Session 7

Project Quality
Management
Learning Objectives

• Develop a justification for project quality

management and its importance in achieving
project success for information technology
(IT) products and services
• Define project quality management and
understand how quality relates to various
aspects of IT projects
• Describe quality management planning and
how quality and scope management are
related
• Discuss the importance of managing quality
and quality assurance
• Explain the main outputs of the quality
Learning Objectives

• List and describe the tools and techniques

for quality control, such as the Basic Tools of
Quality, statistical sampling, Six Sigma, and
testing
• Summarize the contributions of noteworthy
quality experts to modern quality
management
• Describe how leadership, the cost of quality,
organizational influences, expectations,
cultural differences, and maturity models
relate to improving quality in IT projects
• Discuss how software can assist in project
quality management
• Discuss considerations for agile/adaptive
 What Is Project Quality Management?

• International Organization for Standardization

(ISO) definition of quality
• “Totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on
its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”
(ISO8042:1994)

• “The degree to which a set of inherent

characteristics fulfils requirements” (ISO9000:2000)

• Other definitions of quality

• Conformance to requirements
• Project’s processes and products meet written specifications

• Fitness for use

What Is Project Quality Management?

• Project quality management ensures the

project will satisfy the needs for which it
was undertaken
• Project quality management processes
• Planning quality management: identifying
which quality standards are relevant to the
project and how to satisfy them; a metric is a
standard of measurement

• Managing quality: translating the quality

management plan into executable quality
activities

• Controlling quality: monitoring specific

Planning Quality Management

• Implies the ability to anticipate

situations and prepare actions to
bring about the desired outcome
• Defect prevention methods
• Selecting proper materials
• Training and indoctrinating people in
quality
• Planning a process that ensures the
appropriate outcome
 Planning Quality Management
• Scope aspects of IT projects
• Functionality: degree to which a system performs its intended
function

• Features: system’s special characteristics that appeal to users

• System outputs: screens and reports the system generates

• Performance: addresses how well a product or service performs

the customer’s intended use

• Reliability: ability of a product or service to perform as expected

under normal conditions

• Maintainability: ease of performing maintenance on a product

• All project stakeholders must work together to balance the

quality, scope, time, and cost dimensions of the project

• Project managers are ultimately responsible for quality

management on their projects
Managing Quality

• Quality assurance includes all the activities

related to satisfying the relevant quality
standards for a project
• Another goal is continuous quality improvement
• Kaizen is the Japanese word for improvement or change
for the better
• Lean involves evaluating processes to maximize
customer value while minimizing waste
• 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
Controlling Quality

•Main outputs of quality control

• Acceptance decisions
• Rework
• Process adjustments

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control

• Basic tools of quality that help in performing

quality control
• Cause-and-effect diagrams

• Control chart

• Checksheet

• Scatter diagram

• Histogram

• Pareto chart

• Flowcharts/run charts
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
Tools and Techniques for Quality Control
 Statistical Sampling

•Choosing part of a population of

interest for inspection
•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
Statistical Sampling

Desired Certainty Certainty Factor

95% 1.960

90% 1.645

80% 1.281

Table 8-1 Commonly used certainty factors

 Six Sigma
• The Six Sigma Way authors, Peter Pande,
Robert Neuman, and Roland Cavanagh, define
Six Sigma

• 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
• 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
How is Six Sigma Quality Control Unique?

• Six Sigma principles that help

organizations improve their
competitiveness and bottom-line results
• Requires an organization-wide commitment

• Training follows the “belt” system

• Organizations have the ability and willingness

to adopt contrary objectives, such as reducing
errors and getting things done faster

• An operating philosophy that is customer

focused and strives to drive out waste, raise
levels of quality, and improve financial
performance at breakthrough levels
Six Sigma and Project Selection and Management

• What makes a project a potential Six

Sigma project?
• Must be a quality problem or gap
between the current and desired
performance
• Project should not have a clearly
understood problem
• Solution should not be predetermined,
and an optimal solution should not be
apparent
Six Sigma and Statistics

•Sigma means standard deviation

• Standard deviation measures how
much variation exists in a
distribution of data; a key factor in
determining the acceptable number
of defective units found in a
population
• Six Sigma projects strive for no
more than 3.4 defects per million
opportunities
Six Sigma and Statistics

• Six Sigma uses a conversion table

• 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
• There can be several opportunities to have a defect
• Six nines of quality is a measure of quality
control equal to one fault in one million
opportunities
• In the telecommunications industry, it means
99.9999 percent service availability or 30
seconds of down time a year
Six Sigma and Statistics
Six Sigma and Statistics

Sigma and defective units

Specification Percent of Population Defective Units
Range within Range per Billion
(in ± Sigmas)
1 68.27 317,300,000

2 95.45 45,400,000

3 99.73 2,700,000

4 99.9937 63,000

5 99.999943 57

6 99.9999998 2
 Six Sigma and Statistics

Six Sigma conversion table

Sigma Yield Defects per Million

Opportunities (DPMO)
1 31.0% 690,000
2 69.2% 308,000

3 93.3% 66,800

4 99.4% 6,210
5 99.97% 230

6 99.99966% 3.4
Testing

•Many IT professionals think of

testing as a stage that comes
near the end of IT product
development
• Testing needs to be done during
almost every phase of the systems
development life cycle, not just
before the organization ships or
hands over a product to the
customer
Testing
Testing
• Types of tests
• 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
Testing
• Testing alone is not enough
• Watts S. Humphrey, a renowned expert on
software quality, defines a software defect as
anything that must be changed before delivery of
the program
• Testing does not sufficiently prevent software
defects
• 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
• Humphrey suggests that people rethink the
software development process to provide no
potential defects when you enter system
testing
Modern Quality Management

•Modern quality management:

• Requires customer satisfaction
• Prefers prevention to inspection
• Recognizes management
responsibility for quality
•Noteworthy quality experts:
• Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa,
Taguchi, and Feigenbaum
 Modern Quality Management
• Quality experts
• Deming was famous for his work in
rebuilding Japan and his 14 Points for
Management
• Juran wrote the Quality Control Handbook
and ten steps to quality improvement
• Crosby wrote Quality is Free and suggested
that organizations strive for zero defects
• Ishikawa developed the concepts of quality
circles and pioneered the use of cause-and-
effect diagrams
• Taguchi developed methods for optimizing
the process of engineering experimentation
• Feigenbaum developed the concept of total
Modern Quality Management

• ISO standards
• ISO 9000: a three-part, continuous cycle of planning,
controlling, and documenting quality in an organization
• Provide minimum requirements needed for an organization to
meet its quality certification standards
• Help ensure that projects create products or services that meet
customer needs and expectations

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Improving IT Project Quality
•Suggestions for improving quality
for IT projects
• Establish leadership that promotes
quality
• Understand the cost of quality
• Provide a good workplace to enhance
quality
• Work toward improving the
organization’s overall maturity level in
software development and project
management
Leadership
• A large percentage of quality problems
are associated with management, not
technical issues
• Top management must take responsibility for
creating, supporting, and promoting quality
programs
• Leadership provides an environment
conducive to producing quality
• When every employee insists on producing
high-quality products, then top management
has done a good job of promoting the
importance of quality
The Cost of Quality

•Cost of conformance plus the

cost of nonconformance
• Conformance means delivering
products that meet requirements
and fitness for use
• Cost of nonconformance means
taking responsibility for failures or
not meeting quality expectations
The Cost of Quality
• Cost categories related to quality
• Prevention cost: cost of planning and
executing a project so it is error-free or within
an acceptable error range
• Appraisal cost: cost of evaluating processes
and their outputs to ensure quality
• Internal failure cost: cost incurred to correct
an identified defect before the customer
receives the product
• External failure cost: cost that relates to all
errors not detected and corrected before
delivery to the customer
• Measurement and test equipment costs:
capital cost of equipment used to perform
prevention and appraisal activities
Maturity Models

•CMMI levels
• Incomplete
• Performed
• Managed
• Defined
• Quantitatively Managed
• Optimizing
Maturity Models
• PMI released the Organizational Project
Management Maturity Model (OPM3) in
December 2003
• Model is based on market research surveys
sent to more than 30,000 project management
professionals and incorporates 180 best
practices and more than 2,400 capabilities,
outcomes, and key performance indicators

• Addresses standards for excellence in project,

program, and portfolio management best
practices and explains the capabilities
necessary to achieve those best practices
 Considerations For Agile/Adaptive
Environments

• Agile methods can be used on all types of

projects, not just software development
• Several projects use a hybrid approach where
some deliverables are created using more
traditional approaches
• Quality is a very broad topic, and it is only
one of the ten project management
knowledge areas
• Project managers must focus on defining how
quality relates to their specific projects and
ensure that those projects satisfy the needs for
which they were undertaken
Chapter Summary
• Quality is a serious issue
• Project quality management includes planning
quality management, performing quality
assurance, and controlling quality
• Many tools and techniques are related to project
quality management
• Many people made significant contributions to
the development of modern quality management
• There is much room for improvement in IT
project quality
• Several types of software are available to assist
in project quality management