Quality Management 8.1 Plan quality

Quick Link for Quality Management

Quality Management 8.1 Plan quality

Quality Management 8.2 perform quality assurance

Quality Management 8.3 Perform Quality Control

Quality planning involves identifying quality requirements and statements and for the project and the product and documenting how to demonstrate compliance. Anamulhuq.blogspot.com emphasizes that quality should be planned in, not inspected in. although inspection is definitely part of quality management, increased inspected is generally not considered the best path to improve quality. Quality planning should be performed in parallel with other planning efforts such as cost, schedule, procurement and risk. Project planners must always remember that change that changes is quality may especially affect cost, schedule and risk.

Plan Quality
Inputs	Tools	Outputs
1.       Scope baseline 2.       Stakeholder register 3.       Cost performance baseline 4.       Schedule baseline 5.       Risk register 6.       Enterprise environmental factors 7.       Organizational process assets	1.       Cost-benefit analysis 2.       Cost of quality 3.       Control charts 4.       Benchmarking 5.       Design of experiments 6.       Statistical sampling 7.       Flowcharting 8.       Proprietary quality management methodologies 9.       Additional quality planning tools	1.       Quality management plan 2.       Quality metrics 3.       Quality checklists 4.       Process improvement plan 5.       Project document updates

Seven Key inputs for Plan Quality:

1.       Scope Baseline: The scope baseline is comprised of the following three documents:

·         Scope statement: Contains project description, major deliverables, and acceptance criteria. Acceptance criteria provide a method for assessing whether quality requirements have been met and may also have an effect on overall project costs.

·         WBS: Identifies the deliverables, work packages, and control accounts used to measure performance.

·         WBS dictionary: Defines technical information for completing each activity

2.       Stakeholder Register: As described earlier, the register identifies stakeholders with an interest in the project. In this case, the focus would be on those with an interest in or impact on quality.

3.       Cost Performance Baseline: Identifies the cost and timing requirements for the work (Section 7.2.3.1).

4.       Schedule Baseline: Documents the approved start and finish dates for each task (Section 6.5.3.2).

5.       Risk Register: May contain information on threats and opportunities that may affect quality (Section 11 .2.3.1).

6.       Enterprise Environmental Factors: Factors such as government or industry regulations, rules, standards, and guidelines must be considered. For the exam, you should know the difference between a standard and a regulation. A standard is an optional guide that suggests preferred practices. A regulation is mandatory and requires compliance (building codes on a construction project).

·         Governmental regulations (compliance is mandatory)

·         Organizational or industry rules, standards, and guidelines (which are usually optional guides or best practices)

·         working/operating conditions for the project/product

7.       Organizational Process Assets: Organizational Process Assets that might influence the Plan equality process include:

·         Organizational quality policies, procedures, and guidelines

·         Historical databases

·         Lessons learned from previous projects

·         Quality policy, which is defined as the overall intentions and direction of an organization with regard to quality, as formally expressed by top management. Regardless of where the policy originated (“as is”, from the performing organization or custom development), the project team is responsible for informing project stakeholders of appropriate quality policies.

Nine Key Tools for plan equality:

1.       Cost-Benefit Analysis: For quality planning purposes, benefit/cost trade-offs refer to the cost of engaging in quality management activities against the resulting benefits to the project, The potential benefits of meeting quality requirements include:

·         Less rework

·         Higher productivity

·         Lower costs

·         Increased stakeholder satisfaction

2.       Cost of Quality (COQ): The total cost of efforts to achieve quality, which includes the costs of conformance (preventing defects and assessing quality) and non-conformance (fixing defects). Three specific categories of costs are prevention, appraisal, and failure. Preventing defects is believed to reduce overall costs and is preferred over costs of non-conformance.

Prevention (Build a Quality Product) "Conformance"	Appraisal (Assess Quality) "Conformance"	Failure "Nonconformance”
·        Planning ·        Training ·        Equipment(calibration and maintenance) ·        Audits	·        Audits ·        Test and evaluation ·        Process control ·        Inspection	Internal (found by project) ·         Scrap ·         Rework External (found by customer) ·         Liabilities(recalls) ·         Warranty work ·         Lost business

 

             3.     Control Charts: Control charts are used to determine whether a process is stable (under control) and is therefore producing predictable results. The charts track three major types of data:

a.       Specification limits are requirements in the contract,

b.      Control limits define points at which corrective action is considered and 

c.       There is a planned goal (the perfect outcome). See course slides #130 through #133 for examples of control charts.

 

Key points about control charts (read the following details as part of your self-study):

·         A process need not be adjusted if it is under control. However, it can be changed to provide basic improvements at any time.

·         Upper and lower control limits (UCL/LCL) must not be confused with specification limits (USL/LSL). Control limits describe the natural variation of a process; observations (process results) that fall within the limits usually indicate normal, expected variations. Points outside the limits mean that something has occurred that needs investigation and perhaps correction. Points outside the limits are referred to as special events or assignable causes. Typical causes of such results are:

o   Equipment problems (tolerances not adjusted properly, worn out, and so on)

o   Materials problems (wrong quality/grade, defective, and so on)

o   Employee problems(understaffed, poor training and soon)

This site guide states that control limits are usually set at plus or minus three sigma from the mean.

·         Specification limits are the tolerances agreed to in the contract. Whereas specification limits represent the contractual obligation, control limits represent the natural capability of your current process.

·         Rule of seven: when interpreting control charts, this rule of thumb (heuristic) states that if Seven or more observations in a row fall on the same side of the mean (or if they trend constantly in the same direction- increasing or decreasing), they should be investigated as if they have an assignable cause. This is true even if the observations are within the control limits. The reason for this rule is that it is extremely unlikely that seven observations in a row would fit the pattern described if the process is operating normally (by "extremely unlikely" we mean less than a 1 percent chance, capitulated as .50 raised to the 7tn power, or .0078).

·         Effect of standard deviation: Recall the concept of six sigma that was mentioned in the time management section.

Six sigma rule: You should know that numerous "modem" companies have adopted six sigma as the standard for measuring quality in the United States. The more traditional approach was three sigma. The difference is that six sigma captures about 99.9997% of outcomes whereas three sigma only captures about 99.7%. That means that defects would occur only about 3.4 times in a million under six sigma but they would occur three times in a thousand under three sigma- in other would, six sigma is a much more stringent requirement.

Effect of sample size on control limits: standard deviation is one of the factors that affects whether the upper and lower control limits are wide or narrow in comparison to the mean in a control chart. For the exam, be aware that larger sample sizes will tend to result in smaller standard deviations, which in turn mean more narrow control limits. The converse is also true, i.e., smaller sample sizes tend toward larger standard deviations and wider control limits.

 

4.       Benchmarking: comparing planned or actual project practices to those of other projects to

a.       generate ideas for improvement and

b.      Provide a standard to measure Performance against.

5.       Design of Experiments (DOE): A statistical technique that helps determine how different variables influence project outcomes. Experiments are essentially "observations conducted under controlled circumstances". For instance, experiments during development of an automobile may control various combinations of tires and suspension and reveal which produces the best ride for the target customers.

This site suggests that DOE is especially useful for determining how much testing is needed and for optimizing the performance of processes and/or products.

6.       Statistical sampling: choosing part of a population for inspection. For example, one might examine 150 of the 1,000 welds on a bridge construction project to determine whether the welds conform to requirements, Sampling is done to reduce the cost of quality. A sampling plan is often developed during quality planning so that the total cost of quality is known.

7.       Flowcharting: Diagrams used to help analyze how problems occur; most flowcharts show activities, decision points, and the sequence in which process steps occur. These diagrams help improve processes and help anticipate where problems might occur.

8.       Proprietary Quality Management Methodologies: includes approaches such as six sigma, quality Function Deployment, CMMl (capability Maturity Model integrated).

9.       Additional Quality Planning Tools: There are other techniques that can assist in defining quality requirements, including:

·         Brainstorming

·         Affinity diagrams

·         Force field analysis

·         Nominal group technique

·         Matrix diagrams

·         Prioritization matrices

Five Key Outputs for Plan Quality:

1.       Quality Management Plan: Describes how the project team will implement its quality policy. The quality plan is an input to the overall project management plan and should describe the approaches for quality assurance, continuous process improvement, and quality control. The plan should focus on efforts early in the project that will reduce future cost and schedule problems caused by rework.

2.       Quality Metrics: Also known as operational definitions, metrics describe how something will be measured. Quality metrics might include failure rates and reliability. A related project performance metric might measure whether an activity is on time (A decision would have to be made as to whether on time means starting on time, finishing on time, or both).

3.       Quality Checklists: A structured tool to verify that all steps in a process have been performed. Checklists are often used in the quality management process, especially in a complex or for tasks performed frequently.

4.       Process improvement Plan: A plan that details the steps for improving existing processes. May include activities such as:

·         Process boundaries: Describes the start, purpose, and end of each process. The following processes are normally part of quality management: audits, metrics, benchmarking, experiments, quality planning, and status reports.

·         Process configuration: A flowchart that shows all steps and interfaces in a Process.

·         Targets for improved Performance: Self-explanatory.

·         Process metrics: Measuring performance and improvements.

5.       Project Document Updates: Documents that may be updated as a result of quality planning include:

·         Stakeholder register

·         Responsibility assignment matrix (Section 9.1.2.1)