Project management
Topic 3
Quality
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
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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
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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