unit 6: quality management pmbok guide, chapter 8) · pdf fileunit 6: quality management ......

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Unit 6: Quality Management (PMBOK® Guide, Chapter 8)

Historically, quality management questions have been difficult for some exam takers for two major reasons: 1) over-reliance on their previous training and personal experience(rather than carefully reviewing PMI® terminology) and 2) mathematical concepts such as process control and standard deviation have caused difficulty for some people. Seecourse slide #6-1 for an overview of quality management.

Major Processes

8.1 Plan Quality Management (identifying quality requirements and standards and how to demonstrate compliance)

8.2 Perform Quality Assurance (auditing quality requirements and quality control measurements to ensure appropriate quality standards are used)

8.3 Control Quality (monitoring results to assess performance and recommend necessary changes)

The PMBOK® Guide defines quality management as the processes required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. PMI indicates that their approach to quality management is intended to be compatible with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as well as other well-known approaches associated with Deming, Crosby, TQM, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and Continuous Improvement.

PMI defines quality as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements (PMBOK® Guide, p. 228). A critical part of the process is to identify stakeholder needs and turn them into requirements. Needs may be explicitly stated or implied.

Quality and grade are not the same thing. Grade is measured by features and functions and a project team can choose a lower grade because it saves money and still meets requirements (for example, a BMW would be nice but a Ford Focus may meet your needs at a lower cost). However, low quality is always a problem because it means that needs and requirements are not being met.

Although not specifically mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide, a related concept that often appears on the exam is that of gold-plating. Gold-plating is providing a solution that exceeds the original requirement and is bad to the extent that it may cause the project to cost more and take longer. If the requirements are accurate, there is no reason to exceed them (especially if doing so results in lost profits for the contractor).

Unit 6: Quality Management

6-2 PMC:DJ4:EN:000 ver.2.0 © CMF Solutions and ESI July 2013

PMI also distinguishes precision from accuracy. Precision is consistency or “exactness”, which means that process outcomes have very little “scatter” or variation.Unfortunately, outcomes could be consistently in the wrong place (i.e., not meeting the requirements) and so accuracy is also required. Accuracy means correctness, which means that outcomes are close to the required value.

Finally, PMI contends that achieving ISO compatibility means that quality management must recognize the importance of:

• Customer satisfaction, which requires attention to conformance to specifications (the project produces what it said it would) and fitness for use (the product must satisfy real needs).

• Prevention over inspection, which holds that the cost of avoiding mistakes is less than the cost of correcting them.

• Continuous improvement, which uses techniques such as the Shewhart plan-do-check-act model, TQM, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®).

• Management responsibility, which recognizes that participation of the entire organization is needed for success, but it is the responsibility of management to provide adequate resources and sound processes.

• Cost of quality (COQ), which refers to the total cost of conformance as well as nonconformance. Modern quality thinking emphasizes the cost of conformance so that defects are prevented rather than spending time and money correcting mistakes. PMI indicates that post-project quality costs may be incurred because of recalls, warranty work, and product returns. These post-project quality costs should be analyzed as a part of on-going program and portfolio management.

8.1 Plan Quality Management (PMBOK® Guide, p. 231)

Quality planning involves identifying quality requirements and standards for the project and the product and documenting how to demonstrate compliance. The resulting quality management plan provides guidance on how quality will be managed and validated. PMI emphasizes that quality should be planned in, not inspected in.Although inspection is definitely part of quality management, increased inspection is generally not considered the best path to improved quality. Quality planning should be performed in parallel with other planning efforts such as cost, schedule, procurement, and risk. Project planners must always remember that changes in quality may especially affect cost, schedule, and risk.



Plan Quality Management

Inputs Tools Outputs

1. Project management plan 2. Stakeholder register 3. Risk register 4. Requirements documentation 5. Enterprise environmental

factors 6. Organizational process

assets

1. Cost-benefit analysis 2. Cost of quality 3. Seven basic quality tools 4. Benchmarking 5. Design of experiments 6. Statistical sampling 7. Additional quality planning tools 8. Meetings

1. Quality management plan 2. Process improvement plan 3. Quality metrics 4. Quality checklists 5. Project documents updates

Six Key Inputs for Plan Quality Management (PMBOK® Guide, p. 233):

1. Project Management Plan: The quality management plan is a component of the project management plan and contains the following information:

a) Scope baseline: Comprised of the following three documents:

• Scope statement: Contains project description, major deliverables, and acceptance criteria. Acceptance criteria provide a method for assessing whether quality requirements have been met and may also have an effect on overall project costs.

• WBS: Identifies the deliverables, work packages, and control accounts used to measure performance.

• WBS dictionary: Defines technical information for completing each activity.

b) Schedule baseline: The approved schedule including planned start and finish times.

c) Cost baseline: Documents planned costs and the time intervals for measuring and reporting actual cost performance.

d) Other management plans: Various subsidiary management plans (human resource, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder) may highlight areas of concern for quality management.



2. Stakeholder Register: As described earlier, the register identifies stakeholders with an interest in the project. In this case, the focus would be on those with an interest in or impact on quality.

3. Risk Register: May contain information on threats and opportunities that may affect quality (Section 11.2.3.1).

4. Requirements Documentation: Captures and documents key product and project requirements that must be met to satisfy stakeholders. Quality management is aimed at meeting these requirements.

5. Enterprise Environmental Factors: Factors such as government or industry regulations, rules, standards, and guidelines must be considered. For the exam, you should know the difference between a standard and a regulation. A standardis an optional guide that suggests preferred practices. A regulation is mandatory and requires compliance (building codes on a construction project).

• Governmental regulations (compliance is mandatory)

• Organizational or industry rules, standards, and guidelines (which are usually optional guides or best practices)

• Working/operating conditions for the project/product

• Cultural perceptions that may affect expectations about quality

6. Organizational Process Assets: Organizational Process Assets that might influence the Plan Quality process include:

• Organizational quality policies, procedures, and guidelines

• Historical databases and lessons learned

• Know the PMI definition of quality policy, which is the overall intentions and direction of an organization with regard to quality, as formally expressed by top management

Eight Key Tools for Plan Quality Management (PMBOK® Guide, p. 235):

1. Cost-Benefit Analysis: For quality planning purposes, benefit/cost trade-offs refer to the cost of engaging in quality management activities against the resulting benefits to the project. The potential benefits of meeting quality requirements include:

• Less rework • Higher productivity



• Lower costs and increased profitability • Increased stakeholder satisfaction

2. Cost of Quality (COQ): The total cost of efforts to achieve quality, which includes the costs of conformance (preventing defects and assessing quality) and non-conformance (fixing defects). Three specific categories of costs are prevention, appraisal, and failure. Preventing defects is believed to reduce overall costs and is preferred over costs of non-conformance.

Prevention(Build a Quality Product)

“Conformance”

Appraisal(Assess Quality) “Conformance”

Failure

“Nonconformance”

• Planning • Training • Equipment (calibration

and maintenance)

• Test and evaluation • Process control • Inspection

Internal (found by project)• Scrap • Rework

External (found by customer)• Liabilities (recalls) • Warranty work • Lost business

Also note: PMI advocates Deming’s philosophy that approximately 80-90% of the costs of quality are the direct responsibility of management.

3. Seven Basic Quality Tools: Also known as 7QC, the seven basic quality tools include (also see course slides #6-2 through #6-8 for examples):

a) Cause and effect diagrams: You must know that cause and effect diagrams are also called Ishikawa or Fishbone diagrams. They are used to illustrate the possible factors that may be causing or influencing certain problems. The problem statement is displayed at the “head of the fishbone” and selected stakeholders ask “why” until an actionable root cause has been identified. One possible use of fishbone diagrams is to investigate the special variations known as “special causes” in control charts (covered below in item 3f).PMI also emphasizes that they may be used to stimulate thinking and discussion.

b) Flowcharts: Diagrams used to help analyze how problems occur.Most flowcharts show activities, decision points, and the sequence in which process steps occur. They are also called process maps because they are often used to show the steps in a process so that problems may be eliminated and



improvements implemented. The PMBOK® Guide provides an illustration in Figure 8-7 on page 239.

c) Checksheets: permit data to be collected quickly in simple, standardized formats. They are used to make data collection fast and easy. The data most frequently collected are defect causes, number of defects, and defect locations. The checksheet may be a simple checklist format or it may also contain a graphic representation of an object (rental car companies sometimes use such a picture for checking a car before you leave the lot). The data needed to create Pareto diagrams may be collected using checksheets. Again, PMBOK®

Guide, Figure 8-7, p. 239 shows an illustration.

d) Pareto diagrams: A histogram (vertical bar chart) rank ordered to display the most likely causes of defects in descending order. The greatest cause of defects or variances is shown as the tallest bar on the left of the chart.The causes are rank ordered from left to right, and the rank ordering is used to guide corrective action, i.e., the greatest cause of variance is worked on first.

The tool was named after an Italian economist who discovered that 80% of the wealth in a particular region in Europe was held by only 20% of the population. This discovery eventually was dubbed the 80/20 rule, indicating the importance of focusing efforts toward improvement on the “significant few.”

e) Histograms: A vertical bar chart that rank orders or prioritizes data. A Pareto diagram is a specific example of such a chart.

f) Control charts: Control charts are used to determine whether a process is stable (under control) and is therefore producing predictable results. The charts track three major types of data: 1) specification limits are requirements in the contract, 2) control limits define points at which corrective action is considered, and 3) there is a planned goal (the perfect outcome).

Key points about control charts (read the following details as part of your self-study):

• A process need not be adjusted if it is under control. However, it can be changed to provide basic improvements at any time.

• Upper and lower control limits (UCL/LCL) must not be confused with specification limits (USL/LSL). Control limits describe the natural variation of a process; observations (process results) that fall within the limits usually indicate normal, expected variations. Points outside the limits mean that something has occurred that needs investigation and



perhaps correction. Points outside the limits are referred to as special events or assignable causes. Typical causes of such results are:

• Equipment problems (tolerances not adjusted properly, worn out, and so on)

• Materials problems (wrong quality/grade, defective, and so on) • Employee problems (understaffed, poor training, and so on)

The PMBOK® Guide states that control limits are generally set at plus or minus three sigma from the mean.

• Specification limits are the tolerances agreed to in the contract.Whereas specification limits represent the contractual obligation, control limits represent the natural capability of your current process. Spec limits are sometimes referred to as the “voice of the customer.”

• Rule of Seven: When interpreting control charts, this rule of thumb (heuristic) states that if seven or more observations in a row fall on the same side of the mean (or if they trend constantly in the same direction—increasing or decreasing), they should be investigated as if they have an assignable cause. This is true even if the observations are within the control limits. The reason for this rule is that it is extremely unlikely that seven observations in a row would fit the pattern described if the process is operating normally (by “extremely unlikely” we mean less than a 1 percent chance, calculated as .50 raised to the 7th power, or .0078).

• Effect of standard deviation: Recall the concept of six sigma that was mentioned in the time management section.

Six Sigma: You should know that PMI has observed that numerous “modern” companies have adopted Six Sigma as the standard for measuring quality. The more traditional approach was three sigma. The difference is that six sigma captures about 99.9997% of outcomes whereas three sigma only captures about 99.7%. That means that defects would occur only about 3.4 times in a million under six sigma but they would occur three times in a thousand under three sigma. In other words, six sigma is a much more stringent quality control requirement.

Effect of sample size on control limits: Standard deviation is one of the factors that affects whether the upper and lower control limits are wide or narrow in comparison to the mean in a control chart. For the exam, be aware that larger sample sizes will tend to result in smaller



standard deviations, which in turn mean more narrow control limits. The converse is also true, i.e., smaller sample sizes tend toward larger standard deviations and wider control limits.

g) Scatter diagrams: Shows the relationship between two variables known as the dependent and the independent variables. In the example shown in course slide #6-8, the dependent variable (Y-axis) is the defect rate and the independent variable (X-axis) is the average hours of training.

4. Benchmarking: Comparing planned or actual project practices to those of other projects to a) generate ideas for improvement and b) provide a standard to measure performance against.

5. Design of Experiments (DOE): A statistical technique that helps determine how different variables influence project outcomes. Experiments are essentially “observations conducted under controlled circumstances.” For instance, experiments during development of an automobile may control various combinations of tires and suspension and reveal which produces the best ride for the target customers.

PMI suggests that DOE is especially useful for determining how much testing is needed and for optimizing the performance of processes and/or products.

6. Statistical Sampling: Choosing part of a population for inspection. For example, one might examine 150 of the 1,000 welds on a bridge construction project to determine whether the welds conform to requirements. Sampling is done to reduce the cost of quality. A sampling plan is often developed during quality planning so that the total cost of quality is known.

7. Additional Quality Planning Tools: There are other techniques that can assist in defining quality requirements, including:

• Brainstorming

• Force field analysis

• Nominal group technique

• Quality management and control tools (defined in Section 8.2.2.1)

8. Meetings: Meetings involving the project manager, sponsor, selected team members, and other selected stakeholders for the purpose of developing the quality management plan.



Five Key Outputs for Plan Quality Management (PMBOK® Guide, p. 241):

1. Quality Management Plan: Describes how the project team will implement its quality policy. The quality plan is an input to the overall project management plan and describes the approaches for quality assurance, continuous process improvement, and quality control. The plan should focus on efforts early in the project that will reduce cost and schedule problems caused by rework.

2. Process Improvement Plan: A plan that details the steps for improving existing processes. May include activities such as:

• Process boundaries: Describes the start, purpose, and end of each process. The following processes are normally part of quality management: audits, metrics, benchmarking, experiments, quality planning, and status reports.

• Process configuration: A flowchart that shows all steps and interfaces in a process.

• Targets for Improved Performance: Self-explanatory.

• Process metrics: Measuring performance and improvements.

3. Quality Metrics: Also known as operational definitions, metrics describe how something will be measured. Quality metrics might include failure rates and reliability. A related project performance metric might measure whether an activity is on time (A decision would have to be made as to whether on time means starting on time, finishing on time, or both). Other typical quality metrics include defect frequency, failure rate, reliability (such as MTBF, mean time between failure), and test results (technical performance).

4. Quality Checklists: A structured tool to verify that all steps in a process have been performed. Checklists are often used in the quality management process, especially for complex tasks or for tasks performed frequently.

5. Project Documents Updates: Documents that may be updated as a result of quality planning include:

• Stakeholder register (Section 13.1.3.1)

• Responsibility assignment matrix (Section 9.1.2.1)

• WBS and WBS dictionary



8.2 Perform Quality Assurance (PMBOK® Guide, p. 242)

Quality assurance involves auditing quality requirements and results from quality control measurements to ensure the project will use appropriate quality standards and processes.

Quality assurance creates a management system for auditing quality requirements, reviewing organizational processes (audits), and capturing the results from quality control in the form of QC measurements. The QC feedback is used to determine whether adjustments are needed in the quality assurance system. Quality assurance activities fall under the costs of conformance.

Quality assurance is also the umbrella for continuous process improvement. Continuous improvement is aimed at identifying and reviewing all organizational processes so that increased efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved.

Perform Quality Assurance


1. Quality management plan 2. Process improvement plan 3. Quality metrics 4. Quality control measurements 5. Project documents

1. Quality management and control tools

2. Quality audits 3. Process analysis

1. Change requests 2. Project management plan

updates 3. Project documents updates 4. OPA updates

Five Key Inputs for Perform Quality Assurance (PMBOK® Guide, p. 244):

1. Quality Management Plan: Describes the approaches for quality assurance and continuous process improvement.

2. Process Improvement Plan: Details the steps for analyzing processes to improve project management and product development processes (Section 8.1.3.2).

3. Quality Metrics: Identifies attributes that should be measured (Section 8.1.3.3).

4. Quality Control Measurements: The results of quality control that are in turn fed back to Quality Assurance to consider any potential changes in the organization’s quality standards and processes. These measurements provide



evidence as to whether processes are performing to the required standards of the organization and/or customer.

5. Project Documents: May affect quality assurance and should be monitored, especially with respect to configuration management.

Three Key Tools for Perform Quality Assurance (PMBOK® Guide, p. 245):

1. Quality Management and Control Tools: The tools for quality planning (Section 8.1.2) and quality control (Section 8.3.2) may also be used for quality assurance. Other relevant tools include (see PMBOK® Guide, Figure 8-10, p. 246):

• Affinity diagrams (a kind of brainstorming tool used by a team to organize large amounts of detailed data into logical categories)

• Process decision program charts (identifies the steps envisioned for reaching a stated goal and highlights possible risks)

• Interrelationship digraphs (a special form of cause-and-effect diagram aimed at examining factors in complex situations)

• Tree diagrams (conceptually similar to the decomposition of a WBS, this tool breaks broad categories of information into finer and finer levels of detail)

• Prioritization matrices (much like a scoring model and pairwise comparisons, this tool applies weighted criteria to rank order and prioritize any list of options)

• Activity network diagrams (used to plan the appropriate sequence for a set of activities or tasks; examples include arrow and precedence diagrams covered previously in the time management chapter)

• Matrix diagrams (a chart with rows, columns, and cells [problems, factors, objectives respectively; the diagram attempts to show the strength of relationships among these factors)

2. Quality Audits: Structured, independent reviews to identify inefficient processes, reduce the cost of quality, and increase the percentage of accepted products (prevent defects from occurring). The specific objectives of a quality audit may include:

• Identify and share best practices currently being implemented • Identify shortcomings and nonconformities • Document the lessons learned from each audit • Share good practices used on similar projects in the organization and

within the relevant industry



Audits may be scheduled or random, and they may be conducted by internal or external auditors.

3. Process Analysis: Identifies and implements needed improvements by using the process improvement plans mentioned earlier (Section 8.1.3.2).

Four Key Outputs for Perform Quality Assurance (PMBOK® Guide, p. 247):

1. Change Requests: Change requests may be used to take corrective action, preventive action, or perform defect repair. In this case, the requested changes may be aimed at quality improvement. As always, change requests are processed using integrated change control (Section 4.5).

2. Project Management Plan Updates: Portions of the project management plan that may be updated as a result of quality assurance include:

• Quality management plan • Scope management plan • Schedule management plan • Cost management plan

3. Project Documents Updates: May include the following:

• Quality audit reports • Training plans • Process documentation

4. Organizational Process Assets Updates: Any updates to established quality standards and the quality management system.

Additional Information about Quality Assurance:

The quality assurance system should provide three things:

• Auditing • Feedback • Correction



Quality evaluation: There are two kinds of evaluation you should know for the exam. They are similar to the mid-project and post-project evaluations in the integration management chapter, and they come from the literature on education:

• Formative (also called a quality audit): Done during the project for the purpose of making corrections.

• Summative (also called quality improvement): Done after the project for the purpose of documenting lessons learned.

Quality responsibility: Responsibility for quality can be viewed two ways (be careful of the exact wording on this topic):

1. Responsibility for a task: Belongs to the individual employee performing the task.

2. Responsibility for the project: Belongs to the project manager.

8.3 Control Quality (PMBOK® Guide, p. 248)

Quality control involves monitoring and recording specific project results to assess performance and recommend necessary changes. Project results include both product deliverables and project performance measures such as cost and schedule.

The primary differences between quality assurance and quality control are as follows:

• Quality assurance is used during planning and executing to provide confidence that stakeholders’ requirements will be met.

• Quality control is used during executing and closing to provide formal documentation that acceptance criteria have been met.

Project teams should know the differences between:

• Prevention (keeping errors out of the process) and inspection (keeping errors away from the customer).

• Attribute sampling (the result conforms or it does not; an item is dented or not dented) and variables sampling (results are measured to determine the degree of conformity).

• Tolerances (the result is acceptable if it’s within the range specified by the tolerance) and control limits (the process is under control if the result falls within the control limits).



Control Quality


1. Project management plan 2. Quality metrics 3. Quality checklists 4. Work performance data 5. Approved change requests 6. Deliverables 7. Project documents 8. Organizational process assets

1. Seven basic quality tools 2. Statistical sampling 3. Inspection 4. Approved change requests

review

1. Quality control measurements 2. Validated changes 3. Verified deliverables 4. Work performance information 5. Change requests 6. Project management plan

updates 7. Project documents updates 8. OPA updates

Eight Key Inputs for Control Quality (PMBOK® Guide, p. 250):

1. Project Management Plan: Contains the quality management plan which documents how quality control is to be handled.

2. Quality Metrics: Described in Section 8.1.3.3, provides information such as MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) and MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure).

3. Quality Checklists: Described in Section 8.1.3.4.

4. Work Performance Data: Contains measures of actual progress which are compared to planned progress. These metrics include:

• Planned vs. actual technical performance • Planned vs. actual schedule performance • Planned vs. actual cost performance

5. Approved Change Requests: Approved changes may affect work methods, schedules, and defect repairs. The correct and timely implementation of approved changes must be verified.

6. Deliverables: Described in Section 4.3.3.1 (any verifiable product or result).



7. Project Documents: Relevant documents include:

• Agreements (contracts, MOUs, and so on)

• Quality audit reports and change logs with corrective action plans

• Training plans

• Process documentation associated with use of the seven basic quality tools

8. Organizational Process Assets: Organizational Process Assets that may affect quality control include:

• Quality standards and policies

• Standard work guidelines

• Procedures and policies for issue reporting, defect reporting, and communication

Four Key Tools for Control Quality (PMBOK® Guide, p. 252):

1. Seven Basic Quality Tools: Described in Section 8.1.2.3, the 7QC also apply to quality control. As shown previously, see course slides #6-2 through #6-8 for examples.

2. Statistical Sampling: Described in Section 8.1.2.6, appropriate samples are selected and tested in accordance with the quality management plan.Remember that sampling is done to reduce the cost of quality control.

For the exam, you should know the conditions under which sampling is most appropriate:

• When the population is large • When the cost of inspection is high • When destructive testing is required• When you believe there are not many defects

Attribute sampling looks for the presence or absence of particular defects.Variable sampling provides the basis for control charts by numerically measuring the degree of conformity for particular factors.

3. Inspection: The examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to standards. Inspections generally include measurements and may be conducted at any level (the final product, a sub-system, or a single activity).



Inspections may also be used to validate defect repairs on previously rejected work. As before, other names include reviews, audits, and walkthroughs.

4. Approved Change Requests Review: These reviews are designed to ensure that approved change requests were implemented correctly.

Eight Key Outputs for Control Quality (PMBOK® Guide, p. 252):

1. Quality Control Measurements: As described in quality assurance, these measurements are used as feedback to QA to reevaluate any quality standards currently in use.

2. Validated Changes: Repaired or changed items are inspected and either accepted or rejected. Rejected items may require rework.

3. Verified Deliverables: A major goal of quality control is to ensure that deliverables are correct. Verified deliverables are inputs to Validate Scope (Section 5.5) for formal acceptance.

4. Work Performance Information: Performance data that have been analyzed and integrated. Relevant data for quality control purposes include:

• Causes for rejected work

• Rework associated with those rejects

• Process adjustments that have become necessary

5. Change Requests: If recommended corrective actions, preventive actions, or defect repairs lead to change requests, the requests must be processed using integrated change control.

6. Project Management Plan Updates: Portions of the project management plan that may be updated include:

• Quality management plan

• Process improvement plan

7. Project Documents Updates: Documents that may be updated include:

• Quality standards and agreements

• Quality audit reports and change logs (for corrective actions)

• Training plans

• Process documentation associated with the use of any quality tools



8. Organizational Process Assets Updates: Recording the use of checklists and incorporating those records into the historical database of the organization.

Other Topics:

Graphs: Serve as powerful communication tools. They allow project teams to present data in a simple pictorial format that is easily understood. Types of graphs include:

• Pie charts (relative or comparative effect)

• Line graphs (excellent way to show whether trends exist)

• Histograms, also called bar charts (grouping data and rank ordering, e.g., Pareto diagram)

Kaizen and continuous improvement: The Japanese word for continuous improvement is kaizen. The key idea is that improving quality is not a one-time, discrete event. Rather, it is an ongoing process involving managers and workers alike. The purpose of continuous improvement is to reduce variances and thereby reduce the cost of nonconformance. A related Japanese term is warusa kagen,which identifies things that are not currently wrong, but are not exactly correct either. In other words, these are potential emerging problems that should be monitored.

Priority of Quality, Cost, and Schedule: Historically, quality received “lip service” in many companies but was actually subservient to cost and schedule goals. Modern thinking emphasizes that quality should share equal priority with cost and schedule goals.

Design and quality: Careful design of a product or service is expected to increase reliability and maintainability (two important measures of quality). You should also know two related precepts:

• Quality should be designed in; not inspected in!!!

• The primary responsibility for developing design specifications rests with the project engineers.

Just-in-Time (JIT): An inventory control approach that attempts to reduce work-in-process inventory to zero stock. Thus, there is no buffer or reserve stock to fall



back on. Zero work-in-process inventory forces a company to find and fix quality problems or they will constantly miss their schedule commitments.

Kanban: JIT is usually implemented through a “pull” inventory system. Workers at a station do not automatically receive more “input” materials from preceding workstations. Instead, the workers communicate to the preceding station when they are ready for more work-in-process inputs. The communication mechanism is known as kanban, and may include anything from bar coding, computerized methods, ping pong balls routed through vacuum tubes, runners, people traveling on bicycles, and so on.

Motivation and quality: PMI advocates the belief that increased quality is the likely result when team members display pride, commitment, and an interest in workmanship. One way to harm such a culture is by allowing frequent turnover of the people assigned to the project.

Marginal analysis: Optimal quality is reached at the point where the incremental revenue from improvement equals the incremental cost to secure it.

Taguchi method: A statistical approach that calculates a “loss function” to determine the cost of producing products or outcomes that do not achieve a specified target value.

Other key quality terminology:

Attribute: A quality characteristic that may be classified as conforming or not conforming. Note also that attributes can be objective or subjective in nature.

Variable: A quality characteristic that is numerically measurable in increments.Examples include diameter measured in inches, weight measured in pounds, speed measured in miles per hour, battery life measured in hours, and so on.

Probability: The likelihood that something will happen. Probability for attributes is essentially like a coin toss, a 50-50 chance that something will occur or not. Probability for variables is more complicated and involves the concept of probability distributions, or a range of possible outcomes. Two familiar probability distributions are:

• Normal distribution or bell curve

• Histogram (bar chart), for example, a Pareto chart

Population: The entire group of items that we wish to measure.



Sample: Because populations can be quite large, we often examine only some of the items hoping to get an accurate picture of the entire group at a lower cost.

Standard deviation: A measure of the potential variations around a projected outcome. You should memorize the following four numbers:

+/- 1 sigma 68.3% of the total population +/- 2 sigma 95.5% of the total population +/- 3 sigma 99.7% of the total population +/- 6 sigma 99.9997% of the total population

Know that +/- 3 sigma is the “traditional” approach to setting quality standards and also means that 99.7% of the outcomes will meet requirements. Conversely, 3 items in a thousand will have a defect of some kind.

By comparison, +/- 6 sigma is the more modern, and also more stringent, approach to setting quality standards. If processes are designed to a standard of six sigma, you will only experience defects of approximately three per million.

TQM (Total Quality Management): Know the following statement about TQM (p. 229, PMBOK® Guide): TQM is an approach for implementing a quality improvement program and for achieving continuous improvement

ISO 9000: This entry is provided to clarify the references on pp. 6-1 and 6-2 at the beginning of the chapter. ISO 9000 is one aspect of the overall International Organization for Standardization (ISO) program. Specifically, ISO 9000 describes a recommended quality system that complies with international standards.

Run Chart: Trend analysis is performed using a run chart, which is a line graph that plots data points in the order in which they occur (i.e., on a time scale). The data may show:

• Variation

• Declines or improvements over time

• Trends



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Self-Study Drill Practice: Quality Management

Question Answer

1. Who is responsible for project quality? Note: All page numbers in this drill practice refer to the study guide unless otherwise indicated.

1. The PM (the word project is the key) (p. 6-13).

2. An assignable cause or variance indicates that ______.

2. there is a problem that is probably not just the result of random events and therefore needs to be corrected(pp. 6-6/7).

3. Who has the primary responsibility for developing design specifications?

3. Engineering (p. 6-17).

4. In setting control limits, distinguish six sigma from three sigma.

4.Three sigma is the “traditional” approach which means that 99.7% of possible outcomes will be within the tolerances of your process. Six sigma is a more rigorous quality standard advocated by numerous modern companies. Six sigma captures 99.9997% of possible outcomes. In comparison, three sigma allows errors approximately three times per thousand whereas six sigma allows errors only about three times in a million. (pp. 6-7/19)

5. Name the 4 major quality control tools. 5.Seven basic quality tools: cause/effect diagrams, flowcharts, checksheets, Pareto diagrams, histograms, control charts, scatter diagrams Statistical sampling InspectionApproved change requests review (pp. 6-15/16)



6. Define plan quality management. 6. Identifying quality requirements and standards and documenting how to demonstrate compliance (p. 6-2).

7. Define control quality. 7. Monitoring specific project results to assess performance and recommend necessary changes (p. 6-13).

8. Define quality. 8. Several definitions or concepts are mentioned in the PMBOK® Guide (pp. 227-229):• The degree to which a set of inherent

characteristics fulfill project requirements.

• Conformance to requirements/specs. • Fitness for use. • Prevention over inspection. • Meeting mutually agreed needs and

expectations (pp. 6-1/2).

9. What is the best way to improve the reliability and maintainability of a product?

9. Good design practices (designing in reliability and maintainability), i.e., quality should be designed in, not inspected in (p.6-17).

10. What is benchmarking? 10. Comparing actual or planned practices to those of other projects or organizations in a search for improvements (p. 6-8).

11. What are the eight tools used in quality planning?

11.Cost-benefit analysis Cost of quality Seven basic quality tools BenchmarkingDesign of experiments Statistical sampling Additional quality planning tools Meetings(pp. 6-4 to 6-8).

12. What quality control tool provides a bar chart that shows the greatest source of defects or variances on the left and the fewest defects on the right?

12. Pareto chart (or diagram) (p. 6-6)



13. What is kaizen? 13. A Japanese concept meaning incremental, continuous improvement(p. 6-17).

14. What are the two major components of quality costs?

14.• Cost of conformance • Cost of non-conformance (p. 6-5)

15. Who has responsibility for quality on a task?

15. The employee performing the task(p. 6-13).

16. Under what conditions is sampling most useful?

16.a. When the population is large b. When the cost of inspection is high c. When destructive testing is required d. When you believe there are not many

defects (p. 6-15).

17. When compared to cost and schedule, what priority should quality have?

17. Quality should be of equal importance (p. 6-17).

18. What is the Rule of Seven? 18. When using control charts, if 7 consecutive observations fall above the midpoint, below the midpoint, or trend in the same direction they should be investigated as if they had a special or assignable cause. It is extremely unlikely that 7 outcomes in a row would be on the same side of the mean if the process is operating normally (p. 6-7).

19. JIT (Just in Time) attempts to reduce work-in-process inventory to ______.

19. zero stock (pp. 6-17/18).

20. What does the process Perform Quality Assurance involve?

20. Auditing quality requirements and results from QC measurements to ensure appropriate quality standards are used(p. 6-10).



21. What is the difference between prevention and inspection?

21. Prevention is keeping errors out of the process. Inspection is keeping errors out of the hands of the customer(p. 6-13).

22. What is the difference between attribute and variable sampling?

22. Attribute sampling checks whether a result conforms or not. Attributes can be objective or subjective. Variable sampling measures the result on a continuous scale (measures the degree of conformity) (p. 6-13).

23. What is the difference between special causes and random causes?

23. Special causes are unusual events that may signal a problem that needs correction. Random causes are simply normal process variations, i.e., nothing is wrong (pp. 6-6/7).

24. Which quality control tool would help you count the number of defects and determine their location?

24. Checksheets (p. 6-6)

25. Name four possible benefits of high quality.

25.• Less rework • Increased productivity • Lower costs and increased profitability • Increased stakeholder satisfaction (pp. 6-4/5)

26. What is the difference between control limits and specification limits?

26. Specification limits are the contractual tolerances agreed to by the project participants. Control limitsdescribe the capability of a particular process (pp. 6-6/7).

27. What does the term inspection mean and what are other names for the same thing?

27. Examination of a work product to determine whether it conforms to requirements. Inspection often involves measurements. Also called audits, walk-throughs, and reviews (pp. 6-15/16).



28. What is kanban? 28. A communication technique used to signal that a work station is ready for more input from the previous station in the process. Applicable when using the JIT approach (p. 6-18).

29. What is ISO 9000? 29. An international standard that describes a recommended quality system (pp. 6-1/2, 6-19).

30. What are the three major types of costs associated with conformance and nonconformance?

30. Prevention, appraisal, and failure (p. 6-5, Cost of Quality).

31. Distinguish cost of conformance from cost of nonconformance.

31.Cost of conformance is the cost of preventing defects, e.g., planning, training, product design reviews, test and evaluation, process control, calibration, and quality audits. Cost of nonconformance is the cost of correcting defects and failures, e.g., scrap, rework, repairs, handling complaints, recalls, lost business (pp. 6-4/5).

32. Three standard deviations either side of the mean of a normal distribution contains what percent of the population?

32. 99.7% (p. 6-19)

33. What are control charts? 33. A graphic display of process results taken over a period of time. They help determine if a process is under control(pp. 6-6/7).

34. What is trend analysis? 34. A quality management technique that uses mathematical techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical results. Scatter diagrams are one way to do trend analysis (pp. 6-8, 17).



35. What is the difference between grade and quality?

35. Grade is a category or rank given to entities having the same functional use but different features and functions (a high-end luxury item or a simpler, cheaper version).Quality is conformance to requirements. Low quality is always a problem but low grade may not be (i.e., customer chose a cheaper solution) (p. 6-1).

36. What tool would help stimulate thinking and generate discussion about potential causes of a problem?

36. Cause and effect diagram. Note: you MUST know the alternate names (Ishikawa Diagram and FishboneDiagram)(p. 6-5)