Quality - General Concepts useful for PMP exam

Quality Management - General Concepts:

• everyone in the organization is responsible for the quality (project team for destined parts while PM for project quality), PM is ultimately responsible for the project quality
• prevention over inspection
• outliers are singular measurements outside the control limits
• continuous improvement to ensure quality (quality assurance)
• some costs of quality will be borne by the organization (organization quality policy, e.g. quality audit, ISO accreditation)
• Quality: the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements, decrease rework/costs, increase productivity/stakeholder satisfaction
• under ‘control’: the process is predictable and repeatable
• PM: perform continuous improvement activities (quality assurance), verify quality before completion of deliverables (control quality)
• Grade (fit for use or not) vs Quality (conformance to stated requirements)
• Accuracy (correctness) vs Precision (consistence, how closely conforms to target, standard deviation is a measure of precision, smaller standard deviation higher precision)
• Quality Management Concepts
  • Crosby Zero Defects: identify processes to remove defects, quality is built in to the processes
  • Juran Fitness for Use: does the product/service meet customer’s need? i) Grade, ii) Quality conformance, iii) Reliability/maintainability, iv) Safety, v) Actual Use
  • W. Edwards Deming: 85% of quality problem is managers’  responsibility, develop “System of Profound Knowledge” [system = components working together to achieve an aim] i) Appreciation for system, ii) Knowledge about variation (special cause vs common cause) , iii) Theory of Knowledge (built up by prediction/observation/adjustment) , iv) Psychology
  • Six Sigma: achieve 3.4/1 mil defect level (99.999%) using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Implement, Control) or [Design for Six Sigma] DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Validate) approach, refine the process to get rid of human error and outside influences with precise measurements, variations are random in nature
  • Just In Time: eliminate build up of inventory
  • Total Quality Management (TQM): ISO 8402 all members to center on quality to drive customer satisfaction , refine the process of producing the product
  • Kaizen改善: implement consistent and incremental improvement, to reduce costs, cycle time, drive customer satisfaction using PDCA (Plan Do Check Act)
  • The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is a way of making small improvements and testing their impact before you make a change to the process as a whole. It comes from W. Edwards Deming’s work in process improvement, which popularized the cycle that was originally invented by Walter Shewhart in the 1930s.
  • Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI): improve overall software quality (design, development and deployment)
  • ISO9000: ensures the defined processes are performed in accordance to the plan
• Quality Management processes are so focused on reviewing EVERY deliverable – not just the final product, but all of the components, designs and specifications too.