Project Quality Management

Lecture 7
Introduction:

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines quality, in a project

context as:
"the degree to which project deliverables meet requirements".

• Quality planning should occur as part of the development of

project deliverable specifications and work planning.
• Identification and characterization of quality as a basis for quality
management procedures is helped by reference to accepted
standards.
Standards Organizations

• There are several government and independent organizations that develop

and promote standards relating to different aspects of quality (of GIS products
and project deliverables.
• Consider looking at resources of the following organizations to get a better
understanding of accepted GIS-related standards:
Standards Organizations

There are several government and independent organizations which develop, adopt, and
promote the application of standards associated with IT and GIS:
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
• Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA)
• American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).
Quality Control and Quality Assurance

• There are two terms that are widely used in quality management
(in GIS and other fields), quality control and quality assurance.
• These terms are used somewhat differently by different
practitioners.
• In GIS projects (particularly for GIS database development), they
are often used interchangeably. So, as you encounter these terms
in project specifications, contractor service descriptions, and
white papers, be aware that there is not a full consensus on their
meaning. A practical usage of these terms in GIS projects is as
follows:
Quality control (QC)

• Quality control (QC) is a tools, processes, and range of automated

and manual checks that are put in place to meet quality
requirements as deliverables are being prepared (e.g., GIS
database deliverables).
• The intent is to produce the deliverables that fully meet project
specifications and quality requirements.
 Quality control (QC)

Definition:
QC involves the activities and techniques used to monitor, inspect, and test the process and deliverables
to ensure they meet specified requirements.
Focus:
QC is product-oriented and is concerned with identifying defects and deviations from quality standards in
the final output.
Example:
Imagine a manufacturing process for smartphones. In QC, technicians might randomly select a sample of
finished phones and thoroughly test them for issues like screen defects, battery life, and software glitches.
Purpose:
The primary purpose of QC is to identify and rectify defects in the final product before it reaches the
customer.
Quality assurance (QA)

• The related term, quality assurance (QA), refers to tools and

procedures used to assess adherence to specifications and
quality requirements after initial deliverable completion and
in a final step to check and approve the deliverables.
• QA checking should be performed as a separate step from
deliverable production/preparation, and often by a separate
group or people from those involved in deliverable production.
 Quality assurance (QA)

Definition:
QA involves the systematic and planned activities implemented in a quality system to ensure that
processes are designed and executed to meet the desired outcomes.
Focus:
QA is process-oriented and is concerned with preventing defects by establishing and maintaining
processes that consistently produce quality products.
Example:
Continuing with the smartphone manufacturing example, QA would involve setting standards and
guidelines for each stage of the manufacturing process. This might include specifications for
materials, assembly procedures, and testing protocols. QA ensures that the entire process is well-
defined and controlled.
Purpose:
The primary purpose of QA is to provide confidence that the processes are capable of consistently
producing products that meet the desired quality standards.
Quality Control and Quality Assurance

• Often that separate group is a client organization that has

contracted GIS services (database development) to a private firm.
QC and QA are related and may use similar tools and procedures,
but their use in the entire workflow from deliverable preparation
to final acceptance is different.
• In practice, if QA checking reveals problems with deliverables, the
deliverable is subjected to additional steps to correct errors and
re-submit it--at which point it is usually subjected to another
round of QA checking.
The History, Tools, and Techniques of
Quality Management
Introduction

Dr. W. Edwards Deming used statistical methods to improve quality with a strong
focus on the customer or end user, while in the process making organizations
more productive and profitable. Deming's approach was plan, do, check, and act;
later he expanded these ideas to:

1.design the product

2.make it; test it in the production line and the laboratory
3.put it on the market
4.test it in service; find out what the user thinks of it, and why the nonuser has
not bought it
Fitness of use

Fitness of use is defined as :

1. freedom from defects and deficiencies, and
2. product features that meet the user's needs.

These two ideas continue to evolve in more recent quality

management ideas and practices.
For example, the Six Sigma principle, which attempts to limit defective
units per billion to two, is a disciplined example of the first definition
of fitness of use above. Individuals working with human factors to
understand how end users interact with various graphical user
interfaces would be an example of the second definition.
Fitness of use
The concept of "fitness of use" relates directly to the PMI
definition of

"quality", the degree to which project deliverables meet requirements.

Tools/Techniques for Monitoring and
Evaluating Quality
1. A Pareto diagram is a histogram with columns or bars
ordered from most common to least.
• It is a graphical way of summarizing where most problems
occur with a product, or what most users would like to see
included in a product.
• It is an important graphical display tool, as often a great
majority of problems or needs fall into the same category.
Often, the number of individuals providing input is
somewhat limited, so that issues can be classified and
enumerated from the entire population.
Tools/Techniques for Monitoring and
Evaluating Quality
2. Statistical sampling may be appropriate for testing the quality
of products produced, as looking at each individual product
would be very time-consuming and cost prohibitive.
The sample must be random, and large enough to represent the
entire population of products with some degree of certainty.
Statistical sampling as part of a quality control program is used
most frequently in high-volume manufacturing processes. But it
may be appropriate as a basis for automated and manual
checks for large-scale GIS database development projects,
especially in cases where data collection is random.
 Quality and Quality
Management in GIS Projects
Quality Parameters
In GIS projects, quality can be defined (and ideally measured and
assessed) for specific deliverables such as:
• reports and documents (needs assessment, design documents,
plans, etc.)
• conceptual and physical database designs
• spatial data collected from aerial surveys and processed for delivery
to users (Ortho imagery, LiDAR elevation data)
• GIS data compiled from field data collection, map digitizing, or
other means
• GIS applications (custom-designed user interface and functionality
from GIS software)
Quality Parameters
• 1. Error of Omission:
• 2. Error of Commission:

* An example of "error of commission" would be a GIS project

involving the collection of manhole locations for a wastewater
utility network. If the collection included, by error, some gas
main manholes as well--there would be commission errors
(the gas manholes should not be part of the database).
Quality planning:
• Quality planning establishes quality parameters and a level of
expected quality for those parameters, and it describes the
use of necessary tools and procedures to ensure that the
level of quality is attained. Quality planning should occur as
part of the development of project deliverable specifications
and work planning.
• quality planning for GIS projects may include several
important aspects, some of which overlap with those
identified for information technology projects, and some of
which are unique to GIS.
• For example, functionality and usability are important
aspects of many IT development projects. If you are
customizing a user interface for a GIS application, you will
need to address these issues of functionality and usability. If,
however, you are creating paper copies of maps for
botanists to use as they collect samples, functionality and
readability relative to how the map will be used is important.
Quality planning
• The most rigorous and detailed quality planning and quality
control procedures are associated with GIS data compilation
and processing projects. For GIS data, there are fairly
mature, documented standards, and data quality lends itself
to a greater level of quantification than quality criteria that
are more subjective. Several government and professional
organizations have documented standards for spatial data
content, format, and overall quality.