Quality Management in Projects
Quality Management in Projects
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However quality is not always quite so easy to define; consider the design of the computer
interface to capture customer data.
The software engineer responsible for the design might consider conformance to industry
standards to be a sign of quality.
The user might consider it more important that the design matches the interfaces that they
already use.
In this example, it is more important that the users will be able to work more efficiently than that
the design conforms to some theoretical external standard. In fact, it should always be the end
user who decides what counts as quality rather than the people doing the work. Although this can
be complicated when a project has a number of users who have different priorities.
In the example we have been using, it may be important for customer service staff who deal with
billing to see a summary of the past two years of payment history on the home screen whereas
staff who deal with complaints might prefer to see the complaint history. Focusing too much on
one group of users may compromise the others and leave them dissatisfied. This illustrates one
reason why a system to manage quality is required.
There are six possible reasons why quality standards might not be met despite everyone on the
project team doing their best to deliver the project as specified.
1. The users were not asked to specify their requirements in sufficient detail
2. Not all of the user groups were asked
3. The requirements were not understood
4. They were understood but could not be achieved
5. The quality requirements changed during the project
6. The quality requirements were exceeded
The first five points are easily understandable, but the last one needs some explanation. If quality
requirements have been exceeded then someone somewhere has done more work than has been
planned for in that part of the project.
This work needs to be paid for, in either time or money and this has not been budgeted for.
Because there is a lag when comparing actual progress against planned progress and for money
actually spent against the budget, this is not usually obvious at the time.
The result of exceeding the quality plan is that sooner or later either more money needs to found
or the scope of the project needs to be reduced. Neither of these things is acceptable.
The purpose of quality management is to make sure that the project meets the needs for which it
was created. To do this it needs to take account of the reasons above why it might not. It needs to
ensure that:
1. Users are asked to specify their requirements in sufficient detail
2. Requirements are fully documented
3. All stakeholders agree to them
4. There is a recognized process to deal with any changes
5. There is a process for monitoring and controlling quality
Modern quality management complements project management and both disciplines recognize
the importance of:
Customer Satisfaction
This involves understanding, evaluating, defining, and managing expectations so that customer
requirements are met. This requires a combination of conformance to requirements, to ensure the
project produces what it was created to produce, and fitness for use (the product or service must
satisfy real needs).
Prevention Over Inspection
One of the fundamental tenets of modern quality management states that quality is planned,
designed, and built in rather than inspected in. The cost of preventing mistakes is generally much
less than the cost of correcting them when they are found by inspection.
Continuous Improvement
The plan-do-check-act cycle is the basis for quality improvement. This is described in detail in
the Project Process Groups eBook, which can be downloaded free from this website.
Management Responsibility
Success requires the participation of all members of the project team, but remains the
responsibility of management to provide the resources needed to succeed.
==================
1. Check sheet
The check sheet is a form (document) used to collect data
in real time at the location where the data is generated.
The data it captures can be quantitative or qualitative.
When the information is quantitative, the check sheet is
sometimes called a tally sheet.
The defining characteristic of a check sheet is that data
are recorded by making marks ("checks") on it. A typical
check sheet is divided into regions, and marks made in
different regions have different significance. Data are
read by observing the location and number of marks on
the sheet.
Check sheets typically employ a heading that answers the
Five Ws:
2. Control chart
Control charts, also known as Shewhart charts
(after Walter A. Shewhart) or process-behavior
charts, in statistical process control are tools used
to determine if a manufacturing or business
process is in a state of statistical control.
If analysis of the control chart indicates that the
process is currently under control (i.e., is stable,
with variation only coming from sources common
to the process), then no corrections or changes to
process control parameters are needed or desired.
In addition, data from the process can be used to
predict the future performance of the process. If
the chart indicates that the monitored process is
not in control, analysis of the chart can help
determine the sources of variation, as this will
result in degraded process performance.[1] A
process that is stable but operating outside of
desired (specification) limits (e.g., scrap rates
may be in statistical control but above desired
limits) needs to be improved through a deliberate
effort to understand the causes of current
performance and fundamentally improve the
process.
The control chart is one of the seven basic tools of
quality control.[3] Typically control charts are
3. Pareto chart
A Pareto chart, named after Vilfredo Pareto, is 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.
The left vertical axis is the frequency of occurrence,
but it can alternatively represent cost or another
important unit of measure. The right vertical axis is
the cumulative percentage of the total number of
occurrences, total cost, or total of the particular unit of
measure. Because the reasons are in decreasing order,
the cumulative function is a concave function. To take
the example above, in order to lower the amount of
late arrivals by 78%, it is sufficient to solve the first
three issues.
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. Wilkinson (2006) devised an
algorithm for producing statistically based acceptance
limits (similar to confidence intervals) for each bar in
the Pareto chart.
5.Ishikawa diagram
Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams,
herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or
Fishikawa) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru
Ishikawa (1968) that show the causes of a specific event.
[1][2] Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product
design and quality defect prevention, to identify potential
factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for
imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually
grouped into major categories to identify these sources of
variation. The categories typically include
People: Anyone involved with the process
Methods: How the process is performed and the
specific requirements for doing it, such as policies,
procedures, rules, regulations and laws
Machines: Any equipment, computers, tools, etc.
required to accomplish the job
Materials: Raw materials, parts, pens, paper, etc.
used to produce the final product
Measurements: Data generated from the process
that are used to evaluate its quality
Environment: The conditions, such as location,
time, temperature, and culture in which the process
operates
6. Histogram method
A histogram is a graphical representation of the
distribution of data. It is an estimate of the probability
distribution of a continuous variable (quantitative
variable) and was first introduced by Karl Pearson.[1] 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 small intervals -- and then count how many
values fall into each interval. A rectangle is drawn with
height proportional to the count and width equal to the bin
size, so that rectangles abut each other. A histogram may
also be normalized displaying relative frequencies. It then
shows the proportion of cases that fall into each of several
categories, with the sum of the heights equaling 1. The
bins are usually specified as consecutive, non-overlapping
intervals of a variable. The bins (intervals) must be
adjacent, and usually equal size.[2] The rectangles of a
histogram are drawn so that they touch each other to
indicate that the original variable is continuous.[3]