After reading this chapter, you will be able to: Understand the importance of project quality management for information technology (IT) products and services, define project quality management and understand how quality relates to various aspects of IT projects, describe quality management planning and how quality and scope management are related,...
Chapter 7: Project Quality Management adopted from PMI’s PMBOK 2000 and Textbook : Information Technology Project Management (author : Dr. Kathy Schwalbe) Contents • Importance of Project Quality Management • Project Quality Management Processes – Quality planning, Quality assurance, Quality control • Quality Model: Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA), CMM and ISO 9000 • Software test • Methods to improve IT Project Quality – leadership – cost of quality – organizational and workplace factors – maturity models Quality of Information Technology Projects • Many people joke about the poor quality of IT products (MS window’s joke!!) • People seem to accept systems being down occasionally or needing to reboot their PCs • But quality is very important in many IT projects • Software quality is the key development in modern IT industry. MicroSoft has spend 25% of the R&D in software reliability Chapter 7 What Is Project Quality Management? • The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines quality as the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs • Other experts define quality based on – conformance to requirements: meeting written specifications – fitness for use: ensuring a product can be used as it was intended Chapter 7 Project Quality Management Processes • Project quality management includes those processes required to ensure that the project satisfies the needs for which it was undertaken. • There are 3 processes in Project quality Management: – Quality planning – Quality assurance – Quality control planning phase executing phase control phase • Compare to Juran’s quality trilogy: Quality plan, Control control and Quality improvement Chapter 7 Modern Quality Management • Modern quality management – requires customer satisfaction – prefers prevention to inspection – recognizes management responsibility for quality • Noteworthy quality experts include Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa, Taguchi, and Feigenbaum Chapter 7 Quality Experts • Deming was famous for his work in rebuilding Japan and his 14 points • Juran wrote the Quality Control Handbook and 10 steps to quality improvement • Crosby wrote Quality is Free and suggested that organizations strive for zero defects • Ishikawa developed the concept of quality circles and using fishbone diagrams • Taguchi developed methods for optimizing the process of engineering experimentation • Feigenbaum developed the concept of total quality control Chapter 7 Quality Planning • 11th of 21 of planning phase process • It is important to design in quality and communicate important factors that directly contribute to meeting the customer’s requirements – know what customer want is the key in quality – but it is quite difficult to get this information – Design of experiments helps identify which variable have the most influence on the overall outcome of a process • Many scope aspects of IT projects affect quality like functionality, features, system outputs, performance, reliability, and maintainability Chapter 7 Inputs to Quality Planning • Quality policy – Defined by the ISO as the “overall intentions and direction of an organization with regard to quality as formally expressed by top management.” – The performing organization’s quality policy can serve as the policy for the project. • Scope statement – provides a documented basis for making future project decisions and for confirming or developing common understanding of project scope among stakeholders – The scope statement describes major product deliverables and objectives that define the project Inputs to Quality Planning (2) • Project description – documents the characteristics of the product or service that the project was undertaken to create. It details various technical issues or concerns that may impact Quality Planning • Standards and regulations – Inputs from authorities outside the performing organization may impact Quality Planning • Other process outputs – Outputs from the other PM knowledge areas may impact Quality Planning 10 Tools & techniques • Quality planning tools and techniques – includes benefit/cost analysis, benchmarking, flow charting, and Design of Experiments • Quality audits – A structured review of other QM activities to identify the lessons learned that can improve the performance of this project and other projects in the organization – Such audits are an independent review of quality management activities to a performance standard 16 Outputs from Quality Assurance • Quality improvements – Actions that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the project and provide added benefits to stakeholders. – Implementing them usually involves preparing change requests or taking corrective action in accord with procedures for overall change control. 17 Quality Control • 6th of 8 controlling phase process • determine the correctiveness of the work results • – involves monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards identify ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance • The main outputs of quality control process are – acceptance decisions – rework – process adjustments • Some tools and techniques include – – – – pareto analysis statistical sampling quality control charts testing Chapter 7 18 Inputs to Quality Control • Work results – The results of activities performed to accomplish the project • Quality management plan – Part of the project plan. QMP describes how the PM team implements the quality policy. For the project, it covers a) quality control; b) quality assurance; c) quality improvement • Operational definitions – describe an element and how the element is measured by the Quality Control process. • Checklists – used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed 19 Tools & techniques • Inspection – activities such as measuring, examining, and testing undertaken to determine if results conform to requirements. It is also reference to reviews, product reviews, audits, and walkthrough • Control charts – graphically display the results of a process. It helps to verify the process is statistically in control • Pareto diagrams – histograms, ordered by frequency of occurrence, that show how many results were generated by type or category of identified cause. The ranking of categories can be used to guide corrective action 20 Tools & techniques (2) • Statistical sampling – chose part of a population of interest for inspection. Appropriate sampling can often reduce the cost of quality control • Flowcharting – A graphical method of analysis that helps determine how and where quality problems occur. It can help to develop approaches to resolving the problems • Trend analysis – use mathematical techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical results. – technical performance can be monitor to determine how many defects or errors have identified and corrected, it is also possible to monitor cost & schedule performance 21 Outputs to to Quality Control • Rework – any action taken to bring a defective or NC item into compliance with required • Acceptance decisions – the results of inspecting items delivered • Completed checklists – These documents are part of the project 22 Outputs to to Quality Control (2) • Quality improvements – outputs form the related process of quality assurance (QA). They represent actions intended to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the project. – They provide added benefits to stakeholders. Implementing quality improvements require preparation of change requires or taking corrective actions – Any improvements are managed according to procedures for Overall Change Control • Process adjustments – Immediate corrective or preventive action as a result of Quality Control measurements 23 Testing in software • Many IT professionals think of testing as a stage that comes near the end of IT product development • Testing should be done during almost every phase of the IT product development life cycle Chapter 7 24 Types of Tests • A unit test is done to test each individual component (often a program) to ensure it is as defect free as possible • Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test functionally grouped components • System testing tests the entire system as one entity • User acceptance testing is an independent test performed by the end user prior to accepting the delivered system Chapter 7 25 Improving Information Technology Project Quality • Several suggestions for improving quality for IT projects include – Leadership that promotes quality – Understanding the cost of quality – Focusing on organizational influences and workplace factors that affect quality – Following maturity models (CMM) to improve quality Chapter 7 26 Maturity Models • Maturity models are frameworks for helping organization improve their processes and systems – Software Quality Function Deployment Model focuses on defining user requirements and planning software projects – The Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model provides a generic path to process improvement for software development – Several groups are working on project management maturity models Chapter 7 27 Project Management Maturity Model 1. AdHoc: The project management process is described as disorganized, and occasionally even chaotic. The organization has not defined systems and processes, and project success depends on individual effort. There are chronic cost and schedule problems 2. Abbreviated: There are some project management processes and systems in place to track cost, schedule, and scope. Project success is largely unpredictable and cost and schedule problems are common 3. Organized: There are standardized, documented project management processes and systems that are integrated into the rest of the organization. Project success is more predictable, and cost and schedule performance is improved 4. Managed: Management collects and uses detailed measures of the effectiveness of project management. Project success is more uniform, and cost and schedule performance conforms to plan 5. Adaptive: Feedback from the project management process and from piloting innovative ideas and technologies enables continuous improvement. Project success is the norm, and cost and schedule performance is continuously improving Chapter 7 28 Summary • Importance of Project Quality Management • Project Quality Management Processes – Quality planning, Quality assurance, Quality control – Compare to Juran’s quality trilogy: Quality plan, Control control and Quality improvement • Quality Model: Malcolm Baldrige Award, CMM and ISO 9000 • Quality Planning: identify customer’s requirements and define critical success factors • Quality Assurance: continuous quality improvement, Benchmarking and Quality audits Chapter 7 29 Summary (2) • Quality control: tools and techniques => Pareto analysis, statistical sampling, quality control charts and testing • Software test is very key factors: – unit test, Integration testing, System testing, User acceptance testing • ways to improve IT Project Quality – leadership – cost of quality – organizational and workplace factors – maturity models Chapter 7 30 ... Importance of Project Quality Management • Project Quality Management Processes – Quality planning, Quality assurance, Quality control • Quality Model: Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA), CMM and ISO 9000... improving Chapter 7 28 Summary • Importance of Project Quality Management • Project Quality Management Processes – Quality planning, Quality assurance, Quality control – Compare to Juran’s quality trilogy: Quality plan, Control control ... Outputs from Quality Planning • Quality management plan – Part of the project plan. QMP describes how the PM team implements the quality policy. For the project, it covers a) quality control; b) quality