Concepts

• Quality Management is focusing on quality issue prevention since it costs more to fix an error than it does to prevent one.

• You can never inspect quality into a product, but you can deliverately plan for it from the start.

• The responsibility for quality rests heavily on the project manager.

• It is project manager's responsibility to provide the resources to make quality happen, and the project manager is ultimately responsible and accountable for the quality of the project.

• Plan Quality Management, Manage Quality, and Control Quality map closely to the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as described by Deming – some questions will heavily rely on How quality activities flow and connect.

• Some of the investment in quality is usually borne by the organization since it would be far too expensive for each project to have its own quality program.

• Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characeteristics fulfills requirements.

• Requirements or needs of the project may be stated or merely implied.

Terms

• Total Quality Management(TQM)
  • States that everyone in the company is responsible for quality and is able to make a difference in the ultimate quality of the product.
  • TQM applies to improvements in processes and in results.
  • TQM also includes statistical process control.
  • TQM focus on the underlying process of how the product was produced.
  • TQM involves all employees in the quality process.
  • A good process will ultimately yield good results.

• Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)
  • Stresses constant process improvement, in the form of small changes in products or services.
  • It comes from the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle described by Shewhart and Deming.
  • Continuous improvement seeks to make an ongoing series of small changes to improve the product and the process.

• Just-In-Time (JIT)
  • A manufacturing method that brings inventory down to zero (or near zero) levels.
  • It forces a focus on quality, since there is no excess inventory on hand to waste.

• ISO 9000
  • Part of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to ensure that companies document what they do and do what they document.
  • ISO 9000 is not directly attributable to higher quality, but may be an importmant component of Manage Quality, since it ensures that an organization follows their processes.

• Statistical Independence
  • When the outcomes of two processes are not linked together or dependent upon each other, they are statistically independent. e.g. roll a six on a die the first time won't increase of decrease the chance that you will roll another six second time.

• Mutually Exclusive
  • A statistical term that states one choice excludes the others. e.g. flip a coin.

• Standard Deviation
  • Standard Deviation is a statistical calculation used to measure and describe how a set of data is organized.
    • 1 Sigma – 68.25%
    • 2 Sigma – 95.46%
    • 3 Sigma – 99.73%
    • 6 Sigma – 99.99966%
  • The higher standard deviation, the more diverse data points are.
  • It is used to set quality levels(Six Sigma), and to set control limits to determine if a process is in control.

• Six Sigma
  • Quality management philosophy focuses on achieving very high levels of quality by controlling the process and reducing defects.
  • A defect is defined as anything that does not meet the customer's quality standards.
  • When quality reaches Six Sigma standards, the result will be such that only 3.4 out of every 1,000,000 outputs do not meet quality standards.
  • Six Sigma quality strives to make the overwhelming majority of the bell curve fall consistently within customer quality limits.
  • It is based on the underlying theory that anything will vary if measured to fine enough level.
  • The Goal is to refine the process so that human error and outside influence no longer influece results, and any remaining variations are completely random.
  • Six Sigma quality levels may not be high enough for all projects or all industries. e.g. Pharmaceutical industry, Airline industry, Power Utilties typically strive for higher levels of quality than six sigma would specify in some areas of their production and operations.

• Prevention vs. Inspection
  • Prevention is simply keeping defects from occuring. (Project Management strongly favor)
  • Inspection is about identifying and catching the errors that have occurred before they impact others outside the project.

  Attribute Sampling vs. Variable Sampling

  • Attribute Sampling is binary; either a work result conform to quality or it does not.

  • Variable Sampling measures how well something conforms to quality.

  • Using Attribute Sampling need to define tolerances, products would be tested, and would either pass or fail that inspection.

  • Using Variable Sampling, the product would be rated on a continuous scale that showed how well the batch conformed to ideal quality.
  • Special Causes vs. Common Causes
    • Special Causes are typically considered unusual and preventable.
    • Common Causes are normal.
    • Special Causes are considered preventable by process improvement, while Common Causes are generally accepted.
  • Tolerances vs. Control Limits
    • Tolerances deal with the limits the project has set for product acceptance.
    • Control Limits are set at three standard deviations above and below the mean. As long as your results fall within the control limits, your process is considered to be in control.
    • Tolerance focus on whether the product is acceptable, while Control Limits focus on whether the process itself is acceptable.
  • Customer Satisfaction
    • Two components: Fitness for use, Conformance to requirements.
    • Whether the deliverable solves the underlying need and whether it works properly. OR does it do the right thing, and does it do the thing right.
  • Management Responsibility
    • Everyone from the top to the bottom is responsible for quality, but it is management's job to make sure that focus stays on quality management and that initiatives have adequate resources and funding.
  • Mutually Beneficial Partnership with Suppliers
    • In a quality-driven organization, relationships with vendors and the supply chain are particularly critical.
    • Strong, Positive relationships that benfit both parties are key. Because of this, decisions are made for the long term and not for a quick advantage.
  • Agile Projects
    • Adaptive and agile methodologies' approach to quality is to get the product in the customer's hands as quickly as possible and to prioritize and adapt constantly.
    • Quality is an integral part of the project from the start and the focus continues throughout.
    • Agile takes on small tasks, gets feedback from users, and improves the product.
    • If a problem occurs, it should be detected early and thus cost less and require fewer resources to fix than if it were detected later.

Processes

• [Planning] Plan Quality Management

  • It is the process where the project team identifies what the quality specifications are for this project and how these specifications will be met on the project.

  • Quality is "Planned in" from the start, and not "Inspected in" after the product has been designed and constructured.

  • Plan Quality Management is performed to make sure that resulting product is of acceptable quality and how quality will be defined and measured.

  • Plan Quality Management begins early, and performed concurrently with other planning processes and the development of the project management plan.

  • Decisions made about quality from Plan Quality Management process can have a significant impact on other decisions such as scope, time, cost, and risk.

  • Inputs

    • Project Charter
      • Project Charter provides acceptance criteria that could be include quality standards of acceptance.

    • Project Management Plan
      • Requirements Management Plan
        • The level of quality and how it will be measured is often part of the requirements for the project.
      • Risk Management Plan
        • Quality can be a significant area of project risk.
        • Risk Management Plan will define how these particular risks will be identified and managed.
      • Stakeholder Engagement Plan
        • There may be stakeholders with expertise in quality, or who work in a quality-related department, who should be involved in the Plan Quality Management process, or who have a particular interest in the outcome.
      • Scope Baseline
        • Most project management practitioners view scope and quality as inseparable.
        • The scope baseline defines the full project requirements, and it also specifies the acceptance criteria for these requirements.

    • Project Documents

    • Enterprise Environmental Factors

    • Organizational Process Assets
      • Assets such as quality management plans from previous project should be considered and used as part of your project plan.
      • Performing organization's quality policy should be brought into this process.
      • The Quality Policy is usually brief and defines the performing organization's attitudes and standards related to quality across all projects.
      • If Quality Policy does not exist, the project team should write one for this project.

  • Tools

    • Expert Judgement

    • Data Gathering
      • Looking at other projects(benchmarking) to determine the right approach to quality, brainstorming, and interviews with others are some ways to gather data for this process.

    • Data Analysis
      • Quality can be expensive to achieve. The golden rule in quality that all benefits of quality activities must outweigh the costs. No activities should be performed that cost more (or even the same) as the expected benefits.
      • The Cost of Quality(COQ) looks at all of the costs that will be realized in order to achieve quality.
      • The costs of items that do not conform to quality are known as "Cost of Poor Quality"(CoPQ).

    • Decision Making
      • Decision Making is a matrix that allows several factors to be ranked and prioritized so that the most important or cirical ones become evident.

    • Data Representation
      • Process flow diagrams, or flow charts, are a way to show all quality activities and decisions.
      • Logical Data Models
      • Matrix Diagrams
      • Mind Mapping
      • SIPOC Value Chain (Supplier, Input, Processes, Outpus, Customers) is popular in quality management to help visualize the flow of (S)uppliers and (I)nputs through the (P)rocess to create (O)utputs to the (C)ustomers.

    • Test and Inspection Planning
      • Inspections and tests should be scheduled and planned from the start.

    • Meetings

  • Outputs

    • Quality Management Plan
      • The Quality Management Plan defines the standards, tools, responsibilities, and activities needed to achieve the quality goals, and specifies the quality activities and roles needed to carry them out.

    • Quality Metrics
      • Quality Metrics are objective, and they allow quality to be measured, quantified, and defined.
      • It is important input into the Control Quality process.

    • Project Management Plan Update

    • Project Documents Update

• [Executing] Manage Quality

  • Manage Quality is sometime referred to as Quality Assurance, and it relates to both product design and to process improvement.

  • Primary Purposes:
    • To put the quality management plan into practice and to see that the product, service, or result achieves quality.
    • To improve and streamline the overall process of producing the product, service, or result.

  • Manage Quality is important because If the quality of the process and activities is improved, then the quality of the product should also improve, and an overall reduction of cost should follow.

  • On Waterfall projects, the project manager is ultimately responsible for quality.

  • On Agile projects, the entire team is jointly responsible for quality.

  • The process of Manage Quality is performed as an ongoing activity in the project life cycle. It typically begins early and continues throughout the life of the project.

  • Inputs

    • Project Management Plan

    • Project Documents

    • Organizational Process Assets

  • Tools

    • Data Gathering
      • Checklists are common technique used to ensure that all steps were performed and were carried out in the proper sequence and to make sure the needed requirements were met. These may be developed internally or standard ones may be available for some tasks from outside of the sources.

    • Data Analysis
      • Alternatives Analysis
        • A data analysis technique used in several processes to identify multiple possible approaches to solving a problem.
      • Process Analysis
      • Root Cause Analysis

    • Decision Making

    • Data Representation
      • Affinity Diagrams
        • Helps visually relate bits of information to other bits of information.
        • Help discover or create meaningful systems of organization.
        • Most mind mapping techniques make use of Affinity Diagrams to help represent information the way the human brain processes and stores information.
        • Affinity Diagram also can use sticky notes, write and put on the wall.
      • Cause-and-Effect Diagrams
        • Ishikawa Diagrams, or Fish Bone Diagrams, or Why-Why Diagram
        • Used to help identify root causes.
        • Quality problems are traced back to their root causes so that prevention may be used instead of inspection.
      • Flowcharts
        • Shows how various components relate in a system.
        • Used to predict where quality problems may happen since quality issues are often the result of a combination of risk occurences.
      • Histograms
        • Used to manage quality to show the number of times an issue occurs.
        • A Pareto Chart is a histogram where issues are ranked by frequency of occurrence from greatest to least.
      • Matrix Diagrams
        • Shows the relationship between the different elements by describing the type of relationship for each cell where a row and column intersect.
        • The description could be the characteristic of the relationship or the quality or strength of it.
      • Scatter Diagrams
        • Shows how data may be correlated along an X and Y axix, used to spot trends in data.
        • Help identify a pattern from multiple data points that may not be evident otherwise.

    • Audits
      • Key tool in Manage Quality.
      • Audits review the project to evaluate which activities taking place on the project should be improved and which meet quality standards.
      • Audit the quality of the process and the activities, not the product.
      • Quality Audits are usually carried out by an objective person or team, and it is best if they are not part of the project team.

    • Design for X
      • Everything cannot be the top priority in Quality Management. Organizations, engineers, and project planners need to decide which things are the most important.
      • Notable Prioritizations for DfX including:
        • DfC (Design for Cost): Designing with cost efficiency being the key priority.
        • DfA (Design for Assembly): Designing to prioritize for ease, accuracy, and efficiency of assembly of the components.
        • DfM (Design for Manufacturing): Designing to prioritize around the best way to manufacture the product and its components.
        • DfL (Design for Logistics): Designing to prioritize sourcing components from the most efficient locations.
        • DfS (Design for Serviceability): Designing to prioritize optimal ease of repair and service.

    • Problem Solving
      • Define the Problem → Root Cause Analysis → Identify Possible Solutions → Choose a Solution → Implement the Solution → Verify the Solution

    • Quality Improvement Methods
      • Find opportunities for quality improvement.
      • Most frequently used:
        • Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
        • Six Sigma

  • Outputs

    • Quality Reports
      • Quality Reports can be quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (based on the qualities of something rather than numberical measures).

    • Test and Evaluation Documents
      • Test and Evaluation Documents include things like quality checklists and requirements traceability matrices.

    • Change Requests

    • Project Management Plan Updates

    • Project Document Updates

• [Monitoring & Controlling] Control Quality

  • If Inspecting the product or looking at some kind of result, you are probably performing the process of Control Quality.

  • Control Quality look at specific results to determine if they conform to the quality standards, involves both products and project deliverables.

  • Control Quality uses statistical sampling rather than looking at each and every output.

  • This process uses the tool of inspection to make sure the results of the work are what they are supposed to be.

  • Control Quality is the process where each deliverable is inspected, measured, and tested, to make sure that everything produced meets quality standards.

  • Control Quality is performed beginning with the production of the first product deliverable and continues until all of the deliverables have been accepted.

  • Inputs

    • Project Management Plan
      • It provides the plan for how Control Quality will be carried out.

    • Project Documents
      • Include Lesson Learned Register, the Quality Metrics, and the Test and Evaluation Documents.
      • These provide the documentation to show how effective the quality management activities are.

    • Approved Change Requests
      • Flow into Control Quality from Perform Integrated Change Control process.

    • Deliverables
      • The deliverables represent the results of the execution, and they are compared against the quality management plan to see how the two line up.

    • Work Performance Data
      • Even if the product is of acceptable quality, if it took significant rework or overtime to achieve, that would be an issue.
      • The Work Performance Data shed light on the current state of how the deliverable is being provided.

    • Enterprise Environmental Factors

    • Organizational Process Assets

  • Tools

    • Data Gathering
      • Key Methods: Checklists, Check sheets, Statistical Sampling, Questionnaires & Surveys
      • Used to gather information abbout how the quality management plan is line up with reality.

    • Data Analysis

    • Inspection
      • It looks at the product, service, or result to ensure that its quality is within the specification.
      • Quality cannot be inspected into the product, it has to be planned in from the start.

    • Testing / Product Evaluations
      • Similar to Inspection, but Inspection typically deals with a physical product, and Testing may also include things like software.
      • Testing Includes:
        • Stress Testing: applying unusual loads or circumstantces
        • Unit Testing: reviewing small components individually
        • Usability Testing: monitoring how users will interact with the system
        • Regression Testing: ensuring that the product being evaluated is compatible with previous version.
        • Integration Testing: making sure new components integrate with existing components and that the system as a whole works.
        • Burn-in Testing: performining a long-term test to ensure overall stability.

    • Data Representation
      • Goal of Data Representation is to show data in order to amke it more easily understood.
      • Common Techniques:
        • Cause-and-effect Diagrams
        • Controls Charts
        • Histograms
        • Scatter Diagrams

    • Control Charts
      • aka Statistical Process Control.
      • Control Charts graph the results of a process to show whether or not they are in control, depicting variations and determining whether or not process is in control.
      • The upper and lower control limits are set at three standard deviations above and below mean.
      • If measurements fall outside of the control limits, the process is said to be out of control. The assignable cause should then be investigaged and determined.
      • Rule of Seven: If seven or more consecutive data points fall on one side of the mean, they should be investigated, regardless even if the seven data points are within the control limits.

  • Outputs

    • Quality Control Measurements
      • The results of control quality should be documented and measured. The Quality Management Plan specify how this will take place.

    • Verified Deliverables
      • The deliverables have been inspected and measured to ensure that they conform to quality standards.
      • These verified deliverables become inputs to the Validate Scope process where the team seeks final approval of the product, service, or result.

    • Work Performance Information

    • Change Requests

    • Project Management Plan Updates

    • Project Documents Updates

The Agile Perspective on Quality Management

• To place the producet in the hands of the customer very early to get a sense of its fitness for use.

• Quality activities begin early on the project and they break the work into short iterations with small batches of features.

• Advantages:
  • Customer feedbacks gathered quickly
  • Problems or issues may be detected earlier, helping project to stay on track.

• Agile retrospective takes place at the end of each iteration, with small adjustments being made to the process in order to improve quality.