Chapter 8: Project Quality Management

1
 Learning Objectives
• Understand the importance of project quality management for
information technology products and services
• Define project quality management and understand how quality
relates to various aspects of information technology projects
• Describe quality planning and its relationship to project scope
management
• Discuss the importance of quality assurance
• List the three outputs of the quality control process
• Understand the tools and techniques for quality control, such as
Pareto analysis, statistical sampling, Six Sigma, quality control
charts, and testing

2
 Learning Objectives
• Describe important concepts related to Six Sigma and
how it helps organizations improve quality and reduce
costs
• Summarize the contributions of noteworthy quality
experts to modern quality management
• Understand how the Malcolm Baldrige Award and ISO
9000 standard promote quality in project management
• Describe how leadership, cost, organizational
influences, and maturity models relate to improving
quality in information technology projects
• Discuss how software can assist in project quality
management

3
 Quality of Information Technology
Projects
• Many people joke about the poor quality of IT
products If GM Cars Were Like Microsoft OS
Computers (p. 262)
– For No Reason Your Car Would Crash Twice a Day.
– The Airbag Would Say “Are You Sure” Before Going Off.
– Your Car Won’t Let You In Because Your Key Expired. (This is
my own)
• People seem to accept systems being down
occasionally or needing to reboot their PCs
• There are many examples in the news about quality
problems related to IT (See What Went Wrong?)
• But quality is very important in many IT projects

4
 What is Quality?
• Car Quality
– Ride, Reliability, Fit and Finish, Audio System?
• Food Quality
– Taste, Smell, Color, Texture, Freshness?
• Shoe Quality
– Fit, Stitching, Comfort, Wear?
• Baby Furniture Quality
– Safety, Goo Proof, Durability, Easy to Assemble?

5
 What Is Quality?
• 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.
6
 Purpose of Project Quality
Management
• To Ensure that the Project Will Satisfy the
Needs for Which it was Undertaken.
– Scope
– Cost
– Performance
– Meet or Exceed Customer Satisfaction
• The Customer Ultimately Decides if Quality is
Acceptable. Period.

7
 Project Quality Management
Processes
1. Quality planning: identifying which quality
standards are relevant to the project and how to
satisfy them
2. Quality assurance: evaluating overall project
performance to ensure the project will satisfy the
relevant quality standards
3. Quality control: monitoring specific project results
to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality
standards while identifying ways to improve overall
quality

8
 IS Technology Quality
• Functionality and Features
– Function is Does the System Performa As Intended
– Feature is How it Does the Function
• Graphic Interface, On-Line Help, ect
• System Outputs
– Screens and Reports
• Performance
– System Functions as Customer Intends to Use it,
• Reliability and Maintainability
– Mean Time Between Essential Function Failure (MTBESF)

9
 Quality Planning
• It is important to design in quality and
communicate important factors that directly
contribute to meeting the customer’s
requirements
• Design of experiments helps identify which
variables 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

10
 Quality Assurance
• Quality assurance includes all the activities
related to satisfying the relevant quality
standards for a project
• Another goal of quality assurance is continuous
quality improvement
• Benchmarking can be used to generate ideas for
quality improvements
• Quality audits help identify lessons learned that
can improve performance on current or future
projects

11
 Quality Assurance Plan

12
 Quality Assurance Plan

13
 Quality Control
• The main outputs of quality control are
– acceptance decisions
– rework
– process adjustments
• Some tools and techniques include
– Pareto analysis
– statistical sampling
– Six Sigma
– quality control charts

14
 Pareto Analysis
• Pareto analysis involves identifying the vital
few contributors that account for the most
quality problems in a system
• Also called the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80%
of problems are often due to 20% of the
causes
• Pareto diagrams are histograms that help
identify and prioritize problem areas

15
 Figure
Total of all8-1. Sample Pareto Diagram
Complaints

80% of Complaints Minor Problem

16
 Statistical Sampling and Standard
Deviation
• Statistical sampling involves choosing part of a
population of interest for inspection
• The size of a sample depends on how
representative you want the sample to be
• Sample size formula:
Sample size = .25 X (certainty Factor/acceptable error)2

17
 Table 8-2. Commonly Used Certainty
Factors
Desired Certainty Certainty Factor
95% 1.960
90% 1.645
80% 1.281

95% certainty: Sample size = 0.25 X (1.960/.05) 2 = 384

90% certainty: Sample size = 0.25 X (1.645/.10)2 = 68
80% certainty: Sample size = 0.25 X (1.281/.20)2 = 10

Example: Want 95% Certainty a Sample of EDI Invoices

Would Contain no Variation.

Sample Size= .25x (1.960/.05)sq =384

18
 Six Sigma Defined
• Six Sigma is “a comprehensive and flexible
system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing
business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven
by close understanding of customer needs,
disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical
analysis, and diligent attention to managing,
improving, and reinventing business
processes.”*
*Pande, Peter S., Robert P. Neuman, and Roland R. Cavanagh, The
Six Sigma Way. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000, p. xi

19
 Basic Information on Six Sigma
• The target for perfection is the achievement of
no more than 3.4 defects per million
opportunities
• The principles can apply to a wide variety of
processes
• Six Sigma projects normally follow a five-
phase improvement process called DMAIC

20
 DMAIC
• Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process,
and customer requirements
• Measure: Define measures, collect, compile, and
display data
• Analyze: Scrutinize process details to find
improvement opportunities
• Improve: Generate solutions and ideas for
improving the problem
• Control: Track and verify the stability of the
improvements and the predictability of the
solution

21
 How is Six Sigma Quality Control
Unique?
• It requires an organization-wide commitment
• Six Sigma organizations have the ability and
willingness to adopt contrary objectives, like
reducing errors and getting things done faster
• It is an operating philosophy that is customer-
focused and strives to drive out waste, raise
levels of quality, and improve financial
performance at breakthrough levels

22
 Examples of Six Sigma Organizations
• Motorola, Inc. pioneered the adoption of Six
Sigma in the 1980s and saved about $14
billion
• Allied Signal/Honeywell saved more than $600
million a year by reducing the costs of
reworking defects and improving aircraft
engine design processes
• General Electric uses Six Sigma to focus on
achieving customer satisfaction

23
Six Sigma and Project Management
• Joseph M. Juran stated that “all improvement takes place
project by project, and in no other way”
• It’s important to select projects carefully and apply higher
quality where it makes sense
• Six Sigma projects must focus on a quality problem or gap
between current and desired performance and not have a
clearly understood problem or a predetermined solution
• After selecting Six Sigma projects, the project management
concepts, tools, and techniques described in this text come
into play, such as creating business cases, project charters,
schedules, budgets, etc.

24
 Six Sigma and Statistics
• The term sigma means standard deviation
• Standard deviation measures how much
variation exists in a distribution of data
• Standard deviation is a key factor in
determining the acceptable number of
defective units found in a population
• Six Sigma projects strive for no more than 3.4
defects per million opportunities, yet this
number is confusing to many statisticians
25
 Standard Deviation
• A small standard deviation means that data
cluster closely around the middle of a
distribution and there is little variability among
the data
• A normal distribution is a bell-shaped curve that
is symmetrical about the mean or average value
of a population

26
 Figure 8-2. Normal Distribution and
Standard Deviation

1ó = One Std Deviation

From the Mean
2ó

Mean=Average

27
 Table 8-3. Six Sigma and Defective Units
Specification Range Percent of Defective Units
(in +/- Sigmas) Population Per Billion
Within Range
1 68.27 317,300,000
2 95.45 45,400,000
3 99.73 2,700,000
4 99.9937 63,000
5 99.999943 57
6 99.9999998 2

28
 Table 8-4: Six Sigma Conversion Table

The Six Sigma convention for determining defects is based on the

above conversion table. It accounts for a 1.5 sigma shift to account for
time and measures defects per million opportunities, not defects
per unit.

29
 Bottom Line on Six Sigma
• Make the Customer Happy.
– Customer Focused Management
– Customer Focused Project Selection
– Customer Focused Product
– Customer Focused Manufacturing
– Customer Focused Quality
– Customer Focused Opportunity
• When Customer is Happy, We Make Money.

30
 Quality Control Charts and the Seven
Run Rule
• A control chart is a graphic display of data that illustrates the
results of a process over time. It helps prevent defects and
allows you to determine whether a process is in control or out
of control
• The seven run rule states that if seven data points in a row are
all below the mean, above, the mean, or increasing or
decreasing, then the process needs to be examined for non-
random problems.
• Also means quality control problems are not random defects
due to random defects cannot be controlled. In short, stuff
happens.

31
 Figure 8-3. Sample Quality Control
Chart
7 run rule

Producing 12 inch rulers with Quality Control Limits of 12.10 to11.90

32
 Testing
• 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

33
 Figure 8-4. Testing Tasks in the Software
Development Life Cycle

34
 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
– Process testing, Load testing, Unique input testing
• User acceptance testing is an independent test
performed by the end user prior to accepting the
delivered system
– Parallel system testing (Current and New run together to
compare)

35
 Figure 8-5. Gantt Chart for Building Testing
into a Systems Development Project Plan

36
 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

37
 Quality Experts
• Deming was famous for his work in rebuilding Japan car industry
and his 14 points. See pg 284**
• Juran wrote the Quality Control Handbook and 10 steps to quality
improvement.
• Re-defined quality focused on the customer’s view, fitness for use not
the manufacture’s view, conformance to requirements.
• Crosby wrote Quality is Free and suggested that organizations strive
for zero defects
• Looked at the total cost of poor quality.
• Ishikawa developed the concept of quality circles and pioneered
the use of Fishbone diagrams
• Taguchi developed methods for optimizing the process of
engineering experimentation
– Quality should be built in not inspected in.
• Feigenbaum developed the concept of total quality control
– Quality is responsibility of people who do the work.

38
 Figure 8-6. Sample Fishbone or
Ishikawa Diagram
Trace Problem
Back to the Source

39
 Malcolm Baldrige Award and
ISO 9000
• The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award was
started in 1987 to recognize companies with
world-class quality
• ISO 9000 provides minimum requirements for
an organization to meet their quality
certification standards

40
 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 to improve quality

41
 Leadership
• “It is most important that top management be
quality-minded. In the absence of sincere
manifestation of interest at the top, little will
happen below.” (Juran, 1945)
• A large percentage of quality problems are
associated with management, not technical
issues

42
 Common to All Approaches

• Quality is an organizational change not a

just a process change.
• Quality is holistic not just a department
• Quality is lead by leadership
• Quality is implemented by workers
• Motivate for quality not just production
and profit
• Quality can make a profit
IT Project Management, Third Edition
43
Chapter 8
 The Cost of Quality
• The cost of quality is
– the cost of conformance or delivering products
that meet requirements and fitness for use
– the cost of nonconformance or taking
responsibility for failures or not meeting quality
expectations

44
 Table 8-5. Costs Per Hour of Downtime Caused
by Software Defects

Business Cost per Hour Downtime

Automated teller machines (medium-sized bank) $14,500
Package shipping service $28,250
Telephone ticket sales $69,000
Catalog sales center $90,000
Airline reservation center (small airline) $89,500

45
 Five Cost Categories Related to Quality
1. Prevention cost: the cost of planning and executing a project
so it is error-free or within an acceptable error range
Costs less to prevent during development than fix later in the life cycle
2. Appraisal cost: the cost of evaluating processes and their
outputs to ensure quality
3. Internal failure cost: cost incurred to correct an identified
defect before the customer receives the product
4. External failure cost: cost that relates to all errors not
detected and corrected after customer receives the product.
5. Measurement and test equipment costs: capital cost of
equipment used to perform prevention and appraisal
activities

46
 Organization Influences, Workplace
Factors, and Quality
• A study by DeMarco and Lister showed that organizational
issues had a much greater influence on programmer
productivity than the technical environment or
programming languages
• Programmer productivity varied by a factor of one to ten
across organizations, but only by 21% within the same
organization
• The study found no correlation between productivity and
programming language, years of experience, or salary
• A dedicated workspace and a quiet work environment
were key factors to improving programmer productivity

47
 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, such as PMI’s Organizational Project
Management Maturity Model (OPM3)

48
 Project Management Maturity Model
1. Ad-Hoc: 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.

49
 Using Software to Assist in Project
Quality Management
• Spreadsheet and charting software helps
create Pareto diagrams, Fishbone diagrams,
etc.
• Statistical software packages help perform
statistical analysis
• Specialized software products help manage Six
Sigma projects or create quality control charts
• Project management software helps create
Gantt charts and other tools to help plan and
track work related to quality management

50