			Expediting
Impact of Poor Quality		Increased cost, Decreased productivity, Increased risk and uncertainty, Increased costs in monitoring

 

Goal of the cost of quality program should be 3 - 5% of total value.

Cost of non-quality is estimated to be 12 - 20% of sales.

Two components of product availability are reliability and maintainability.

To effectively use statistical quality control, the project team should know the differences between special causes and random causes. 

Sampling and probability are the most important topics to understand in statistical process control.

TQM – Total Quality Management Philosophy encourages companies and their employees to focus on finding ways to continuously improve quality of their business practices and products.

Normal distribution is used to measure variation

Standard Deviation – From 3 point Estimates = (P – O)/6

Six Sigma – Level of Quality 3 sigma is 2700 defects ppm. +/- 1

+-1 Standard deviation equal to 68.26%, +-2 = 95%, +-3 = 99.73, +-6 = 99.99996% which is percentage of occurrences to fall between the two control limits.

Notes: I am not the writter of this post, please thanks the anonymous writter