The quality management process involves planning quality, performing quality assurance, and performing quality control. The planning is done in the planning process group. Whereas the quality assurance is performed in the executing process group, the quality control is done in the monitoring and controlling process group. Quality is defined in PMP Exam Prep as, “The degree to which the project fulfills requirements.” The project manager must make sure there are requirements for the project and its many aspects. How is one supposed to know what quality is for the project if the customer does not outline it? Below is a helpful list of quality related “PMI-isms” outlined in PMP Exam Prep:
· The project manager should recommend improvements to the performing organization’s standards, policies, and processes. Such recommendations are expected and welcomed by management.
· Quality should be considered whenever there is a change to any of the project constraints.
· Quality should be checked before an activity or work package is completed.
· The project manager must spend time trying to improve quality.
· The project manager must determine metrics to be used to measure quality before the project work begins.
· The project manager must put in place a plan for continually improving processes.
· The project manager must make sure authorized approaches and processes are followed.
· Some quality activities may be done by a quality assurance or quality control department.
It is the job of the project manager to plan quality, and not inspect it. The project manager should be continuously looking for improvements to quality. A Just in Time system, or JIT, requires suppliers to deliver materials when they are needed, instead of ahead of time. This decreases inventory to almost zero. PMP Exam Prep describes Total Quality Management (TQM) as, “(TQM) encourages companies and their employees to focus on finding ways to continuously improve the quality of their products and their business practices at every level of the organization.” It is both the project manager’s and team members’ responsibility to check quality. Quality in the organization is ultimately the senior management’s responsibility. Poor quality relates to a list of things. For example, poor quality could create increased costs, low morale, and schedule delays. Increases in quality could decrease costs, boost morale, and help schedule effectiveness.
Plan Quality defines quality and identifies how it will be achieved. The stakeholder register, scope baseline, schedule baseline, cost baseline, and risk register are all items needed for the project manager to perform Plan Quality. They serve as guides in this process. I created some steps that outline the Plan Quality process below.
Step 1: Identify Standards (External and Internal)
· External Standards
· Organizational and departmental policies, standards, and procedures
· Customer Quality Standards
Step 2: Create Project-Specific Standards
· Do not violate relevant standards
Step 3: Determine Work Required to Meet Standards
· Determine specific measurements
o Each week, month, or per deliverable
Control charts are generally used for monitoring. These charts create a range and show whether the variables are within acceptable limits or not. Control limits are the performing organization’s quality standards and are represented by dashed lines. The customer’s expectations or requirements are known as specification limits. PMP Exam Prep suggests assuming specification limits are outside the upper and lower control limits on the exam. The rule of seven is a heuristic and means that there is a group of seven data points on one side of the mean. They are not random and this process may be out of control, so the project manager should look into it and figure out what is going on. Quality Management Plan, Quality Metrics, checklist, Process Improvement Plan, Project Management Plan and Project document updates are all outputs of Plan Quality.
Perform Quality Assurance ensures that the team is following the processes to produce the deliverables. Quality Audits is a tool used in Perform Quality Assurance to make sure the policies and procedures that are in place are effective and efficient, and that the project team is complying with them. The quality assurance department or project manager can perform quality audits when needed. Process analysis is another tool used in Perform Quality Assurance as it focuses on identifying improvements in processes and should be planned at certain points in the project.
Perform Quality Control looks at the deliverables produced to ensure they are correct and at the level of quality that was planned. Perform Quality Control is all about measuring. PMP Exam Prep provides a list of the terms that relate to Perform Quality Control and should be remembered.
· Mutual Exclusivity – two events cannot occur in a single trial.
· Probability – likelihood that something will occur.
· Normal Distribution – bell curve used to measure variations.
· Statistical Independence – probability of one event does not affect probability of another event occurring.
· Standard Deviation (or Sigma) – measure of a range.
· 3 or 6 Sigma – level of quality a company decided to try to achieve. PMP Exam Prep suggests remembering the following for the exam in regards to Sigma:
o Sigma is taken on both sides of the mean. Half the curve is to the right of the mean, and half is to the left.
o +/- 1 sigma = 68.27%, which is the percentage of occurrences to fall between the two control limits.
o +/- 2 sigma = 95.45%
o +/- 3 sigma = 99.73%
o +/- 6 sigma = 99.9999998%
The Perform Quality Control process uses Ishikawa’s seven basic tools of quality.
· Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone)
· Flowchart
· Histogram
· Pareto Chart
· Run chart
· Scatter diagram
· Control cart
fishbone diagram, creates a layout of defects and possible causes of the defects. A flowchart shows the flow of the process from beginning to end. This is a helpful tool because you can see how everything is working together and find the problem areas. Although I thought the chart displayed in the book was a bar chart, it is actually called a histogram. It displays data in columns or bars, just as a bar chart does. I had never heard of a Pareto Chart before reading PMP Exam Prep. A Pareto chart is a histogram, but is differentiated by its arrangement of results from most frequent to least frequent. The exam will ask about Pareto charts and so PMP Exam Prep provides three key aspects of them; they focus attention on the most critical issues, prioritize potential causes of the problems, and separate the critical few from the uncritical many. A run chart is a chart of progress that shows trends. This is a helpful tool in quality because it allows you to see if there is a pattern of variation. A scatter diagram charts two variables to see if they relate. Last but not least, control charts. I previously explained these, so please refer to my earlier explanation of a control chart.
No comments:
Post a Comment