8. Project Quality Management

Question 1

Define the following knowledge area: Project Quality Management.

8.1 Understand the three project management processes in the project quality management knowledge area

Answer 1

Includes the processes for incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements in order to meet stakeholders’ objectives.

8. 1 Plan Quality Management
9. 2 Manage Quality
10. 3 Control Quality
    * PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8 - Project Quality Management, p. 271*

Question 2

Define the following process: Plan Quality Management.

8.1 Understand the three project management processes in the project quality management knowledge area

Answer 2

The process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with quality requirements and/or standards.

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8.1 - Plan Quality Management, p. 277

Question 3

Define the following process: Manage Quality.

8.1 Understand the three project management processes in the project quality management knowledge area

Answer 3

The process of translating the quality management plan into executable quality activities that incorporate the organization’s quality policies into the project.

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8.2 - Manage Quality, p. 288

Question 4

Define the following process: Control Quality.

8.1 Understand the three project management processes in the project quality management knowledge area

Answer 4

The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities in order to assess performance and ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations.

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8.3 - Control Quality, p. 298

Question 5

Identify the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs of the following process: Plan Quality Management.

8.2 Identify the input, tools, techniques, and outputs defined in the three quality management processes

Answer 5

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, Figure 8-3. Plan Quality Management: Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs, p. 277

Question 6

Identify the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs of the following process: Manage Quality.

8.2 Identify the input, tools, techniques, and outputs defined in the three quality management processes

Answer 6

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, Figure 8-7. Manage Quality: Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs, p. 288

Question 7

Identify the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs of the following process: Control Quality.

8.2 Identify the input, tools, techniques, and outputs defined in the three quality management processes

Answer 7

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, Figure 8-10. Control Quality: Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs, p. 298

Question 8

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Quality Management.

8.3 Understand the reasons for and approaches to adapting quality management in different project environments

Answer 8

• Policy compliance and auditing. What quality policies and procedures exist in the organization? What quality tools, techniques, and templates are used in the organization?
• Standards and regulatory compliance. Are there any specific quality standards in the industry that need to be applied? Are there any specific governmental, legal or regulatory constraints that need to be taken into consideration?
• Continuous improvement. How will quality improvement be managed in the project? Is it managed at the organizational level or at the level of each project?
• Stakeholder engagement. Is there a collaborative environment for stakeholders and suppliers?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8 - Project Quality Management, p. 276

Question 9

Identify special considerations for agile/adaptive environments in Project Quality Management.

8.3 Understand the reasons for and approaches to adapting quality management in different project environments

Answer 9

• In order to navigate changes, agile methods call for frequent quality and review steps built in throughout the project rather than toward the end of the project.
• Recurring retrospectives regularly check on the effectiveness of the quality processes. They look for the root cause of issues then suggest trials of new approaches to improve quality. Subsequent retrospectives evaluate any trial processes to determine if they are working and should be continued or new adjusting or should be dropped from use.
• In order to facilitate frequent, incremental delivery, agile methods focus on small batches of work, incoporating as many elements of project deliverables as possible. Small batch systems aim to uncover inconsistencies and quality issues earlier in the project life cycle when the overall costs of change are lower.

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8 - Project Quality Management, p. 276

Question 10

Identify quality tools and approaches for continuous improvement

8.4 Identify quality tools and approaches for continuous improvement

Answer 10

• Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Six Sigma
• Lean Six Sigma

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8 - Project Quality Management, p. 275

Question 11

Identify the key concepts for Project Quality Management.

Not an objective from the study guide.

Answer 11

tl;dr

• [management of the project and deliverables]
• [quality v. grade]
• [prevention v. inspection]
• [sampling]
• [tolerances and control limits]
• [cost of quality]
• [incorporate quality!]

quotes

• [management of the project and deliverables] Project Quality Management addresses the management of the project and the deliverables of the project. It applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their deliverables. Quality measures and techniques are specific to the type of deliverables being produced by the project.
• [quality v. grade] Quality and grade are different concepts. Quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements” (ISO 9000) [international Standards Organization. 2015. Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and Vocabulary. Geneva: Author.] Grade is a category assigned to deliverables having the same functional use but different technical characteristics. The project manager and team are responsible for managing trade-offs associated with delivering the required levels of both quality and grade.
• [prevention v. inspection] Prevention is preferred over inspection. It is better to design quality into deliverables, rather than to find quality issues during inspection. The cost of preventing mistakes is generally much less than the cost of correcting mistakes when they are found by inspection or during usage.
• [sampling] Project managers may need to be familiar with sampling. Attribute sampling (the result either conforms or does not conform) and variable sampling (the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity).
• [tolerances and control limits] Many projects establish tolerances and control limits for project and product measurements. Tolerances (the specified range of acceptable results) and control limits (the boundaries of common variation in a statistically stable process or process performance).
• [cost of quality] The cost of quality (COQ) includes all costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, appraising the product or service for conformance to requirements, and failing to meet requirements (rework). Cost of quality is often the concern of program management, portfolio management, the PMO, or operations.
• [incorporate quality!] The most effective quality management is achieved when quality is incorporated into the planning and designing of the project and product, and when organizational culture is aware and committed to quality.

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, Appendix X4 – X4.5 – Key Concepts for Project Quality Management, p. 675