Project Quality Management PDF

Project Quality Management  What Is Quality? The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements” (ISO9000:2000). Other experts define quality based on: ◦ Conformance to requirements: The project’s...

Project Quality Management  What Is Quality? The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements” (ISO9000:2000). Other experts define quality based on: ◦ Conformance to requirements: The project’s processes and products meet written specifications. ◦ Fitness for use: A product can be used as it was intended. 2  What Is Project Quality Management? Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. Processes include: ◦ Quality planning: Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. ◦ Quality assurance: Periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards. ◦ Quality control: Monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards. 3  Quality Planning Implies the ability to anticipate situations and prepare actions to bring about the desired outcome. Important to prevent defects by: ◦ Selecting proper materials. ◦ Training and indoctrinating people in quality. ◦ Planning a process that ensures the appropriate outcome. 4 Design of Experiments Design of experiments is a quality planning technique that helps identify which variables have the most influence on the overall outcome of a process. Also applies to project management issues, such as cost and schedule trade-offs. Involves documenting important factors that directly contribute to meeting customer requirements. 5 Scope Aspects of Projects Functionality Features Outputs Performance Reliability Maintainability 6  Who’s Responsible for the Quality of Projects? Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality management on their projects. Several organizations and references can help project managers and their teams understand quality. ◦ International Organization for Standardization ◦ IEEE, ASCE, ACI 7 Quality Assurance Quality assurance includes all the activities related to satisfying the relevant quality standards for a project. Another goal of quality assurance is continuous quality improvement. Benchmarking generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects. A quality audit is a structured review of specific quality management activities that help identify lessons learned that could improve performance on current or future projects. 8 Quality Control The main outputs of quality control are: ◦ Acceptance decisions ◦ Rework ◦ Process adjustments Some tools and techniques include: ◦ Pareto analysis ◦ Statistical sampling ◦ Six Sigma ◦ Quality control charts 9 Pareto Analysis Pareto analysis involves identifying the vital few contributors that account for the most quality problems in a system. Also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 percent of problems are often due to 20 percent of the causes. Pareto diagrams are histograms, or column charts representing a frequency distribution, that help identify and prioritize problem areas. 10 Sample Pareto Diagram 11  Statistical Sampling Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection. 12  Six Sigma Six Sigma is “a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes.” 13 Six Sigma +/- 1 sigma (or one standard deviation) is equal to 68.26%, which is the percentage of occurrence to fall between two control limits. +/- 2 sigma (or 2 standard deviation) is equal to 95.46% +/- 3 sigma (or 3 standard deviation) is equal to 99.73% +/- 6 sigma (or 6 standard deviation) is equal to 99.99985% 14 Basic Information on Six Sigma The target for perfection is the achievement of no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. The principles can apply to a wide variety of processes. Six Sigma projects normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC. 15 DMAIC DMAIC is a systematic, closed-loop process for continued improvement that is scientific and fact based. DMAIC stands for: ◦ Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process, and customer requirements. ◦ Measure: Define measures, then collect, compile, and display data. ◦ Analyze: Scrutinize process details to find improvement opportunities. ◦ Improve: Generate solutions and ideas for improving the problem. ◦ Control: Track and verify the stability of the improvements and the predictability of the solution. 16  Five Cost Categories Related to Quality Prevention cost: Cost of planning and executing a project so it is error-free or within an acceptable error range. Appraisal cost: Cost of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure quality. Internal failure cost: Cost incurred to correct an identified defect before the customer receives the product. External failure cost: Cost that relates to all errors not detected and corrected before delivery to the customer. Measurement and test equipment costs: Capital cost of equipment used to perform prevention and appraisal activities. 17 PMI’s Maturity Model PMI released the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) in December 2003. Model is based on market research surveys sent to more than 30,000 project management professionals and incorporates 180 best practices and more than 2,400 capabilities, outcomes, and key performance indicators. Addresses standards for excellence in project, program, and portfolio management best practices and explains the capabilities necessary to achieve those best practices. 18  Using Software to Assist in Project Quality Management Spreadsheet and charting software helps create Pareto diagrams, fishbone diagrams, and so on. Statistical software packages help perform statistical analysis. Specialized software products help manage Six Sigma projects or create quality control charts. Project management software helps create Gantt charts and other tools to help plan and track work related to quality management. 19