PROJECT QUALITY

MANAGEMENT

PROJECT QUALITY
MANAGEMENT
Conformance to requirements: a product/service meet
specificationsThe degree to which a set of inherent characteristics
fulfills requirements.
The characteristics or attributes that satisfy stated and
implied needs.
Fitness for use: a product/service can be used as it was intended
Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is
what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not
quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as
manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay
only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else
constitutes quality.

Approach/Principle

Description

Project Quality Management

Project quality management ensures that the project
will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken
Processes of project quality management include:
Quality planning: identifying which quality standards are
relevant to the project and how to satisfy them
Quality assurance: periodically evaluating overall project
performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality
standards
Quality control: monitoring specific project results to ensure
that they comply with the relevant quality standards

Project Quality Management

(Process & Outputs)

Quality Planning
Implies the ability to anticipate situations
and prepare actions to bring about the
desired outcome
Key issues :
Stress prevention over correction as the
preferred quality approach
Continuous improvement is a recurring goal
Everyone in the organization is responsible for
quality

Quality Assurance
Quality assurance includes all the activities
related to satisfying the relevant quality standards
for a project
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
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

Quality Control
Although one of the main goals of QC is to
improve quality, its main outcomes are:
Acceptance decisions- are the
products/services acceptable or should they be
rejected and rework is then necessary
Rework action taken to bring rejected items
into compliance with products specs. Can be very
expensive
Process adjustments correct or prevent
further quality problems based on quality control
measurements

With the cost-benefit analysis, project manager weighs the cost of

implementing the quality requirements against the benefit it will
deliver for the project.
While there is always some cost to implementing quality costs of
failing to implement quality are significantly higher.
Key benefit to be considered: What is the customer willing to pay
for in terms of quality?
If the product does not meet the customers expectation of quality,
will they pay for it? Stated in these terms, it may make a difference
between whether or not you stay in business, based on whether
you're meeting the customer's quality needs.
Benefits of meeting quality requirements:
Decreased Rework / Decreased Costs/ Increased Productivity/
Increased stakeholder satisfaction

The cost of quality is the expense of doing things wrong. It is

the scrap, rework, service after service, warranty, inspection,
tests, and similar activities made necessary by nonconformance problems. (Philip J. Crosby, Quality is Free)
Each year your cost of sales rise faster than your prices. That
means you have to eliminate or reduce costs to make a profit.
The best single way to do that is by defect prevention. (Philip
J. Crosby, Quality is Free)
Studies suggest that the cost of delivering defects to
customers are from 1000 to 5000 times higher than catching
them in a test.
Notice that some of the external costs of quality such as lost
reputation, lost sales, and therefore, lost customers, can lead
to the demise of the business.

Kaoru Ishikawa's seven basic quality tools. Ishikawa

stated that with the mastery of these seven tools, anyone
will be able to correct 95% of the problems they face on
any project/operation/job: These tools are:

Cause-and-effect diagram
Flowcharts
Check sheets
Histogram
Pareto chart
Control charts
Scatter diagram

USER
CANNOT
GET
INTO
THE
SYSTEM

STAFF
LEAVI
NG

Flowcharts, also defined as process maps, help to identify process flow,

logic or a method for performing a specific activity or group of
activities. Flowcharts can be used to show dependencies between
activities or simply show a series of steps from start to finish.
SIPOC (supplier, input, process, output, customer) diagram is a type of
flowchart.
From the perspective of Quality Control, flow charts can be used to
identify failing process steps and identify process improvement
opportunities

BREAD MANUFACTURING PROCESS

A histogram is a bar graph of a distribution of the obversaton

concerning an specific attribute (variable). Each bar represents an
attribute or characteristic of a problem or situation, and the height of
the bar represents its frequency. It is used to capture data number of
defects, size, weight, inputs per unit, etc.

Pareto analysis is also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 percent of
problems/opportunities are often due to 20 percent of the causes.
A Pareto chart is a histogram that can help you identify and prioritize
problem areas. It is a prioritization tool used to identify critical issues that
account for most problems.
For example: 80% of complaints come from 20% of problems
By using the Pareto chart we can identify the key improvements that will
produce the largest results for the least amount of effort.
Key factors are ordered by frequency of occurrence to help identify the key
contributors that account for most quality problems

Control Charts: a graphical display of results of a process over time.

Control charts include a defined upper and lower control limit, a
mean and a visual pattern indicating out-of-control conditions, such
as outliers (points outside upper [UCL] or lower [LCL] control limits).
Control charts allow you to determine whether a process is in control
or out of control.
Control Charts are used:
To determine if a process is stable and is exhibiting a
predictable performance
To identify upper and lower control limits (UCL/LCL)
To identify upper and lower specification limits which are
established by the customer.
The main use of control charts is to prevent defects, rather than to
detect or reject them

The rule violations indicate that a calibration device may need

adjustment

Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a population

of interest for inspection. It is needed when the population is
too large be to be completely sampled.
Identifies a particular part of the overall population for study.
For example, choosing part of a population for inspection for
the purpose of accepting or rejecting the entire lot.
Size of a sample depends on how representative you want the
sample to be.
Sampling techniques can be stratified, random and others.

Data is assessed by two measures: accuracy and precision

Accuracy is how close a set of outcome are to the desired

value.

Precision is how close a set of outcome areto each other

irrespective of the desired value.

If you are playing soccer and you always hit the left goal
post instead of scoring, then you are not accurate, but you
are precise!

aCcurate isCorrect (hitting the correct spot)

pRecise isRepeating (hitting the same spot, but maybe not

the correct spot)

The results of statistical sampling can be depicted through the

A scatter diagram helps to show if there is a relationship

between two variables. A tool to identify how changes in one
variable, affect another variable.
The closer data points are to a diagonal line, the more closely
the two variables are related
It plots on set of data in an X-axis and the other one in Y-axis.
When there is a positive correlation, an increase in X
corresponds to an increase in Y (positive direction)
When there is a negative correlation, an increase in X
corresponds to a decrease in Y, (negative direction)
When there is a neutral correlation, an increase in X leads to

For the scatter diagram to be effective or useful, the

compared elements must be causally related
insome way.

For example, comparing traffic deaths (x) to an

increase in global warming (y) may show a positive
correlation in the scatter diagram, but in reality are
completely unrelated elements.

Benchmarking compares project practices used in the past to those that are being
used in the present.
Used to identify best practices, guidelines for improvements, and a method for
measuring performance.
Benchmarks can be obtained through industry publications or commercially
available databases containing benchmark standards.
For example, in the construction industry, some firms offers a database concerning
construction cost benchmarks. This database contains activities that can be
performed at a construction site, and has these activities priced by geographic
location (depending on where the construction is being performed), as well as by
the skill of the crew (low, medium, high).