introduction
hello there
this is Maher islaieh and welcome to first article of knowledge Area ((Project Quality Management))
Project Quality Management
Quality management is the process for ensuring that all project activities necessary to design, plan and implement a project are effective and efficient with respect to the purpose of the objective and its performance.
as projects get bigger, you cannot avoid active quality management.
So, in this articles series with Project Quality Management, we will discuss three parts of project management :planning , managing and control quality
what is quality
Quality is simply what the customer or stakeholder needs from the project deliverables.
By keeping the definition tied to the customer or stakeholder,
quality management can have a narrower focus, which means it’s more likely to achieve its goals.
To be able to define quality, you need to be clear about the meaning of the following terms:
- Validation: assurance that the product meets the agreed-upon needs
- Verification: compliance with requirements
- Precision: repeatable measures in a tight grouping
- Accuracy: closeness of a measure to the true value
- Tolerance: range of acceptable results
definitions
Quality
- is degree to which project fulfill requirements
Grade
- is category assigned to deliverables having same function But different features
Precision
- is level of exactness
Accuracy
- is assessment of correctness
Quality management
- creating and following procedures to ensure the project meet defined needs (ensuring project is completed with NO deviation from requirement)
- some project manager argue they don’t have time to perform Quality management and their organizations don’t require Quality management plan (as type of luxury )
- lack of attention to Quality àmean more defect and more rework , Cost, time , communications …etc
quality management concepts
marginal status :
- the point when cost of benefit received from improving quality is equal cost of achieve that quality ,
- at this point project manager should stop improve quality because it will cost more
Process improvement VS Kaizen
- in USA and EUROPE improvement is thought as BIG improvement
- while in JAPAN Improvement “Kaizen” is though as small improvement
Sigma Degree
- sigma 1 = 68.27
- sigma 3 = 99.73
- sigma 6 = 99.9999998
gold plating
- is giving customer more than stated in scope statement to satisfy him , which is NOT allowed
Just In Time JIT :
- when company have inventory closed to zero , they should have supplier to provide material whenever it needed
cost benefit analysis :
- this techniques used to compare result to achieved by implementing quality with cost to do , so project manger could determine level of quality to be applied and NOT exceeding “marginal status “,
- this technique is used also in project selection-
cost of quality :
- determine the cost of quality COQ to be used at estimate cost process and also to make sure NOT exceeding “marginal status “,
- by looking at :cost of conformance and cost of NON conformance
Project Quality Management pillars
Project managers oversee implementing a project quality management plan. The main idea, again, to deliver a product or service to the specifications of the customer or stakeholder.
quality management relay on the following pillars
Customer Satisfaction
Without customer satisfaction there can be no quality. Even if a deliverable meets all aspects of what the customer or stakeholder has required but is done so where the process itself was not to satisfactory, then there’s a problem.
Of course, the deliverable must meet with agreed upon requirements or else the project has failed because the product of the project and the management of the project didn’t meet with the expectations of the customer or stakeholder.
Prevention Over Inspection
Quality doesn’t come free. The Cost of Quality (COQ) is the money spent dealing with issues during the project, and then after the project, to fix any failures. These are broken up into two categories: cost of conformance and cost of nonconformance.
The cost of conformance can be considered a preventive cost. These costs are primarily related to training, the documentation process, equipment needed, and the time required to get the quality done right. Other costs related to this can include testing, destructive testing loss and inspections.
The cost of nonconformance refers to internal failure costs. These consist of having to rework something or even scrap it entirely. Further costs can come from liabilities, warranty work and lost business.
Continuous Improvement
This concept of quality project management can be found in Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM) and is featured dominantly in the Prevention Over Inspection concept.
This concept is, as explained in its title, an ongoing effort to address improvements of the deliverables over time. Whether through small, incremental changes or through large ones, the opportunity to identify and address change is always present.
Applying this concept also means constantly monitoring and documenting any issues that come up, so you can then use the lessons learned when managing future projects. This way, you run a more efficient project and likely won’t repeat mistakes.
Quality Theories
Joseph juran :
- quality is “fitness for use “,
- principle 80/20
Edward Demend :
- develop 14 quality management tools
- advocate PDCA Plan Do Check Act ,
- said that 85 of quality problems caused by management and system that work , which lead to more focus on quality assurance
Philip Crosby :
- developed concept poor of quality
- concept “Zero defect “
- advocate prevention over inspection
Cost of Quality Conformance
Prevention Cost
- training
- time to do work right
- documents process
- equipment
Appraisal Cost(assessment)
- testing
- destructive testing loss
- inspection
- QA
- ensure everyone know the work needed to perform their activities
Cost of NON Quality Conformance
Internal failure Cost(by project)
- rework
- scrap
external failure Cost(by customer)
- loss of business
- warranty work
- liability (reputation)
Impact of Poor Quality
Impact of Poor Quality
- schedule delay
- increased cost
- increased risk
- decreased benefit
- low moral
- low customer satisfaction
- rework
How Project Manager get Quality Standards
How Project Manager get Quality Standards
from customer
- from contract : terms and condition
- collected requirement when defining scope
from performing organization
- OPA Organizational Process Asset
- EEF Enterprise Environmental Factors
- project manager could also create standards for project
governmental and international
- ISO 9000 International Standards Organization
- CISG : UN convention on contract for international sales for Goods
- OSHA: Occupational safety Health Administration
- degree of precession (SIGMA)
Quality Management Processes
Quality Management has 3 processes :
8.1 Plan Quality Management (Planning phase )
8.2 Manage Quality (Executing phase )
8.3 Control Quality CQ (Monitoring & Controlling phase )
Plan Quality
First identify the requirements for the quality of the deliverable and how the project needs to be managed. Agree on how this process will be documented and how that information will be delivered. Will you have regular meetings, emails, etc.?
The plan will include these specifics as well as metrics for measuring the quality while managing the project. This should include a quality checklist to collect and organize the marks you need to hit during the project.
Manage Quality
Manage Quality is “the planned and systemic activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled.”
Use manage quality to make sure your processes are in fact working towards making the project deliverables meet quality requirements. Two ways to accomplish this is by using a process checklist and a project audit.
Quality Control
Every process needs a policeman, so to speak, to make sure that the rules are being following and that the expected quality is being met. Some ways to ensure that the required quality of the deliverables is being achieved is through peer reviews and testing.
It’s essential to check the quality of the deliverables during the project management process in order to adjust the deliverables if they’re not meeting the standards that have been set. This can be done at the end of the project,
conclusion
this was briefly an overview about knowledge area ( Quality Management )
next articles we will discus each process in quality management in FULLY Details
