SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND

ARCHITECTURE
Meer Qaisar Javed
[email protected]

Lecture # 12
Chapter 8:
Project Quality Management

Information Technology Project Management,

Fourth Edition
 Learning Objectives
3

 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.
 Learning Objectives
4

 Understand the tools and techniques for quality control,

such as Pareto analysis, statistical sampling, Six Sigma,
quality control charts, and testing.
 Summarize the contributions of noteworthy quality experts
to modern quality management.
 Describe how leadership, cost, organizational influences,
expectations, cultural differences, standards, and maturity
models relate to improving quality in information
technology projects.
 Discuss how software can assist in project quality
management.
 The Importance of Project Quality
5
Management

 Many people joke about the poor quality of IT

products (see cars and computers joke on pages 290-
291).

 People seem to accept systems being down

occasionally or needing to reboot their PCs.

 But quality is very important in many IT projects.

 What Went Wrong?
6
 In 1981, a small timing difference caused by a computer
program caused a launch abort.*
 In 1986, two hospital patients died after receiving fatal doses of
radiation from a Therac 25 machine after a software problem
caused the machine to ignore calibration data.**
 Britain’s Coast Guard was unable to use its computers for
several hours in May 2004 after being hit by the Sasser virus,
which knocked out the electronic mapping systems, e-mail, and
other computer functions, forcing workers to revert to pen,
paper, and radios.***

*Design News (February 1988).

**Datamation (May 1987).
***Fleming, Nic, “Virus sends coastguard computers off course” (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/05/ncoast05.xml) (May 15, 2004).
 What Is Quality?
7

 The International Organization for Standardization

(ISO) defines quality as “the degree to which a set of
inherent characteristics fulfils requirements”
(ISO9000:2000).
 Other experts define quality based on:
 Conformance to requirements: The project’s processes
and products meet written specifications.
 Fitness for use: A product can be used as it was
intended.
 What Is Project Quality Management?
8

 Project quality management ensures that the project will

satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
 Processes include:
 Quality planning: Identifying which quality standards are
relevant to the project and how to satisfy them.
 Quality assurance: Periodically evaluating overall project
performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality
standards.
 Quality control: Monitoring specific project results to ensure that
they comply with the relevant quality standards.
 Quality Planning
9

 Implies the ability to anticipate situations and

prepare actions to bring about the desired outcome.

 Important to prevent defects by:

 Selecting proper materials.

 Training and indoctrinating people in quality.

 Planning a process that ensures the appropriate

outcome.
 Design of Experiments
10

 Design of experiments is a quality planning technique

that helps identify which variables have the most
influence on the overall outcome of a process.

 Also applies to project management issues, such as

cost and schedule trade-offs.

 Involves documenting important factors that directly

contribute to meeting customer requirements.
 Scope Aspects of IT Projects
11

 Functionality is the degree to which a system performs its

intended function.
 Features are the system’s special characteristics that appeal to
users.
 System outputs are the screens and reports the system
generates.
 Performance addresses how well a product or service performs
the customer’s intended use.
 Reliability is the ability of a product or service to perform as
expected under normal conditions.
 Maintainability addresses the ease of performing maintenance
on a product.
 Who’s Responsible for the Quality
of Projects?
12

 Project managers are ultimately responsible for

quality management on their projects.

 Several organizations and references can help project

managers and their teams understand quality.
 International Organization for Standardization
(www.iso.org)

 IEEE (www.ieee.org)
 Quality Assurance
13

 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 generates ideas for quality improvements by
comparing specific project practices or product
characteristics to those of other projects or products within or
outside the performing organization.
 A quality audit is a structured review of specific quality
management activities that help identify lessons learned that
could improve performance on current or future projects.
 Table 8-1. Table of Contents for a
Quality Assurance Plan*
14

1.0 Draft Quality Assurance Plan 4.0 Quality Assurance Procedures

1.1 Introduction 4.1 Walkthrough Procedure
1.2 Purpose 4.2 Review Process
1.3 Policy Statement 4.2.1 Review Procedures
1.4 Scope 4.3 Audit Process
2.0 Management 4.3.1 Audit Procedures
2.1 Organizational Structure 4.4 Evaluation Process
2.2 Roles and Responsibilities 4.5 Process Improvement
2.2.1 Technical Monitor/Senior 5.0 Problem Reporting Procedures
Management 5.1 Noncompliance Reporting Procedures
2.2.2 Task Leader 6.0 Quality Assurance Metrics
2.2.3 Quality Assurance Team Appendix
2.2.4 Technical Staff Quality Assurance Checklist Forms
3.0 Required Documentation

*U.S. Department of Energy

 Quality Control
15

 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
 Pareto Analysis
16

 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 percent of

problems are often due to 20 percent of the causes.

 Pareto diagrams are histograms, or column charts

representing a frequency distribution, that help identify
and prioritize problem areas.
 Figure 8-1. Sample Pareto Diagram
17
 Statistical Sampling and Standard
18
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

 Be sure to consult with an expert when using

statistical analysis.
 Six Sigma
19

 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.
 Basic Information on Six Sigma
20

 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.
 DMAIC
21

 DMAIC is a systematic, closed-loop process for continued

improvement that is scientific and fact based.
 DMAIC stands for:
 Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process, and customer
requirements.
 Measure: Define measures, then 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.
 How is Six Sigma Quality
22
Control Unique?
 It requires an organization-wide commitment.
 Training follows the “Belt” system.
 Six Sigma organizations have the ability and
willingness to adopt contrary objectives, such as
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.
 Examples of Six Sigma Organizations
23

 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.
*Pande, Peter S., Robert P. Neuman, and Roland R. Cavanagh, The Six Sigma Way. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2000, p. 7.
**Ibid. p. 9.
 Six Sigma and Project Management
24

 Joseph M. Juran stated, “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; companies that use Six Sigma do
not always boost their stock values.
 As Mikel Harry puts it, “I could genetically engineer a Six
Sigma goat, but if a rodeo is the marketplace, people are still
going to buy a Four Sigma horse.”**
 Six Sigma projects must focus on a quality problem or gap
between the current and desired performance and not have a
clearly understood problem or a predetermined solution.

*“What You Need to Know About Six Sigma,” Productivity Digest (December 2001), p. 38.
**Clifford, Lee, “Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma,” Fortune (January 22, 2001), p. 140.
 Six Sigma Projects Use
Project Management
25

 The training for Six Sigma includes many project

management concepts, tools, and techniques.

 For example, Six Sigma projects often use business

cases, project charters, schedules, budgets, and so on.

 Six Sigma projects are done in teams; the project

manager is often called the team leader, and the
sponsor is called the champion.
 Six Sigma and Statistics
26

 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.
 Six Sigma Uses a Conversion Table
27
 Using a normal curve, if a process is at six sigma, there would
be no more than two defective units per billion produced.
 Six Sigma uses a scoring system that accounts for time, an
important factor in determining process variations.
 Yield represents the number of units handled correctly through
the process steps.
 A defect is any instance where the product or service fails to
meet customer requirements.
 There can be several opportunities to have a defect.
 Figure 8-2. Normal Distribution and
28
Standard Deviation
 Table 8-3. Sigma and Defective Units
29
 Table 8-4: Six Sigma Conversion
30
Table

The Six Sigma convention for determining defects is based on the above
conversion table. It accounts for a 1.5 sigma shift to measure the number of
defects per million opportunities instead of the number of defects
per unit.