Project management

Topic 3Quality

Quality management

• Quality is the process of identifying the characteristics of the product that satisfies the stated needs of the customer

• Quality management is the process of ensuring that the quality expected by the customer is achieved

Quality management• Quality system

– The structure, procedures and processes to implement quality management. Agreement is made to use the customer or supplier quality systems or a mixture of both

• Quality assurance– Creates and maintains the quality system– Monitors the quality system to ensure quality requirements are met– Should be independent of the Project Team and Project Manager

• Quality planning– Determines the objectives and the requirements for quality– Project Quality Plan states the customers quality expectations– Each stage plan details the quality activities to be done– Product Descriptions contain the quality checking criteria

• Quality control– Examines the products in a Quality Review to make sure they meet

the quality criteria

Customers quality expectations

• Both customer and supplier understand and agree on the quality required

• All products do not have the same quality expectations. Is the product designed to ‘last a lifetime’ or is it ‘use once, throw away’?

• Consider the balance between quality, cost and time (implementation dates)

• Expectations include: (find metrics)– Functional requirements, performance, accuracy,

practicability, security, compatibility, reliability, maintainability, expandability, flexibility, clarity

Standards

• ISO (International Standards Organisation) issues an international range of standards including those for Quality Management Systems

• ISO has a standard ISO 8402 for quality management system requirements in the design/development, production, installation and servicing of a product, including project management

• ISO standard may be used to create the QMS, the customer may require the supplier to hold ISO accreditation, the ISO standard may be incorporated in the quality policy of the business

Definitions• Quality Management System

– The QMS is a set of standards covering all the normal work done by the business

– Each standard specifies the techniques, tools, required expertise and steps to be used in the creation of a specific type of product. If the product is a document, the standard will also cover its format or appearance

• Quality Organisation Structure– Shows who is responsible for setting quality policy and

standards and monitors the use of the standards• Quality Policy

– States the business attitude towards quality on anything it makes and uses. The quality policy should direct and influence the supplier’s attitude about reviewing quality

Definitions• Quality Assurance

– Responsibility for setting and monitoring quality standards for the site. A representative from this group may join the Project Board in the project assurance role

• Project Assurance– Identifies products being developed that require quality

assurance– Verifies that quality checking arrangements for these

products are satisfactory• Verifies the method of inspection• Verifies control points in the products’ development, a control

point identifies when an inspection will be held• Advises on suitable people to be involved in the inspection

Project Quality Plan• Specifies how the project will meet the customer’s

quality expectations• Identifies the techniques and standards to be used

– May reference a QMS with the business standards• Identifies quality responsibilities for the project

– Project assurance responsibilities – Project Manager responsibilities – Configuration Librarian responsibilities– Project Board members assurance responsibilities

• Quality Plan is part of the PID

Stage Quality Plan

• Identifies the methods and resources to be used to check the quality of each product

• Specifies when the quality review will take place and how long it will take– Quality checking may be done as the product is

designed and developed– Quality checking may be done after development as

acceptance criteria testing• Project Assurance selects the chairperson and

reviewers

Product Descriptions

• Each product has a Product Description which includes:– Quality criteria of the product– Method for checking the criteria

• Involve the customer’s staff, the people who will use the product in defining descriptions and quality criteria

Quality Control

• Quality review is a structured review of a product. Selected reviewers check the product for errors against the quality criteria. Errors are corrected and checked and the product achieves sign off

• At sign off, configuration management freezes or baselines the product, updates the status to completed and notifies the Project Manager

Quality Log

• Records all the quality checking done for products in the project

• Quality checking activities are logged as they are planned in the next stage plan

• The quality log is updated with results when checks are done

• Quality log provides an audit trail of the quality checking done in the project

Project Issues

• A quality check may find an error that requires a lot of time and resources to fix

• If this error is beyond the tolerance of the stage it is escalated to the Project Board in an Exception Report– The Project Board may decide to correct the error.

An exception plan is created and correction activities are planned

– The Project Board may decide, because of time constraints, to approve a product that contains an error – record kept of rationale for decision

Fundamentals

• Project quality planning covers:– How each product will be tested against its quality

criteria• Objectively with metrics• Subjectively with opinion and judgment

– When each product will be checked against its quality criteria

– Who will check each product against its quality criteria

– How acceptance will be notified