Understanding Key Quality Management Principles and PMI s Management Philosophy

Understanding Key Quality Management Principles and PMI's Management Philosophy

Although the project manager has overall responsibility for quality, the entire project team plays a role in quality management. Every member of the project team must understand the importance of her contributions, accept ownership for problems, be committed to monitoring and improving her performance, and openly discuss issues among team members.

Although specific techniques and measures apply to the product being produced, the overall project quality management approach applies to any project, and is relevant to the project as well as the product being produced.

Understand the difference between quality and grade. Quality is a measure of how well the characteristics match requirements. Grade is assigned based on the characteristics that a product or service might have. So a product might be of low grade, meaning it has limited features, but might still be acceptable. Low quality is never acceptable.

The quality planning process has a number of key inputs, including the project management plan, the scope statement, organizational policies, lessons learned from other project, government/industry standards, and even company culture. The following list highlights important key concepts in PMI's quality management:

• The cost of preventing mistakes is generally less than the cost of repairing them.

• In order to be successful, management support for the quality program must exist.

• Quality is tied closely to the scope-cost-time triangle; without quality these objectives cannot be met successfully.

• The cost of quality refers to the cost to implement a quality program.

• Understanding and managing customer expectations is important to a successful quality program.

• The quality program should emphasize continuous improvement.

• There is a close alignment between the quality approach and the overall project management approach on a project.

Memorize PMI's definition of quality: The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Quality Theories and PMI Quality Management Approach

The quality management approach presented in the PMBOK is intended to be compatible with other standards, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, and others.

Exam questions on this topic are frequently taken from sources other than the PMBOK. Table 4.8 identifies some of the more popular quality theories. Additional references can be found in the "Need to Know More?" section at the end of the chapter.

Table 4.8. Common Quality Theories

Theory Name	Pioneers	Description
Continuous Improvement or Kaizen	Masaaki Imai, F.W. Taylor, and others	Processes are improved, mastered, and then further improvement is identified. Includes quality circles as a group oriented means of developing ideas.
The Deming Cycle or Plan-Do-Check-Act	Dr. W. Edward Deming	Similar to Kaizen, an improvement is planned, completed, measured, and then further improvement acted upon.
Six Sigma	Based on statistical work by Joseph Juran	A statistical measure of quality equating to 3.4 defects per million items. If defects can be measured, a process can be put into place to eliminate them.
Total Quality Management (TQM)	Dr. W. Edward Deming	Fourteen points of management that call for awareness of quality in all processes.
Malcolm Baldrige Award	Howard Malcolm Baldrige	An award established by the U.S. Congress to promote quality awareness.
CMM (capability maturity model)	Software Engineering Institute (SEI)	Five levels of capability exist: initial, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimized.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle

PMI identifies the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, also referred to as the Deming Cycle, as both a quality tool and the underlying concept for interaction among project management processes. First, an improvement is planned. Next, the improvement is carried out and measured. The results are checked and finally acted upon. Acting upon the improvement might mean making the improvement a standard, further modification to the improvement, or abandoning the improvement. Figure 4.2 demonstrates the PDCA cycle.

Figure 4.2. The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.

Quality Approaches and Project Management

Quality approaches align with project management approaches in a number of areas, including achieving customer satisfaction, preventing defects instead of inspecting for them, management support for quality, and continuous improvement. Table 4.9 provides additional detail.

Table 4.9. Principles Common to Quality Management and Project Management

Alignment Area	Description
Customer satisfaction	Customer requirements are met through a thorough understanding and management of expectations.
Prevention over inspection	It is cheaper to prevent defects than repair ones that are identified in inspections.
Management responsibility	Management must provide the support and resources for a quality program to be successful.
Continuous improvement	Processes are improved, mastered, and then further improvement is identified. Includes quality circles as a group-oriented means of developing ideas.

The Cost of Quality

The cost of quality is a term that refers to the cost to produce a product or service that meets requirements. Part of the cost is rework when requirements aren't met. An effective quality program reduces cost from rework.

The three primary types of cost associated with the cost of quality are

• Prevention costs

• Inspection costs

• Failure costs (internal and external)

Addressing prevention and inspection can be viewed as addressing the cost of conformance. This includes training, prototyping, design reviews, and testing. Failure costs (the cost of nonconformance) includes bug fixes , rework, cost of late delivery, and customer complaints.

Differences Among Quality Planning, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control

One area of confusion, especially among project managers without a background in quality, is the difference between the three processes in quality management. Table 4.10 helps clarify these concepts.

Table 4.10. Summary of Quality Management Processes

	Quality Planning	Quality Assurance	Quality Control
Process group	Planning	Executing	Monitoring/controlling
Emphasis	Planning	Implementing	Measuring and adjusting
Key activities	Determining relevant quality standards Determining how to apply standards	Applying planned activities Ensuring continuous improvement	Monitoring results Identifying ways to eliminate unwanted results
Key outputs	Quality management plan Quality improvement plan Quality metrics Quality checklist	Requested changes Recommended corrective action	QC measurements Validated defect repair Recommended corrective and preventive actions Requested changes Recommended defect repair Validated deliverables