Quality Management

PMBOK Chapter 8
 Project Quality Management
• Quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for
which it was undertaken. (The product will ‘work’ the way the
stakeholders want it to)
• Includes all of the activities required that determine; Quality policies,
Quality objectives and Quality Responsibilities
• Quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill
requirements”
• Grade and Quality
– High grade – lots of functionality
– Low Grade – low functionality
– Poor quality is always a problem
– Project team determines required levels of Quality and Grade for
the project
• Precision and Accuracy Example
– You measured the output of a process to three decimal place (high
accuracy) and get a wide range of results (low precision)
 Project Quality Management
• Quality Management and Project Management both recognise:
– Customer satisfaction
– Prevention over inspection
– Continuous Improvement
– Management Responsibility
 Special Note
• Quality is always important in projects
• The PMBOK Guide also covers Quality Management theory
• A lot of quality management theory is about improving repetitive
processes
• In many long projects you may well have the need to improve
repetitive processes
• So don’t be concerned if you can’t see the immediate application of the
theory to your projects
 Modern View of Quality
• Quality is everyone’s responsibility
• Defects should be highlighted and corrected
• Quality problems lead to cooperative solutions
• Documentation is essential for “lessons learned” so mistakes are not
repeated
• Improved quality saves money and increases business
• Quality is customer focused
• People want to produce quality products
• Quality occurs at project initiation and must be planned for within the
project
(Quotes from Kerzner)
Quality Management Processes
8.1 Quality Planning (Inputs)
• What Quality Standards are appropriate to produce
the product(s) of the project and how do we satisfy
them
• Inputs
– Scope statement
• Product description
• Acceptance criteria
• WBS
– The Risk register may identify threats/opportunities that
may impact quality requirements
– Organisational Assets
• Use the Company Quality Policy or the project team needs
to develop the quality policy
• Lessons or historical databases
8.1 Quality Planning (Tools)
• Tools and Techniques
– Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Benefits – less re-work, lower costs, customer
satisfaction
• Costs for Quality activities are a project expense
– Cost of Quality – see next foil

– Control charts

– Design of Experiments
• A Design of Experiment (DOE) is a structured, organized method
for determining the relationship between factors (Xs) affecting a
process and the output of that process (Y). (Very mathematical)
– Flowcharts can identify where quality problems may arise
– Quality management methodology examples
• Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, Demming institute, etc
– Additional tools
• Brainstorming
• Force field analysis, etc
 The Cost of Quality
•Prevention Total Quality Cost (Kerzner
– Design review 100

– Training External Failure

– Quality Planning
•Appraisal 80
Savings
– Inspection of product
– Lab tests Internal Failure

– In process testing 60

– Design reviews External Failure

•Internal Failure Costs

Internal Failure
– Scrap 40

– Rework Appraisal
– Repair Appraisal

– Downtime 20

•External Failure costs Prevention

Prevention
– Customer returns
– Customer complaints
– Costs of corrective actions CURRENT Future
8.1 Quality Planning (Outputs)
• Outputs
– Quality Management Plan
• Describes how the project management team will
implement quality for the project
• Documents the planned approach for:
– Quality Control
– Quality Assurance
– Continuous process improvement
• May be formal or informal
– Quality Metrics
• Describes measurements to be used and tolerances.
• Examples
– On time performance
– Budget control
– % of defects
• Quality Checklist
• Process improvement plan
8.2 Perform Quality Assurance
• The process of auditing the quality requirements and
the results from quality control measures to ensure
appropriate quality standards are used
• QA may be done by the organisation’s quality
department
• QA provides the umbrella for continuous process
improvement
• Tools and Techniques
– Quality audit – a structured, independent review of the
project activities to see that they comply
– Process Analysis
• Examines process and problems
• Includes Root Cause Analysis
• Outputs
– Main output is change requests (recommended
corrective actions, preventative actions, defect repairs
8.2 Perform Quality Assurance
• Are we following the standards?
– Use measurements from quality control
– Perform continuous improvement
– Determine if project activities comply with organisational and
project policies, processes, and procedures – quality audit
– Find good practices
– Share good practices with others in the organisation.
8.2 Perform Quality Assurance
• Tools and Techniques
– Quality Audits
• Are we following procedures?
• Usually done by the quality assurance department
• Can be done by PM if no QA department exists
– Process analysis
• Continuous improvement
• Used in repeated activities (such as repeated software
installation on multiple PC’s)
• Uses lessons learned.
• Naturally occurring, however real process analysis occurs
at planned intervals
 8.3 Perform Quality Control
• Monitoring specific project results to:
– Determine that they comply with relevant quality
standards
– Eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance
• Inputs
– As shown
• Tools and Techniques
– The Seven Basic tools of Quality
1. Cause and Effect
2. Control Charts
3. Flowcharting
4. Histogram
5. Pareto chart – 80/20 rule – 80% of the problems are due to
20% of the causes
6. Run chart – a chart showing data points collected over a
period of time
7. Scatter diagram
• Outputs
– As Shown
8.3 Perform Quality Control
• Are we meeting the standards?
– Measure quality
– Identify quality improvements
– Validate deliverables
– Complete checklists
– Update lessons learned
– Submit change requests
– Update the project management plan and project documents
Cause and Effect Example
 Cause and Effect
• Also known as a Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram
• Think:
– Is it better to fix a defect or get to the root cause of the defect?
• Cause and Effect diagrams help identify the root cause
of the problem
• Helps stimulate thinking, organise thoughts, and
generates discussion
• Can also be used to explore factors of a desired
outcome
 Control Chart

• Runs – When several successive points line up one side of the centre
line this is a “run”. Rule of thumb – seven points is a run indicating an
abnormality in the run
• Trend – continued raise or fall in a series of points
• Hugging the centerline – points are all close to the centerline. There is
an abnormality
• Out of control – points exceed the upper or lower control limits
• In control – no obvious abnormalities
 Control Chart
• Set up in the Plan Quality process
• Utilized in the Perform Quality process
• Help determine if a process is within acceptable limits
– Think a manufacturer of doors, not all doors will be the same height,
width, weight etc; there is a range.
– Samples are taken and plotted on the control chart – shows whether
the samples are within the limit
• Upper and Lower control limits
– Measured in sigma or standard deviation
– Data points within this range are “in control”
• Specification limits
– Customers expectations or contractual requirements
– Performing organisations control limits must be less than the
specification limits (assumption for exam)
Control Chart
• Out of control
– A data point is outside the upper or lower control limit
– There are nonrandom datapoints – these may be within the
control limits
• Rule of Seven
– Rule of thumb
– Nonrandom data points grouped together in a series of seven
on one side of the mean.
– Although none are outside the control limits, they are not
random and may be out of control
– The Project Manager should investigate this type of situation
to find a cause
Pareto Chart
Pareto Chart
• Arranges results from most frequent to least frequent
• Helps identify which root causes are resulting in the
most problems
• Joseph Juran’s 80/20 principle – 80% of the problems
are due to 20% of root causes
• Helps identify best root causes to address
• Remember for exam:
– Help focus attention on the most critical issues
– Prioritise potential “causes” of the problem
– Separate the critical few from the uncritical many
3 or 6 Sigma
• Level of quality
• Used to calculate upper and lower control limits in a
control chart

• Memorise:
– Sigma is taken from both sides of the mean. Half the curve is
to the right of the mean, half is to the left.
– +/- 1 sigma (1 SD) is equal to 68.26% (percentage of
occurrences which fall between the control limit)
– +/- 2 sigma (2 SD’s) is equal to 95.46%
– +/- 3 sigma (3 SD’d) is equal to 99.73%
– +/- 6 sigma (6 SD’s) is equal to 99.99985%
8.3 Perform Quality Control
• Terms to know for the exam
– Mutual exclusivity
• Two events that cannot occur at the same time
(eg flipping a coin cannot result in heads and
tails)
– Statistical independence
• The probability of one event occurring does not
affect the probability of another occurring (eg
rolling a die)
– Standard Deviation (or Sigma)
• Measure of how far you are from the mean