Project Management/Quality Management

Quality Management ensures that an organization, product or service is consistent. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for the quality management portion of Project+ certification include:

• Identify components of a quality management plan
  • Quality metrics, control limits, and frequency of measurement
  • Quality assurance processes
  • Quality control processes
  • Quality baseline
• Explain the appropriate steps to ensure quality of project deliverables
  • Monitor work performance
  • Analyze performance information
  • Identify variances
  • Generate change requests
  • Implement change requests
• Identify potential tools to use when a project deliverable is out of specification as defined in the quality baseline
  • Pareto charts
  • Histograms
  • Run charts
  • Ishikawa diagram

Objectives and skills for the resource allocation portion of Project+ PK0-004 certification include:

• Compare and contrast various project management tools.
  • Project scheduling software
  • Charts
    • Process diagram
    • Histogram
    • Fishbone
    • Pareto chart
    • Run chart
    • Scatter chart
    • Gantt chart
  • Dashboard/status report
  • Knowledge management tools
    • Intranet sites
    • Internet sites
    • Wiki pages
    • Vendor knowledge bases
    • Collaboration tools
  • Performance measurement tools
    • Key performance indicators
    • Key performance parameters
    • Balanced score card
  • SWOT analysis
  • Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) Matrix

Readings

1. Wikipedia: Quality management
2. Wikipedia: Small-scale project management
3. Leadership & Project Management Champions: What are Project Baselines?
4. Wikipedia: Quality assurance
5. Wikipedia: Quality control
6. Wikipedia: Pareto chart
7. Wikipedia: Histogram
8. Wikipedia: Run chart
9. Wikipedia: Ishikawa diagram

Multimedia

1. YouTube: What is Project Quality Management? Process, Tools and Techniques
2. YouTube: Quality Planning vs Quality Assurance vs Quality Control Project Quality Management
3. YouTube: Seven Basic Quality Tools Project Quality Management
4. YouTube: Project Management Concept #28: Control Chart vs Run chart
5. YouTube: Project management Concept #29: Histogram vs Pareto Chart
6. YouTube: How to use a Burndown chart
7. YouTube: Fishbone Diagram - How to Construct a Fishbone Diagram
8. YouTube: How to Meet Your Quality Targets - Project Management
9. YouTube: What are the principles of modern quality management?

Activities

1. Quality Planning:
   • Read Bright Hub Project Management: A Roundup of Quality Control Tools and Techniques, and create a tool required for the project.
   • Read Tutorialspoint: Project Quality Plan. Develop a quality plan which includes quality metrics, control limits, frequency of measurement, and a quality baseline.
   • Brainstorm ideas with your team members.
2. Quality Assurance:
   • Review Wikipedia: Quality Assurance to see examples of Quality Assurance.
   • Set up goals of project assurance.
   • Define compliance criteria.
   • Identify a set of measurements to be used to determine quality levels.
   • Assign responsibilities to team members.
3. Quality Control:
   • Review Wikipedia: Quality control.
   • Read Wikipedia: Quality audit, and do quality audit systematically to make sure all quality standards have been met.
   • Identify non-compliance and reasons for that.
4. Quality Improvements:
   • Read CA: Quality Improvement.
   • Watch YouTube How to Meet Your Quality Targets - Project Management.
   • Based on quality assurance and quality control activities, identify necessary changes.
   • Read Wikipedia: Change request, and create a change request.
5. SWOT Analysis:
   • Watch YouTube How to Perform a SWOT Analysis
   • Read SWOT Analysis Wiki
   • Try performing a SWOT analysis for your own group or project.

Lesson Summary

• Quality metrics help you translate your clients' needs into measurable goals. It's critical that you define a set of quality metrics during your project’s planning phase, so that you and your team know exactly what you need to get done.

• Control limits are used to detect signals in process data that indicate that a process is not in control and, therefore, not operating predictably.
• The decision about the measurement frequency is a trade-off between the cost of taking the measurement and the value of the information.
• Quality assurance is the planned or systematic actions necessary to provide enough confidence that a product or service will satisfy the given requirements.
• Quality control is the ongoing effort to maintain the integrity of a process to maintain the reliability of achieving an outcome.

• Quality baseline: records quality objective of the project.
• Monitoring and Controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project execution so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project.
• Project controlling should be established as an independent function in project management. It implements verification and controlling function during the processing of a project in order to reinforce the defined performance and formal goals.
• The key benefit [of monitoring and controlling] is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the project management plan.
• Monitoring and controlling influences the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved changes are implemented.

• The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors. In quality control, it often represents the most common sources of defects, the highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer complaints, and so on.
• To construct a histogram, the first step is to "bin" the range of values—that is, divide the entire range of values into a series of intervals—and then count how many values fall into each interval. The bins are usually specified as consecutive, non-overlapping intervals of a variable. The bins (intervals) must be adjacent, and are usually equal size.

• Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect.

Key Terms

balanced score card

A strategy performance management tool – a semi-standard structured report, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions.

baseline

The original approved plan for schedules, costs, etc. and is used to monitor and control ongoing project performance.

brainstorming

A group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.

change request

A document containing a call for an adjustment of a system; it is of great importance in the change management process.

compliance

Conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law.

Gantt chart

A type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Modern Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships between activities and current schedule status

histogram

A graphical representation of the distribution of numerical data. It is an estimate of the probability distribution of a continuous variable (quantitative variable).

Ishikawa diagrams

Also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa, are causal diagrams that show the causes of a specific event.

modern quality management

Pays attention to the human aspect of the processes, the team approach to quality, and the concept of total quality management. The process is more oriented toward permanent small incremental improvements and multiple inspection points in the processes.

Pareto chart

A type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line.

quality assurance

A way of preventing mistakes or defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers.

quality audit

The process of systematic examination of a quality system carried out by an internal or external quality auditor or an audit team.

quality baseline

Uses to perform analysis to find current performance against to the expected level for a specific activity in established time-phase.

quality control

The process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production.

quality improvement

A formal approach to the analysis of performance and systematic efforts to improve it.

quality management plan

A plan that documents the quality activities and outlines the processes, procedures, responsibilities and resources required for maintaining project quality.

quality planning

Systematic process that translates quality policy into measurable objectives and requirements, and lays down a sequence of steps for realizing them within a specified timeframe.

responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI) matrix

Also known as responsibility assignment matrix(RAM), describes the participation by various roles in completing tasks or deliverables for a project or business process. It is especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and processes.

run chart

Also known as a run-sequence plot is a graph that displays observed data in a time sequence. Often, the data displayed represent some aspect of the output or performance of a manufacturing or other business process. It is therefore a form of line chart.

Scatter chart

A type of plot or mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for typically two variables for a set of data.

SWOT analysis

A strategic planning technique used to help a person or organization identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to business competition or project planning.

work performance

Assesses whether a person performs a job well. Performance is an important criterion for organizational outcomes and success.

Review Questions

1. It's critical that you define a set of quality metrics during your project’s _______ phase, so that you and your team know exactly what you need to get done.

   It's critical that you define a set of quality metrics during your project’s planning phase, so that you and your team know exactly what you need to get done.
2. Control ______ are used to detect signals in process data that indicate that a process is not in control and, therefore, not operating predictably.

   Control limits are used to detect signals in process data that indicate that a process is not in control and, therefore, not operating predictably.
3. The decision about the measurement _________ is a trade-off between the cost of taking the measurement and the value of the information.

   The decision about the measurement frequency is a trade-off between the cost of taking the measurement and the value of the information.
4. Quality assurance is the _______ or __________ actions necessary to provide enough confidence that a product or service will satisfy the given requirements.

   Quality assurance is the planned or systematic actions necessary to provide enough confidence that a product or service will satisfy the given requirements.
5. Quality ________is the ongoing effort to maintain the integrity of a process to maintain the reliability of achieving an outcome.

   Quality control is the ongoing effort to maintain the integrity of a process to maintain the reliability of achieving an outcome.
6. Quality baseline: records ______ objective of the project.

   Quality baseline: records quality objective of the project.
7. Monitoring and controlling consists of those processes performed to _______ project execution so that potential problems can be __________ in a timely manner and __________ action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project.

   Monitoring and controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project execution so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project.
8. Project controlling should be established as an ___________ function in project management.

   Project controlling should be established as an independent function in project management.
9. The key benefit [of monitoring and controlling] is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify ________ from the project management plan.

   The key benefit [of monitoring and controlling] is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the project management plan.
10. Monitoring and controlling influences the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only ________ changes are implemented.

    Monitoring and controlling influences the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved changes are implemented.
11. The purpose of the _____ chart is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors.

    The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors.
12. To construct a _______, the first step is to "bin" the range of values—that is, divide the entire range of values into a series of intervals—and then count how many values fall into each interval.

    To construct a histogram, the first step is to "bin" the range of values—that is, divide the entire range of values into a series of intervals—and then count how many values fall into each interval.
13. Common uses of the ______ diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect.

    Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect.
14. A _______ helps to show if there is a relationship between two variables.

    A scatter chart helps to show if there is a relationship between two variables.
15. A _______ is a common tool for displaying project schedule information.

    A gantt chart is a common tool for displaying project schedule information.
16. _______ can also be used during risk identification by having project teams focus on the broad perspectives of potential risks for particular projects.

    SWOT analysis can also be used during risk identification by having project teams focus on the broad perspectives of potential risks for particular projects.

Assessments

• Flashcards: Quizlet: Quality Management
• Quiz: Quizlet: Quality Management

See Also

• American Management Association: The Critical Link Between Requirements and Project Quality
• Virginia Tech: Project Quality Management Plan
• Project Management Skills: Project Quality Management
• Schwalbe, Kathy. Information Technology Project Management 8th edition. Massachusetts: Boston. 2016. ISBN 9781285452340

References

Type classification: this is a lesson resource.