j

Quality Management:

ISO 9000 is an international standard that helps organizations follow their own quality procedures. It is not a quality system,
but a method of following procedures created internally in an organization. And for the curious, ISO means “uniform” in Greek
and it’s from the International.

Quality is all about fulfilling requirements. Grade, according to the PMBOK Guide, “is a category or rank given to entities having
the same functional use but different technical characteristics.” For example, there are different grades of paint, different grades of
metal, and even different grades of travel.

Know that low quality is always a problem, but low grade may not be. Depending on the requirements of the customer, low
grade may be completely acceptable, but low quality never is.

Quality Project Management

Plan-do-check-act Dr. W. Edwards Deming, arguably the world’s leader in quality management theory thanks to his management
methods implemented in Japan after World War II, set the bar with his “plan-do-check-act” approach to quality management. This
approach is similar to the project management processes that every project passes through.

Kaizen technology Kaizen is a quality management philosophy of applying continuous small improvements to reduce costs and to
ensure consistency of project performance.

Quality control inspections Inspect the work and correct the defects before the customer finds the defects. This approach can still
be expensive and time-consuming, as rework must be done to correct the defects before the customer sees the work results.

Quality assurance programs Aim to perfect the processes, not just the errors that are a result of a poor work process.

Quality in Agile Environments

In agile and adaptive environments, quality reviews are built into the process, rather than waiting until the end of the project or
iteration to check for quality. At the end of each iteration, the project manager and the project team attend a special meeting, called a
retrospective, to look back on what’s worked (or didn’t work) in the last iteration. This enables the project manager and team to
make changes to processes and make adjustments to improve upon the project processes and the execution of the work to create the
user stories.

Preparing for Quality

As part of planning, the project manager must be wary of gold plating. Gold plating happens when the project manager sees
that money remains in the budget, so she adds features and extras to the project scope to consume the entire budget. The
customer does not need or want more than what was requested. Gold plating can be considered unethical.

So, what is quality in project management? Quality is the accurate completion of the project scope and the satisfaction of the
stated and implied project needs. In your quest for your PMP certification, do you have quality? What is the scope of your
certification goal and how will you reach it? Focus on quality as you’re studying, in your preparation, and in your mental
mindset, and you’ll find quality in the execution of your PMP test-taking.

Applying Benchmarking Practices

If used improperly, benchmarking can create some false goals and internal competition. If the projects that are being compared
are active, truth in reporting is mandatory; otherwise, the results of the benchmarking will be skewed. Just imagine what could
happen if you compared your cost variances to another project that was hiding cost variances. By comparison, your project
would seem to be performing worse, although that might not actually be the case. Ideally, benchmarking compares similar,
completed projects early in the quality planning, rather than late in the process.

Using a Benefit/Cost Analysis

Benefit Completing quality work increases productivity because shoddy work does not have to be redone. When work is completed
correctly the first time as expected, the project does not have to spend additional funds to redo the work.

Costs Completing quality work may cost more than the work is worth. To deliver a level of quality beyond what is demanded costs
the project additional funds. The types of quality management activities that guarantee quality may not be needed for every project.

Cost of Quality
Prevention costs Defines the costs of preventing poor quality in the project. This approach is the cost of completing the project
work to satisfy the project scope and the expected level of quality. Examples of this cost include training, safety measures, and
acquiring the right tools and equipment to do the project work.

Appraisal costs The cost of measuring, testing, auditing, and evaluating the project’s product to confirm that quality has been
achieved in the work results.

Failure costs This approach is the cost of completing the project work without quality. The biggest issue here is the money lost by
having to redo the project work; it’s always more cost-effective to do the work right the first time. Internal failure costs are the
rework and scrap caused by poor quality. External failure costs include loss of sales, loss of customers, downtime, and damage to
the organization’s reputation.

You might use some additional quality management planning tools, such as the affinity diagram, brainstorming, nominal group
techniques, or—here’s a new one—force-field analysis. It sounds like something out of Star Wars, but it’s a diagram that
captures the forces that are for or against a change. The forces could be people, policies, or other constraints in the
organization. When you think about “may the force be with you,” it could mean you want the people, policies, and other
factors on your side as you move toward project execution.

Representing Data in Quality Management Planning

Flowcharts Also called process maps, they show the flow of process, possibilities for branching, loops, and possible outcomes for a
process. (I’ll cover flowcharting in more detail later in this chapter.)
■■Logical data model Visualizes the data and helps to uncover where quality issues may be lurking.
■■Matrix diagrams Compares and contrasts objectives, metrics, and other factors that may affect quality in the project.
■■Mind mapping Helps to visualize thoughts and information.

Creating the Quality Management Plan

Quality control Work results are monitored to see if they meet relevant quality standards. If the results do not meet the quality
standards, the project manager applies root-cause analysis to determine the cause of the poor performance and then eliminates the
cause. Quality control is inspection-oriented.
Quality assurance The overall performance is evaluated to ensure that the project meets the relevant quality standards. Quality
assurance maps to an organization’s quality policy and is typically a managerial process. Quality assurance is generally considered
the work of applying the quality plan.
■■Quality improvement The project performance is measured and evaluated, and corrective actions are applied to improve the
product and the project. The improvements can be large or small, depending on the condition and the quality philosophy of the
performing organization.

Identifying the Quality Metrics

Quality metrics are clear, concise measurements.

Managing Quality

Preparing to Manage Quality

Completing a Quality Audit

Quality audits are about learning. A quality audit identifies compliance with organizational policies, processes, and procedures to
make things better for this project and other projects within the organization.
Quality audits can be scheduled at key intervals within a project, or—surprise!—they can occur without warning. The audit process
can vary, depending on who is completing the audit: internal auditors or hired, third-party experts. The goal of a quality audit is to
ensure that the project is adhering to the requirements of managing quality,

Implementing Control Quality

Quality control (QC) requires the project manager, or another qualified party, to monitor and measure project results to determine
whether the results are up to the demands of the quality standards.

Data Representation Tools

Cause-and-effect diagrams These diagrams show the relationships between the variables within a process and how those
relationships may contribute to inadequate quality. They can help organize both the process and team opinions, as well as generate
discussion on finding a solution to ensure quality.

A cause-and-effect diagram is also called an Ishikawa diagram, why-why chart, and a fishbone diagram—these terms refer to
the same thing.

System or process flowcharts

Creating a Control Chart

Ever feel like your project is out of control? A control chart can prove it.
Creating Pareto Diagrams
A Pareto diagram is somewhat related to Pareto’s Law: 80 percent of the problems come from 20 percent of the issues. This is also
known as the 80/20 rule. A Pareto diagram illustrates the problems by assigned cause from smallest to largest

Creating a Histogram

A histogram is a bar chart showing the frequency of variables within a project. For example, a histogram could show which states
have the most customers for a retailer. Within project management, a common histogram is a resource histogram, which shows the
frequency of resources used on project work. It’s nothing more than a bar chart.

Creating a Run Chart

A run chart, as Figure 8-5 shows, is a line graph that shows the results of inspections in the order in which they’ve occurred. The
goals of a run chart are first to demonstrate the results of a process over time and then to use trend analysis to predict when certain
trends may reemerge. It is similar to a control chart, but it tracks the outcomes of measurements against when the outcome happened
and the time between the measurements. This gives insight into the measurements that differs from what the control chart offers.
Based on this information, an organization can work to prevent the negative trend or work to capitalize on an identified opportunity.
Creating a Scatter Diagram

A scatter diagram is like a run chart, but it instead tracks the relationship between two variables. The two variables are considered
related the closer they track against a diagonal line. For example, a project manager could track the performance of two team
members, the time and cost, or even changes between functional managers and the project’s schedule.

The seven basic quality management tools are scatter diagrams, control charts, histograms, Pareto diagrams, checksheets,
flowcharts, and cause-and-effect diagrams.

Completing a Statistical Sampling

For the PMP exam, know that statistical sampling uses a percentage of the results to test for quality. This process can reduce quality
control cost.
Quality, in project management, has many different meanings. For the PMP exam, you should know the
following four key facts:
Customer satisfaction is the conformance of the requirements and fitness for use.
Quality is distinct from grade.
Quality is obtained by the project team doing what was promised at the start of the project.
Quality is concerned with prevention over inspection.

The quality management plan spans all areas of project quality—not just the product the project is creating—
and considers quality after the project is complete. The experience of the project as led by the project manager
should be of quality as well. There is a direct relationship between the project deliverables and the quality of
project management.
Another area of quality is scheduling. A project manager must examine resources and how they are allocated,
and pay attention to the cost of quality for the assigned resources. One scheduling technique, just-in-time (JIT)
scheduling, demands higher quality. JIT scheduling means, for example, that you do not order inventory, such
as supplies and materials, until it is needed. This improves cash flow and reduces the cost of inventory not in
use. However, a lack of quality in the project may cause defects. Because of the defects, the material in use is
thus wasted and downtime occurs. This downtime results because no additional materials are on hand and the
project is waiting for new materials to arrive.
Finally, spend some time learning the values for the four sigmas shown in Table 8-1. You’ll need to know them.

******************************************************************************************