Chapter 8 Flashcards
what is Project Quality Management?
- processes and activities that determine quality policies, objectives and responsibilities to satisfy project needs
- implements the quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous process improvement activities conducted throughout
what are the processes in Project Quality Management?
- 1 plan quality
- 2 perform quality assurance
- 3 perform quality control
does Project Quality Management apply to both the management of the project and the product of the project?
- yes, applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their product
- product quality measures and techniques are specific to the type of product produced by the project
what is the consequence of failing to meet product/project quality requirements?
- negative consequences for any/all project stakeholders
what is the difference between quality and grade?
- quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements
- grade is a category assigned to products/services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics
what’s the difference between low quality and low grade?
- low quality that doesn’t meet quality requirements is always a problem; low grade may not be
- PM and the team have to manage tradeoffs involved to deliver required levels of quality and grade
what is the difference between precision and accuracy?
- precision means values of repeated measurements are clustered with little scatter
- accuracy means the measured value is very close to the true value
- pm team must determine appropriate levels of both
what is the approach to quality management used by PMBOK?
- compatible with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- compatable with proprietary and non-proprietary approaches (ex. TQM, six sigma, failure mode and effect analysis, voice of the customer, etc.
what is customer satisfaction?
- understanding, evaluating, defining and managing expectations so that customer requirements are met
- requires a combination of conformance to requirements (ensure project produces what it was created to produce) and fitness for use (product/service satisfies real needs)
what is prevention over inspection?
- a fundamental tenet of modern quality management which states that quality is planned, designed, and built in, not inspected in
- cost of preventing mistakes is lower than the cost of correcting them when found by inspection
what are important elements of quality management?
- customer satisfaction
- prevention over inspection
- continuous improvement
- management responsibility
what is continuous improvement?
- plan-do-check-act cycle and initiatives undertaken to improve the quality of the project’s management and the project’s product
- ex. TQM, Six Sigma, Malcolm Baldrige, Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)
what is management responsibility?
- success requires participation of all members of the project team, but remains the responsibility of management to provide the resources needed to succeed
what is Cost of quality (COQ)?
- total cost of all efforts related to quality throughout the product life cycle
- product quality improvement, especially defect prevention and appraisal, can reduce the external cost of quality
what is the Plan Quality process?
- process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and product, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance
- performed in parallel with other project planning processes
what are the inputs to the Plan Quality process?
- scope baseline
- stakeholder register
- cost performance baseline
- schedule baseline
- risk register
- enterprise environmental factors
- organizational process assets
what are the tools and techniques used in Plan Quality process?
- cost-benefit analysis
- cost of quality
- control charts
- benchmarking
- design of experiments
- statistical sampling
- flowcharting
- proprietary quality management methodologies
- additional quality planning tools
what are the outputs of the Plan Quality process?
- quality management plan
- quality metrics
- quality checklists
- process improvement plan
- project document updates
what aspects of the scope baseline serves as an input in the Plan Quality process?
- scope baseline consists of scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary
- product scope description within scope statement will often contain details of technical issues and other concerns that can affect quality planning
- acceptance criteria can affect quality costs
how does the stakeholder register serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
- identifies stakeholders with a particular interest in or impact on quality
how does the cost performance baseline serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
- documents the accepted time phase used to measure cost performance
how does the schedule baseline serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
- documents the accepted schedule performance meaures including start and finish dates
how does the risk register serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
- contains info on threats and opportunities that may impact quality requirements
how do enterprise environmental factors serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
factors that influence the Plan Quality process include
- governmental agency regulations
- rules, standards, and guidelines
- working/operating conditions of the project/product
how do organizational process assets serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
assets that may influence process include
- organizational quality policies, procedures and guidelines
- historical databases
- lessons learned
- quality policy, which sets the intended direction of the org with regards to quality
how does a cost-benefit analysis help with quality?
- meeting quality requirements can result in less rework, higher productivity, lower costs and increased stakeholder satisfaction
what is cost of quality?
all costs incurred over the life of the product by investing in:
- preventing nonconformance to requirements
- appraising conformance to requirements
- failing to meet requirements (rework)
what are failure costs?
- cost of poor quality
- categorized as internal (found by the project) and external (found by the customer)
what is the cost of conformance?
- money spent during the project to avoid failures
- can include prevention costs (build a quality product) like training, document processes, equipment and time to do it right
- can include appraisal costs (assess the quality) like testing, destructive testing loss and inspections
what is the cost of nonconformance?
- money spent during and after the project because of failures
- can include internal failure costs (failures found by the project) like rework and scrap
- can include external failure costs (failures found by the customer) like liabilities, warranty work and lost business
what are control charts?
- used to determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance
- “is this proces variance within acceptable limits?”
- can reveal random fluctuations, sudden jumps or gradual trends
- upper and lower specification limits are based on contract requirements and reflect max and min values allowed
what are upper and lower control limits of control charts and who sets them?
- set by the project manager and appropriate stakeholders to reflect the points where corrective action will be taken to prevent exceeding specification limits
- for repetitive processes, control limits are +/- 3 sigma
when is a process considered out of control?
- when a data point exceeds a control limit or if 7 consecutive points are above or below the mean
what are control charts used to monitor?
- types of outputs with repetitive activities (ex producing manufactured lots)
- cost and schedule variances
- volume
- frequency of scope changes
- other management results to determine if PM processes are in control
what is benchmarking?
- comparing actual or planned project practices to those of comparable projects to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement and provide a basis for measuring performance
what is design of experiments (DOE)?
- statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production
- used during the Plan Quality process to determine the number and types of tests and their impact on cost of quality
how does DOE help with the optimization of products/processes?
- used to reduce the sensitivity of product performance to sources of variations caused by environmental or manufacturing differences
- provides a statistical framework for systematically changing all of the important factors instead of changing just one factor at a time
- provides optimal conditions for the product/process, highlights the factors that influence the results, and reveals the interactions and synergies among factors
what is statistical sampling?
- choosing part of a population of interest for inspection
- sample frequency and sizes should be determined during the Plan Quality process
what is flowcharting and how is it helpful during quality planning?
- graphical representation of a process showing the relationship among process steps
- shows activities, decision points and the order of processing
- helps the project team anticipate quality problems that might occur
what are some examples of quality management methodologies?
- six sigma, lean six sigma, quality function deployment, CMMI, etc.