1
Q
what is Project Quality Management?
A
- processes and activities that determine quality policies, objectives and responsibilities to satisfy project needs
- implements the quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous process improvement activities conducted throughout
2
Q
what are the processes in Project Quality Management?
A
- 1 plan quality
- 2 perform quality assurance
- 3 perform quality control
3
Q
does Project Quality Management apply to both the management of the project and the product of the project?
A
- yes, applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their product
- product quality measures and techniques are specific to the type of product produced by the project
4
Q
what is the consequence of failing to meet product/project quality requirements?
A
- negative consequences for any/all project stakeholders
5
Q
what is the difference between quality and grade?
A
- quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements
- grade is a category assigned to products/services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics
6
Q
what’s the difference between low quality and low grade?
A
- low quality that doesn’t meet quality requirements is always a problem; low grade may not be
- PM and the team have to manage tradeoffs involved to deliver required levels of quality and grade
7
Q
what is the difference between precision and accuracy?
A
- precision means values of repeated measurements are clustered with little scatter
- accuracy means the measured value is very close to the true value
- pm team must determine appropriate levels of both
8
Q
what is the approach to quality management used by PMBOK?
A
- compatible with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- compatable with proprietary and non-proprietary approaches (ex. TQM, six sigma, failure mode and effect analysis, voice of the customer, etc.
9
Q
what is customer satisfaction?
A
- understanding, evaluating, defining and managing expectations so that customer requirements are met
- requires a combination of conformance to requirements (ensure project produces what it was created to produce) and fitness for use (product/service satisfies real needs)
10
Q
what is prevention over inspection?
A
- a fundamental tenet of modern quality management which states that quality is planned, designed, and built in, not inspected in
- cost of preventing mistakes is lower than the cost of correcting them when found by inspection
11
Q
what are important elements of quality management?
A
- customer satisfaction
- prevention over inspection
- continuous improvement
- management responsibility
12
Q
what is continuous improvement?
A
- plan-do-check-act cycle and initiatives undertaken to improve the quality of the project’s management and the project’s product
- ex. TQM, Six Sigma, Malcolm Baldrige, Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)
13
Q
what is management responsibility?
A
- success requires participation of all members of the project team, but remains the responsibility of management to provide the resources needed to succeed
14
Q
what is Cost of quality (COQ)?
A
- total cost of all efforts related to quality throughout the product life cycle
- product quality improvement, especially defect prevention and appraisal, can reduce the external cost of quality
15
Q
what is the Plan Quality process?
A
- process of identifying quality requirements and/or standards for the project and product, and documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance
- performed in parallel with other project planning processes
16
Q
what are the inputs to the Plan Quality process?
A
- scope baseline
- stakeholder register
- cost performance baseline
- schedule baseline
- risk register
- enterprise environmental factors
- organizational process assets
17
Q
what are the tools and techniques used in Plan Quality process?
A
- cost-benefit analysis
- cost of quality
- control charts
- benchmarking
- design of experiments
- statistical sampling
- flowcharting
- proprietary quality management methodologies
- additional quality planning tools
18
Q
what are the outputs of the Plan Quality process?
A
- quality management plan
- quality metrics
- quality checklists
- process improvement plan
- project document updates
19
Q
what aspects of the scope baseline serves as an input in the Plan Quality process?
A
- scope baseline consists of scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary
- product scope description within scope statement will often contain details of technical issues and other concerns that can affect quality planning
- acceptance criteria can affect quality costs
20
Q
how does the stakeholder register serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
A
- identifies stakeholders with a particular interest in or impact on quality
21
Q
how does the cost performance baseline serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
A
- documents the accepted time phase used to measure cost performance
22
Q
how does the schedule baseline serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
A
- documents the accepted schedule performance meaures including start and finish dates
23
Q
how does the risk register serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
A
- contains info on threats and opportunities that may impact quality requirements
24
Q
how do enterprise environmental factors serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
A
factors that influence the Plan Quality process include
- governmental agency regulations
- rules, standards, and guidelines
- working/operating conditions of the project/product
25
how do organizational process assets serve as an input to the Plan Quality process?
assets that may influence process include
- organizational quality policies, procedures and guidelines
- historical databases
- lessons learned
- quality policy, which sets the intended direction of the org with regards to quality
26
how does a cost-benefit analysis help with quality?
- meeting quality requirements can result in less rework, higher productivity, lower costs and increased stakeholder satisfaction
27
what is cost of quality?
all costs incurred over the life of the product by investing in:
- preventing nonconformance to requirements
- appraising conformance to requirements
- failing to meet requirements (rework)
28
what are failure costs?
- cost of poor quality
| - categorized as internal (found by the project) and external (found by the customer)
29
what is the cost of conformance?
- money spent during the project to avoid failures
- can include prevention costs (build a quality product) like training, document processes, equipment and time to do it right
- can include appraisal costs (assess the quality) like testing, destructive testing loss and inspections
30
what is the cost of nonconformance?
- money spent during and after the project because of failures
- can include internal failure costs (failures found by the project) like rework and scrap
- can include external failure costs (failures found by the customer) like liabilities, warranty work and lost business
31
what are control charts?
- used to determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance
- "is this proces variance within acceptable limits?"
- can reveal random fluctuations, sudden jumps or gradual trends
- upper and lower specification limits are based on contract requirements and reflect max and min values allowed
32
what are upper and lower control limits of control charts and who sets them?
- set by the project manager and appropriate stakeholders to reflect the points where corrective action will be taken to prevent exceeding specification limits
- for repetitive processes, control limits are +/- 3 sigma
33
when is a process considered out of control?
- when a data point exceeds a control limit or if 7 consecutive points are above or below the mean
34
what are control charts used to monitor?
- types of outputs with repetitive activities (ex producing manufactured lots)
- cost and schedule variances
- volume
- frequency of scope changes
- other management results to determine if PM processes are in control
35
what is benchmarking?
- comparing actual or planned project practices to those of comparable projects to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement and provide a basis for measuring performance
36
what is design of experiments (DOE)?
- statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production
- used during the Plan Quality process to determine the number and types of tests and their impact on cost of quality
37
how does DOE help with the optimization of products/processes?
- used to reduce the sensitivity of product performance to sources of variations caused by environmental or manufacturing differences
- provides a statistical framework for systematically changing all of the important factors instead of changing just one factor at a time
- provides optimal conditions for the product/process, highlights the factors that influence the results, and reveals the interactions and synergies among factors
38
what is statistical sampling?
- choosing part of a population of interest for inspection
| - sample frequency and sizes should be determined during the Plan Quality process
39
what is flowcharting and how is it helpful during quality planning?
- graphical representation of a process showing the relationship among process steps
- shows activities, decision points and the order of processing
- helps the project team anticipate quality problems that might occur
40
what are some examples of quality management methodologies?
- six sigma, lean six sigma, quality function deployment, CMMI, etc.
41
what is a force field analysis?
diagrams of the forces for and against change
42
what are nominal group techniques
- ideas brainstormed in small groups then reviewed by a larger group
43
what are matrix diagrams?
- includes 2, 3 or 4 groups of information and shows relationships between factors, causes and objectives
(a table)
44
what are prioritization matrices?
- provide a way of ranking a diverse set of problems and/or issues by their importance
45
quality management plan
- describes how the project management team will implement the quality policy.
- includes quality control, quality assurance, and continuous process improvement approaches for the project
- a part of the project management plan
- style, detail, length depends on the requirements of the project
- should be reviewed early to ensure decisions are based on accurate information. this reduces cost & schedule overruns caused by rework
46
what are quality metrics?
- operational definition that describes in very specific terms, a project/product attribute and how the quality control process will measure it
- has an actual value for measurement
- has tolerance which defines the allowable variation (ex. +/- 10%)
47
what proceses use quality metrics
- used in quality assurance and quality control processes
48
what are some examples of quality metrics?
- ex. on-time performance, budget control, defect frequency, failure rate, availability, reliability, test coverage
49
what are quality checklists?
- structured tol used to verify that a set of required steps have been performed
- ensures consistency in frequently performed tasks
- used in the quality control process
50
what is the process improvement plan?
- a part of the project management plan that details steps for analyzing processes to identify activities that enhance their value
- looks at process boundaries, process configuration, process metrics and targets for improved performance
51
what are process boundaries?
- describes the purpose of processes, their start and end, their inputs/outputs, the data required, the owner, and the stakeholders
- something to consider when looking at the process improvement plan
52
what is the process configuration?
- graphic depiction of processes, with interfaces identified, used to facilitate analysis
- something to consider when looking at the process improvement plan
53
what are process metrics?
- allows analysis of process efficiency
| - something to consider when looking at the process improvement plan
54
what are targets for improved performance?
- guides the process improvement activities
| - something to consider when looking at the process improvement plan
55
what project document updates may be made after the Plan Quality process?
updates to
- stakeholder register
- responsibility assignment matrix
56
what is Perform Quality Assurance?
- process of auditing quality requirements and results from quality control measurements to ensure appropriate quality standards and operational definitions are used
- execution process that uses data created during Perform Quality Control (8.3)
57
who oversees quality assurance activities?
- a quality assurance department
- provides quality assurance to the team, management, customer/sponsor and other stakeholders not actively involved in the work of the project
58
what is continuous process improvement?
- iterative means for improving quality of all processes by reducing waste and eliminating activities that don't add value
59
what are the inputs to Perform Quality Assurance?
8. 2.1 project management plan
8. 2.2 quality metrics
8. 2.3 work performance information
8. 2.4 quality control measurements
60
what are the tools and techniques used in the Perform Quality Assurance process?
1 plan quality and perform quality control tools & techniques
2. quality audits
3. process analysis
61
what are the outputs of Perform Quality Assurance process?
1. organizational process asset updates
2. change requests
3. project management plan updates
4. project document updates
62
what parts of the project management plan contains information used to assure quality?
- quality management plan - describes how quality assurance will be performed in the project
- process improvement plan - details steps for analyzing processes to identify activities which enhance their value
63
what work performance information are inputs into the Perform Quality Assurance process?
- performance results which support the process include but are not limited to:
- technical performance measures
- project deliverables status
- schedule process
- costs incurred
64
what are quality control measurements?
- results of quality control activities used to analyze and evaluate the quality standards and processes of the performing organization
65
what are quality audits?
- a structured, independent review to determine whether project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes and procedures
66
what are the objectives of a quality audit?
- identify all the good/best practices being implemented
- identify all the gaps/shortcomings
- share good practices in similar projects in the org/industry
- proactively offer assistance to improve implementation of process to increase productivity
- highlight contributions of each audit in the lessons learned repository
67
what are the outcomes of a quality audit?
- deficiencies corrected should reduce cost of quality and increase sponsor/customer acceptance of the project's product
- can confirm the implementation of approved change requests including corrective actions, defect repairs and preventive actions
68
what is a process analysis?
- follows the steps outlined in the process improvement plan to identify needed improvements
- examines problems experienced, constraints experienced and non-value-added activities identified during process operation
- includes root cause analysis to discover underlying causes to a problem and develop preventive actions
69
what organizational process assets updates might be made after the Perform Quality Assurance process?
- updates to the quality standards
70
what change requests might be made after the Perform Quality Assurance process?
- change requests to increase effectiveness and/or efficiency of the policies, processes and procedures
- created and used as input into the Perform Integrated Change Control process
- creates corrective action, preventive action or perform defect repair
71
what project management plan updates might be made after the Perform Quality Assurance process?
- updates to the quality management plan, schedule management plan and cost management plan
72
what project document updates may be made after the Perform Quality Assurance process?
- updates to quality audits reports, training plans and process documentation
73
what is the Perform Quality Control process?
- monitoring and recording results of executing the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary changes
- performed throughout the project
- quality standards include project processes and product goals
- project results include deliverables and project management results like cost and schedule performance
74
who performs quality control?
- quality control department
75
what do quality control activities do?
- identify causes of poor process or product quality and recommend and/or take action to eliminate them
76
prevention vs inspection?
- prevention keeps errors out of the process
| - inspection keeps errors out of the hands of the customer
77
attribute sampling vs variables sampling?
- in attribute sampling, the result either conforms or does not conform
- in variables sampling the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity
78
tolerances vs control limits
- tolerances are specified ranges of acceptable results
| - control limits are thresholds which can indicate whether the process is out of control
79
what are the inputs to Perform Quality Control?
1. project management plan
2. quality metrics
3. quality checklists
4. work performance measurements
5. approved change requests
6. deliverables
7. organizational process assets
80
what are the tools & techniques of Perform Quality Control?
1. cause & effect diagrams
2. control charts
3. flowcharting
4. histogram
5. pareto chart
6. run chart
7. scatter diagram
8. statistical sampling
9. inspection
10. approved change requests review
81
what are the outputs of Perform Quality Control?
1. quality control measurements
2. validated changes
3. validated deliverables
4. organizational process assets updates
5. change requests
6. project management plan updates
7. project document updates
82
what part of the project management plan is used as an input to Perform Quality Control?
- the quality management plan is used ton control quality. describes how quality control will be performed within the project
83
what work performance measurements are used in Perform Quality Control?
metrics such as
- planned vs actual technical performance
- planned vs actual schedule performance
- planned vs actual cost performance
84
how are approved change requests used in perform Quality Control?
- they're part of the Perform Integrated Change Control process and a change control status update will indicate that some changes are approved and some are not
85
what organizational process assets can influence the Perform Quality Control process?
- quality standards and policies
- standard work guidelines
- issue and defect reporting procedures and communication policies
86
what are Ishikawa's 7 basic tools of quality?
1. cause and effect diagrams
2. control charts
3. flowcharting
4. histogram
5. pareto chart
6. run chart
7. scatter diagram
87
what are cause & effect diagrams?
- illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects by continuously asking why & how
- also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams
88
how is flowcharting used in Perform Quality Control?
- used to determine a failing process step(s) and identify potential process improvement opportunities
89
what is a histogram?
- vertical bar chart that shows how often a particular variable state occurred
- illustrates the most common cause of problems in a process by the number and relative height of the bars
90
what is a pareto chart/diagram?
- specific type of histogram ordered by frequency of occurrence
- shows how many defects were generated by type or category of identified cause and ranks them by number of defects
- should address the causes creating the greatest number of defects first
91
what is Pareto's law?
- relatively small number of causes typically produces a majority of the problems/defects
- 80/20 principle (80% of problems due to 20% of causes)
92
what is a run chart?
- similar to a control chart but with out displayed limits
- shows the history and pattern of variation, showing trends and variations over time
- trend analysis is done to monitor technical performance (# of errors/defects identified and how many remain uncorrected) and cost & schedule performance (# of activities/period completed with significant variances)
93
what is a scatter diagram?
- shows the relationship between 2 variables to study and identify possible relationship between the changes observed in 2 variables
94
what is inspection?
- examination of work to determine if it conforms to documented standards
- can be conducted at any level
- also called reviews, peer reviews, audits or walkthroughs
- can be used to validate defect repairs
95
what is Approved Change Requests Review,
- tool & technique of the Perform Quality Control process
| - approved change requests should be reviewed to verify that they were implemented as approved
96
what are quality control measurements?
- documented results of quality control activities in the format specified during quality planning?
97
what are validated changes?
- changed or repaired items are inspected and accepted/rejected before notification fo the decision is provided. rejected items may require rework
98
what are validated deliverables?
- result of the execution quality control processes
| - become an input to Verify Scope for formalized acceptance
99
what organizational process updates are done during the Perform Quality Control process?
- completed checklists (become part of the project's records)
- lessons learned documentation (causes of variances, reasoning behind corrective action, and other lessons are documented so they become part of the project & organizational history
100
what project management updates might be done after the Perform Quality Control process?
- updates to the quality management plan and the process improvement plan
101
what project documents may be updated after the Perform Quality Control process?
- quality standards
PMBOK
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