Information Technology Project

Management – Fourth Edition

By Jack T. Marchewka
Northern Illinois University
Power Point Slides by Gerald DeHondt
Grand Valley State University

10-1 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 IT Project Quality Management

Chapter 10

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Learning Objectives
 Describe the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) area called
project quality management (PQM) and how it supports plan quality, perform
quality assurance, and perform quality control to provide continuous improvement
of the project’s products and supporting processes.
 Identify several quality gurus, or founders of the quality movement, and their role in
shaping quality philosophies worldwide.
 Describe some of the more common quality initiatives and management systems
that include ISO certification, Six Sigma, and the capability maturity model (CMM)
for software engineering.
 Distinguish between validation and verification activities and how these activities
support IT project quality management.
 Describe the software engineering discipline called configuration management and
how it is used to manage the changes associated with all of the project’s
deliverables and work products.
 Apply the quality concepts, methods, and tools introduced in this chapter to
develop a project quality plan.

10-3 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What is Quality?

 “an inherent or distinguishing characteristic; a property;

having a high degree of excellence”
 Features & functionality
 “fitness for use”
 “conformance to requirements”

10-4 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMBOK® – Project Quality Management
(PQM)
 Project Quality Management includes the processes and
activities of the performing organization that determine
quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the
project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
It implements the quality management system through
policy and procedures with continuous process
improvement activities conducted throughout, as
appropriate.

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PMBOK® – PQM Processes
 Plan Quality
 Determining which quality requirements and/or standards are
important for the project and the product and then documenting
how compliance will be demonstrated.
 Perform Quality Assurance
 Provides the basis for continuous improvement by auditing and
evaluating the results from quality control measurements so that
appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used.
 Perform Quality Control
 Monitoring and documenting the results of executing project quality
activities to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance and
implement new processes and techniques to improve project quality
throughout the organization.

10-6 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PQM Focuses on
 The project’s products
 Business Case
 Project Plan
 The IT Solution
 Etc.
 And the project’s processes
 Scope management
 Risk management
 Requirements Analysis
 Design
 Implementation
 Etc.
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 The Quality Chain

More efficient & effective use of resources More rework, waste, & errors
Minimize errors Negative impact on project goal &
Meet or exceed stakeholder expectations objectives
Poor quality can be an embarrassment!

Project and IT development processes support the project’s products

Customers may be internal or external
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Project Quality Management

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Quality Tools & Philosophies
 Scientific Management
 Control Charts
 The Total Quality Movement (TQM)
 Quality Planning, Improvement, & Control
 Cause & Effect Diagrams, Pareto Charts, and Flow Charts

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Scientific Management
 Fredrick W. Taylor (1856 – 1915)
 Management would set arbitrary rules of thumb
 Workers produced so much each day – no more,
no less
 Believed the production process could be more
efficient
 Break a task down into smaller tasks & study it to find
the best and most efficient way of doing it
 Time – motion studies

 Did not sit well with labor unions because many

ignored the human factors & believed profits
could be increased by speeding up the workers
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Control Charts
 Walter A. Shewhart (1891 – 1967)
 Worked for Western Electric Company (Bell Telephones)
 Quality improvements needed for underground equipment
 Applied statistical theory to control production processes

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The Total Quality Movement
 W. Edwards Deming (1900 – 1993)
 Worked with Shewhart at Western Electric
Hawthorne Plant in Chicago, IL in the 1920s
 Management treated the worker as a cog in the
machinery
 Final inspection used to control quality
 Worker not directly responsible
 Scrap & rework reduced per piece rate

 Invited to give series of day-long lectures in Japan

in the 1950s

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Deming’s 14 Points
1. Have a purpose (improve products and services, be competitive, stay in business, and
provide jobs).
2. Adopt the new philosophy of management.
3. Don’t depend on inspection at the end.
4. Don’t award business based on price tag.
5. Keep improving constantly.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans.
11. a) Eliminate quotas.
b) Eliminate management by objective and by numbers.
12. Take pride in your work.
13. Focus education and self-improvement.
14. It takes everyone to accomplish the transformation.

From Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming (1986)

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Quality Planning, Improvement, &
Control
 Joseph Juran (1904 - 2007)
 Viewed quality as “fitness for use”
 Also invited to Japan to conduct seminars in the 1950s
 Message is that quality does not happen by accident – it must
be planned in

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 Quality Planning, Improvement, & Control

 Juran’s Quality Planning Road Map (Quality Trilogy)

 Quality Planning
1. Identify who are the customers.
2. Determine the needs of those customers.
3. Translate those needs into our language.
4. Develop a product that can respond to those needs.
5. Optimize the product features so as to meet our needs as well as customer
needs.
 Quality Improvement
6. Develop a process that is able to produce the product.
7. Optimize the process.
 Quality Control
8. Prove that the process can produce the product under operating conditions.
9. Transfer the process to Operations.

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Cause & Effect Diagrams, Pareto Charts,
and Flow Charts

 Kaoru Ishikawa (1915 - 1989)

 Studied under Deming
 Believed quality is a continuous process that relies on all levels of
the organization
 Advocated the use of easy-to-use statistical tools
 Ishikawa, or Fishbone Diagram
 Pareto Diagram
 Flow Charts

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Ishikawa, or Fishbone Diagram

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Pareto Chart

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 Flow Chart
for Project
Scope
Verification

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Quality Systems
 ISO
 6 – Sigma
 Capability Maturity Model

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ISO
 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
 Derived from Greek word “isos,” meaning “equal”
 Formed in 1947
 Today has over 130 members “to facilitate the international
coordination and unification of industrial standards.”
 Standards make up the ISO 9000 (organizations) and ISO
14000 (environmental) families

10-22 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

6-Sigma
 Originated by Motorola in Schaumburg, IL
 Based on competitive pressures in 1980s – “Our quality
stinks”

Sigma Defects Per Million 3δ 6δ

1δ 690,000 Five short or long landings at any One short or long landing in 10 years at
2δ 308,537 major airport all airports in the US
3δ 66,807 Approximately 1,350 poorly performed One incorrect surgical operation in 20
surgical operations in one week years
4δ 6,210
Over 40,500 newborn babies dropped Three newborn babies dropped by
5δ 233 by doctors or nurses each year doctors or nurses in 100 years
6δ 3.4 Drinking water unsafe to drink for Water unsafe to drink for one second
about 2 hours each month every six years

10-23 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

6-Sigma D-M-A-I-C Cycle
 Define
 The first step is to define customer satisfaction goals and subgoals; for example, reduce
cycle time, costs, or defects. These goals then provide a baseline or benchmark for the
process improvement.
 Measure
 The Six Sigma team is responsible for identifying a set of relevant metrics.
 Analyze
 With data in hand, the team can analyze the data for trends, patterns, or relationships.
Statistical analysis allows for testing hypotheses, modeling, or conducting experiments.
 Improve
 Based on solid evidence, improvements can be proposed and implemented. The Measure-
Analyze-Improve steps are generally iterative to achieve target levels of performance.
 Control
 Once target levels of performance are achieved, control methods and tools are put into
place in order to maintain performance.

10-24 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

6-Sigma Roles & Responsibilities
 Master black belts
 People within the organization who have the highest level of technical and
organizational experience and expertise. Master black belts train black.
 Black belts
 Should be technically competent and held in high esteem by their peers. They
are actively involved in the Six Sigma change process.
 Green belts
 Are Six Sigma team leaders or project managers. Black belts generally help green
belts choose their projects, attend training with them, and then assist them with
their projects once the project begins.
 Champions
 Leaders who are committed to the success of the Six Sigma project and can
ensure that barriers to the Six Sigma project are removed. Usually a high-level
manager who can remove obstacles that may involve funding, support,
bureaucracy, or other issues that black belts are unable to solve on their own.

10-25 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI)
 Developed by the Software Engineering Institute at
Carnegie Mellon University in 1986
 Mitre Corporation and Watts Humphrey developed a
framework to assess and evaluate the capability of
software processes and their maturity
 Called the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), but has evolved
to the CMMI which is not limited to a specific area but can be
used across different disciplines

10-26 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Immature Software Organization
 Software processes are improvised
 Or not followed!
 Managers continually “fight fires”
 No basis for judging quality
 Schedules & budgets are usually exceeded
 Functionality & quality often compromised to meet
schedules

10-27 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Mature Software Organization
 Has organization-wide ability to manage software
development
 Software process is communicated to staff
 Processes are consistent with the way work gets done
 Processes are updated when necessary
 Roles & responsibilities are well-defined

10-28 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Other CMMI Concepts
 Software process
 A set of activities, methods, or practices and transformations used by people to
develop and maintain software and the deliverables associated with software projects.
Included are such things as project plans, design documents, code, test cases, user
manuals, and so forth.
 Software process capability
 The expected results that can be achieved by following a particular software process.
More specifically, the capability of an organization’s software processes provides a way
of predicting the outcomes that can be expected if the same software processes are
used from one software project to the next.
 Software process performance
 The actual results that are achieved by following a particular software process.
Therefore, the actual results achieved through software process performance can be
compared to the expected results achieved through software process capability.
 Software process maturity
 The extent to which a particular software process is explicitly and consistently
defined, managed, measured, controlled, and effectively used throughout the
organization.
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Levels of Software Process Maturity

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CMMI
 Level 1: Initial
 Characterized by an immature software
organization in which the software process is ad
hoc and often reactive to crises. Does not have a
stable environment for software projects, and
success of a project rests largely with the people on
the project and not the processes that they follow.
 Key Process Area
 no key process areas are in place

10-31 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 CMMI
 Level 2:
 Repeatable - Basic policies, processes, and controls for
managing a software project are in place. Previous project
successes can be repeated by other project teams on other
projects.
 Key Process Area
 Software Configuration Management
 Software Quality Assurance
 Software Subcontract Management
 Software Project Tracking and Oversight
 Software Project Planning
 Requirements Management

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 CMMI
 Level 3:
 Defined - Software engineering and management processes are
documented and standardized throughout the organization and
become the organizations standard process.
 Key Process Area
 Peer Reviews
 Intergroup Coordination
 Software Product Engineering
 Integrated Software Management
 Training Programs
 Organization Process Definition
 Organization Process Focus

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 CMMI
 Level 4:
 Managed - Quantitative metrics for measuring and assessing
productivity and quality are established for both software
products and processes which are characterized as being
quantifiable and predictable.
 Key Process Areas
 Software Quality Management
 Quantitative Process Management

10-34 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

CMMI
 Level 5:
 Optimizing at the highest level of software process maturity,
the whole organization is focused on continuous process
improvement.
 Key Process Areas
 Process Change Management
 Technology Change Management
 Defect Prevention

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The IT Project Quality Plan

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Quality Philosophies & Principles
 Focus on customer satisfaction
 Prevention, not inspection
 Improve the process to improve the product
 Quality is everyone’s responsibility
 Fact-based management

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Developing Standards & Metrics

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Project Quality Metrics
 Process
 Control the defects introduced by the processes required to create the
project deliverables
 Can be used to improve software development or maintenance
 Should focus on the effectiveness of identifying and removing defects or
bugs
 Product
 Focuses on the intrinsic quality of the deliverables and satisfaction of the
customer, client, or sponsor with these deliverables
 Attempt to describe the characteristics of the project’s deliverables and
final product
 Project
 Focus on the control of the project management processes to ensure
that the project meets its overall goal as well as its scope, schedule, and
budget objectives
10-39 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Process, Product, & Project Metrics
Examples
Type Metric Description

Process Defect Arrival Rate The number of defects found over a specific period of time.

Defects by Phase The number of defects found during each phase of the project.

Defect Backlog The number of defects waiting to be fixed.

Fix Response Time The average time it takes to fix a defect.

Defective Fixes The number of fixes that created new defects.

Product Mean Time to Failure Average or mean time elapsed until a product fails.

Defect Density The number of defects per lines of code (LOC) or function points.

Customer Found Defects The number of defects found by the customer.

Customer Satisfaction An index to measure customer satisfaction – e.g., scale from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 5 (very
satisfied)

Project Scope Change Requests The number of scope changes requested by the client or sponsor.

Scope Change Approvals The number of scope changes that were approved.

Overdue tasks The number of tasks that were started but not finished by the expected date or time.

Tasks that should have started The number of task that should have started but have been delayed.

Over budgeted tasks The number of tasks (and dollar amount) of tasks that have cost more to complete than expected
Earned Value SV, CV, SPI, CPI, ETC, EAC

Over allocated Resources The number of resources assigned to more than one task.

Turnover The number of project team members who quit or terminated.

Training Hours The number of training hours per project team member.

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Verification & Validation (V&V)
 Verification
 Focuses on process-related activities to ensure that
the products & deliverables meet specified
requirements before final testing
 Technical Reviews
 Walk-throughs

 Business Reviews
 Management Reviews
 Are we building the product the right way?

10-41 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Verification & Validation (V&V)
 Validation
 Product-oriented activities that attempt to
determine if the system or project deliverables
meet the customer or client’s expectations
 Testing
 Does the system function as intended and have all
the capabilities & features defined in the project’s
scope and requirements definition
 Did we build the right product?

10-42 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Software Testing Approaches
Unit Testing Focuses on the module, program, or object level to determine whether
specific functions work properly.
•Black Box Testing – Tests the program against specified requirements or
functionality.
•White Box Testing – Examines paths of logic or the structure inside a
program.
•Gray Box Testing – Focuses on the internal structure of the program.
Integration Tests whether a set of logically related units (e.g., functions, modules,
Testing programs, etc.) work together properly after unit testing is complete.

Systems Tests the system as a whole in an operating environment to verify

Testing functionality and fitness for use. May include tests to verify usability,
performance, stress, compatibility, and documentation.

Acceptance Certifies that the system satisfies the end user or customer’s scope and
Testing detailed requirements after systems testing is complete. It is the user’s or
client’s responsibility to assure that all features and functionality are
included so that the project’s MOV will be achieved.

10-43 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Change, Control, & Configuration
Management
 Changes to the project work must be managed
 What changes were made?
 Who made the changes?
 When were the changes made?
 Why were the changes made?
 Configuration management includes a set of processes and
tools that allow the project team to manage its various
documents and files as various configurations of IT solutions
and project deliverables are derived. It may include specifying
and enforcing various policies that restrict access to specific
individuals or preventing two people from changing the same
document or file at the same time.

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Quality Control Activities

Quality Control Activities should focus on the inputs

and outputs of each process.

10-45 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learn, Mature, and Improve
 Lessons learned
 Provide the basis for continual improvement
 Can be the basis for identifying and implementing best
practices

A quality plan should do more that attempt to build a better IT solution,

it should also support the organization in searching for ways to manage
projects better.

10-46 Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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