Part 27: Knowledge Areas: Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management

Includes procedures to apply the quality management system used by our organization
Supports process improvement activities
Quality measures are specific to the type of deliverables being produced
Quality vs Grade
- QUALITY
  - Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements
  - The Quality Levels of the product must always meet requirements
- GRADE
  - Design intent for deliverables having the same functional use, but different technical characteristics
  - A product with lower Grade Levels may be acceptable
- A product can be high quality and low grade, or low quality and high grade
- For example, a high-quality TV is one that works all the time. It powers on, it does not overheat, and all its functions work as advertised. A low-quality TV has a screen that flickers and frequently shuts off when you are trying to watch a movie. A high-quality TV is acceptable; a low-quality TV is not.
- A high-grade TV is one with a 4K or 8K display, surround sound, and access to the internet. A low-grade TV has a lower screen resolution, stereo sound, and no internet access. If both the high-grade TV and the low-grade TV are of high quality, they will both function correctly. If they are of low quality, neither will not function correctly.
- A low-grade TV is targeted to a different set of consumers than a high-grade TV. If the quality is high, all the consumers will be happy.
- Control quality through
  - Prevention
    - Prevent errors from being made during manufacturing
    - Prevention is the most preferred method of controlling quality
  - Inspection
    - Identify products with errors and prevent them from reaching the customer
- Attribute vs Variable Sampling
  - Attribute Sampling
    - Check if the product conforms with requirements (Pass or Fail)
  - Variable Sampling
    - Rate the product on a scale, which measures degree of conformity
- Tolerances vs Control Limits
  - Tolerances
    - Range of acceptable results
  - Control Limits
    - Boundary of variation in a stable process
Precision vs Accuracy
- PRECISION
  - Measure of Exactness
- ACCURACY
  - Measure of Correctness (how close it is to the true value)
- A measurement can be Accurate, Precise, both Accurate & Precise, or neither Accurate nor Precise
- For example, if we need lumber cut to 12 ft lengths, we don’t have to be exactly 12.000000 ft. We might have a tolerance (more on this later), of 1” or 2”.
- If our cuts are very precise, we might have our lumber cut to 12.01 ft, or 11.99 ft. If our cuts are less precise, we might cut our lumber to 12.2 ft or 11.8 ft.
- These values are also accurate, because they are close to the 12 ft length that we require.
- It is usually more expensive to be more precise (due to specialized tools and equipment or additional labor). We should not waste money being more precise than required.
- We can also be precise and inaccurate. We can cut our lumber to 15.001 ft, which is very precise. We are cutting the lumber to within 0.001 ft. But our measurement is not accurate, because we are off by 3 ft from the 12 ft requirement. A piece of lumber that is 3 ft too long is useless. We would have to cut it again.
Quality Management is compatible with International Organizations for Standardization (ISO) Quality Standards
How to manage quality, there are five ways
- Let the customer find the problem
  - This is the most expensive way
  - Customers will file warranty claims and your reputation will be ruined
- Catch the problem after the product is manufactured, but before it reaches the customer
- Use quality assurance to fix the manufacturing process
- Plan quality into the design of the product and its manufacturing process
- Create a “quality culture” in the organization and make sure that members are committed to quality
  - This is the cheapest way

The Cost of Quality
- How much does quality cost us over the life of the product?
  - We must invest in procedures to make sure that our products meet quality requirements
  - We also pay for Quality assurance inspections
- Versus how much does poor quality cost us?
  - Failure to meet quality requirements and having to rework
  - Loss of our reputation
  - This is called Cost of Poor Quality
- Remember that projects are temporary
  - The project produces a product or service
  - The customers discover the quality (or lack of quality) later
  - The project is long complete by then
  - The Cost of Poor Quality is usually borne by the organization, and not the project
  - Creating a high-quality product costs the project (and therefore the organization) more money in the short term, but the benefits are borne by the organization in the long term
  - Therefore, organization’s management, PMO, operations, and portfolio managers need to be involved in the project and need to consider quality in the long term
In Quality Management, the areas that are important include
- Customer Satisfaction
  - Understand, define, evaluate, and manage requirements so that customer expectations are met
  - Conformance to Requirements
    - A project should produce what it was created to produce
    - This is known as Crosby’s definition of quality
  - Fitness for use
    - Product satisfies the real needs of the users
    - This is known as Juran’s definition of quality
    - Sometimes the written requirements are wrong due to miscommunication
    - Sometimes it is difficult to put the real requirements into words
- Prevention Over Inspection
  - It’s always cheaper to prevent mistakes than to correct them later
  - Quality should be built into project management
- Mutually Beneficial Partnership with Suppliers
  - An organization should build long-term relationships with its suppliers
  - The organization and suppliers should work together to develop products that meet the needs of the customers
- Continuous Improvement
  - Always try to improve the process
  - (invented by Shewhart and Deming)
  - Organization can focus on continuous process improvement