Lecture 07-Project Quality Management

IT Project Management (ITC-311)

Ms. Sarah Farrukh

Importance of Project Quality Management
 People seem to accept systems being down occasionally or needing to reboot their PCs,
but quality is very important in many IT projects.
 Two hospital patients died after receiving fatal doses of radiation from a Therac 25
machine after a software problem caused the machine to ignore calibration data.
 In one of the biggest software errors in banking history, Chemical Bank mistakenly
deducted about $15 million from more than 100,000 customer accounts.
 The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse stated that more than 236 million data records of U.S.
residents have been exposed due to security breaches.
 Consumer Reports listed several recalls on its Website in less than 10 days, including LED
lights overheating, five different models of cars having problems.
Project Quality
 The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines quality as “the degree to
which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements” (ISO9000:2000).
 Other experts define quality based on:
 Conformance to requirements: The project’s processes and products meet written specifications.
 Fitness for use: A product can be used as it was intended. Users can use the product without any
problem.
 Project quality management includes creating and following processes and procedures to
ensure project meet’s desired quality results and to ensure the specified quality approach is
implemented in the project.
 Quality is everyone’s responsibility, but project managers are ultimately responsible for
quality management on their projects.
 Customer Satisfaction means conformance to the requirement and fitness for use.
 Grade is the classification based on technical characteristics. Low quality can be a problem
but low grade cannot be necessarily problem. Example is additional features.
 Precision is the granular level at which outcome can be measured.
 Accuracy is correctness; how close you are to the desired outcome.
Optimal Quality Level
 Better quality can be achieved by investing more cost and effort. An optimal level of quality
should be determined when the incremental cost of achieving quality becomes equal to the
revenue achieved by incorporating such improvement.
Cost of Quality
 Cost of quality includes all the cost incurred during the life cycle of the product by
investing in non-conformance to requirements plus the cost of failing to meet the
requirements (rework).
 Cost of Conformance means the cost incurred during the project to deliver the products
that meet requirements and fitness for use.
 Prevention cost: Cost to prevent errors and produce quality product. Examples: training,
documentation, cost to do it right.
 Appraisal cost: Cost to asses quality. Examples: Testing, inspections.
 Cost of nonconformance means taking responsibility for failures or not meeting quality
expectations
 Internal failure cost: Cost incurred to correct an identified defect before the customer receives
the product. Example: rework, scrap
 External failure cost: Cost that relates to all errors not detected and corrected before delivery to
the customer. Examples: Warranty, claims, loss of business.
 Measurement and test equipment costs: Capital cost of equipment used to perform
prevention and appraisal activities.
Project Quality Management Processes
Project Quality Management Processes
 Plan Quality Management: Identifying which quality standards are relevant to
the project and how to satisfy them; a metric is a standard of measurement
 Perform Quality Assurance: Periodically evaluating overall project performance
to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards
 Performing Quality Control: Monitoring specific project results to ensure that
they comply with the relevant quality standards
Plan Quality Management
 Process of identifying the quality requirements and standards for the project and its
deliverable.
 It is creating and documenting the plan which defines how the project will comply the
quality standards (can be set by government, organization or project team), and how
these will be validated and controlled.
 Implies the ability to anticipate situations and prepare actions to bring about the
desired outcome.
 Aim is to identify the standards and work needs to be done to achieve them. For
standards relevance to the project cost-benefit analysis should be done.
 Stakeholder’s input is important as they might have their views/requirements related
to certain quality parameters.
 Risk register (kind of risks inherent in project) and requirement document is an input to
this process.
 Tools and techniques used are cost-benefit analysis, Cost of Quality, bench-marking,
statistical sampling, 7 basic QC tools.
 Outputs are Quality Management Plan, Process Improvement Plan, Quality checklist and
Plan Quality Management
Plan Quality Management: Process of identifying the quality requirements and standards
for the project and its deliverable. It includes processes creation, documentation,
execution, monitoring and control the plan.
Sample QA Checklist
Perform Quality Assurance
 Quality assurance includes all the activities related to satisfying the relevant quality standards
for a project.
 Another goal of quality assurance is continuous quality improvement
 Benchmarking generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices
or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing
organization
 A quality audit is a structured review of specific quality management activities that help identify
lessons learned that could improve performance on current or future projects. It also check that
standard policies and procedures of organization are being followed or not. It also determines
efficiencies of theses policies and procedures.
 Process Analysis is used to analyze the lessons learned in earlier phases of the project and apply
them in subsequent phases
Perform Quality Assurance
Perform Quality Assurance: Process of auditing the quality requirements and the results
from quality control measurements to ensure the appropriate quality standards and
operational definitions are used.
Control Quality
 The main outputs of quality control are:
 Acceptance decisions
 Rework
 Process adjustments
 Tools and techniques used for quality control are statistical sampling, inspection
(testing), approved changes review, 7 Basic Tools of Quality that help in performing
quality control.
 Work performance data and quality of the deliverables are evaluated, project
management plan and approved change request serves as input to this process.
 The outputs are verified deliverable, work performance information, verified
changes, change requests and other documents updates.
Control Quality
Control Quality: Process of recording and monitoring the results of executing quality
activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes.
QC Tool 1-Cause-and-Effect Diagrams
 Cause-and-effect diagrams (fishbone diagrams) trace complaints about quality problems back
to the responsible production operations. They help you find the root cause of a problem
 Can also use the 5 whys technique where you repeatedly ask the question “Why” (five is a good
rule of thumb) to peel away the layers of symptoms that can lead to the root cause.
QC Tool 2-Quality Control Charts
 A control chart is a graphic display of data that illustrates the results of a process over
time
 The main use of control charts is to prevent defects, rather than to detect or reject them
 Quality control charts allow you to determine whether a process is in control or out of
control
 When a process is in control, any variations in the results of the process are created by
random events; processes that are in control do not need to be adjusted.
 When a process is out of control, variations in the results of the process are caused by non-
random events; you need to identify the causes of those non-random events and adjust the
process to correct or eliminate them.
 You can use quality control charts and the seven run rule to look for patterns in data.
 The seven run rule states that if seven data points in a row are all below the mean, above
the mean, or are all increasing or decreasing, then the process needs to be examined for
non-random problems
QC Tool 2-Quality Control Charts
QC Tool 3-Quality Check Sheet
 A check sheet is used to collect and analyze data. It is sometimes called a tally
sheet or checklist, depending on its format
 In below example, most complaints arrive via text message, and there are more
complaints on Monday and Tuesday than on other days of the week
 This information might be useful in improving the process for handling complaints
QC Tool 4-ChartsScatter Diagram
 A scatter diagram helps to show if there is a relationship between two
variables
 The closer data points are to a diagonal line, the more closely the two
variables are related
QC Tool 5-Histograms
 A histogram is a bar graph of a distribution of variables
 Each bar represents an attribute or characteristic of a problem or situation,
and the height of the bar represents its frequency
QC Tool 6-Pareto Charts
 A Pareto chart is a histogram that can help you identify and prioritize problem areas.
 Pareto analysis is also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 percent of problems are often due
to 20 percent of the causes
QC Tool 7-Flow Charts
 Flowcharts are graphic displays of the logic and flow of processes that help you to
analyze how problems occur and how processes can be improved.
 They show activities, decision points, and the order of how information is processed.
Other QC Tool-Run Charts
 In addition to flowcharts, run charts are also used for stratification, a technique that shows data from a
variety of sources to see if a pattern emerges
 A run chart displays the history and pattern of variation of a process over time.
 You can use run charts to perform trend analysis and forecast future outcomes based on historical
results
Statistical Sampling
 Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population of interest for inspection
 The size of a sample depends on how representative you want the sample to be
 Sample size formula:
Sample size = .25 X (certainty factor/acceptable error)2
 Be sure to consult with an expert when using statistical analysis
Six Sigma
 Six Sigma is “a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing
business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs,
disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing,
improving, and reinventing business processes”*
 Six Sigma projects normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC. DMAIC is
a systematic, closed-loop process for continued improvement that is scientific and fact
based
 Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process, and customer requirements
 Measure: Define measures, then collect, compile, and display data
 Analyze: Scrutinize process details to find improvement opportunities
 Improve: Generate solutions and ideas for improving the problem
 Control: Track and verify the stability of the improvements and the predictability of the solution
Six Sigma Quality Control
 It requires an organization-wide commitment.
 Training follows the “Belt” system
 Six Sigma organizations have the ability and willingness to adopt contrary objectives, such as
reducing errors and getting things done faster
 It is an operating philosophy that is customer focused and strives to drive out waste, raise
levels of quality, and improve financial performance at breakthrough levels
 All improvement takes place project by project, and in no other way
 It’s important to select projects carefully and apply higher quality where it makes sense;
companies that use Six Sigma do not always boost their stock values
 Six Sigma projects must focus on a quality problem or gap between the current and desired
performance and not have a clearly understood problem or a predetermined solution
Six Sigma Project Management use Project Management
 The training for Six Sigma includes many project management concepts, tools, and techniques. For
example, Six Sigma projects often use business cases, project charters, schedules, budgets, and so
on.
 Six Sigma projects are done in teams; the project manager is often called the team leader, and the
sponsor is called the champion
 The term sigma means standard deviation. Standard deviation measures how much variation
exists in a distribution of data
 Standard deviation is a key factor in determining the acceptable number of defective units found
in a population
 Using a normal curve, if a process is at six sigma, there would be no more than two defective units
per billion produced
 Six Sigma uses a scoring system that accounts for time, an important factor in determining process
variations
 Yield represents the number of units handled correctly through the process steps
 A defect is any instance where the product or service fails to meet customer requirements
Normal Distribution & Standard Deviation
Normal Distribution & Standard Deviation
Testing
Testing should be done during almost every phase of the IT product development life cycle
Types of testing
 Unit testing tests each individual component (often a program) to ensure it is as
defect-free as possible
 Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test functionally
grouped components
 System testing tests the entire system as one entity
 User acceptance testing is an independent test performed by end users prior to
accepting the delivered system
 Software defect as anything that must be changed before delivery of the program
 Testing does not sufficiently prevent software defects because:
 The number of ways to test a complex system is huge
 Users will continue to invent new ways to use a system that its developers never
considered
ISO Standards
 ISO 9000 is a quality system standard that:
 Is a three-part, continuous cycle of planning, controlling, and documenting quality in an organization
 Provides minimum requirements needed for an organization to meet its quality certification standards
 Helps organizations around the world reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction
Improving IT Project Quality
 Several suggestions for improving quality for IT projects include:
 Establish leadership that promotes quality
 Understand the cost of quality
 Focus on organizational influences and workplace factors that affect quality
 Follow maturity models
Maturity Models
 Maturity models are frameworks for helping organizations improve their processes and systems
 The Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration is a process improvement
approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes
 CMMI levels, from lowest to highest, are:
 Incomplete
 Performed
 Managed
 Defined
 Quantitatively Managed
 Optimizing
 Companies may not get to bid on government projects unless they have a CMMI
Level 3
Maturity Models
 Maturity models are frameworks for helping organizations improve their processes and systems
 The Software Quality Function Deployment Model focuses on defining user requirements and planning software
projects
 The Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration is a process improvement approach that
provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes

 CMMI levels, from lowest to highest, are:

 Incomplete
 Performed
 Managed
 Defined
 Quantitatively Managed
 Optimizing
 Companies may not get to bid on government projects unless they have a CMMI
Level 3
PMI’s Maturity Models
 PMI released the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)
 Addresses standards for excellence in project, program, and portfolio management
best practices and explains the capabilities necessary to achieve those best
practices.
 OPM3 provides the following example to illustrate a best practice, capability,
outcome, and key performance indicator:
 Best practice: Establish internal project management communities
 Capability: Facilitate project management activities
 Outcome: Local initiatives, meaning the organization develops pockets of consensus around areas of special interest
 Key performance indicator: Community addresses local issues
Using Software to Assist in Project Quality Management
 Spreadsheet and charting software helps create Pareto diagrams, fishbone diagrams,
and so on
 Statistical software packages help perform statistical analysis
 Specialized software products help manage Six Sigma projects or create quality
control charts
 Project management software helps create Gantt charts and other tools to help plan
and track work related to quality management
Thank You