CH 7

Project Quality and Communications Planning

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Objectives Understand the work done by several noted

quality experts and their impact on project management practices

Understand the definition of quality and the different costs of quality

Know how to build a quality management plan Understand the importance of possessing

excellent communication skills Understand the communication process Know how to build a communication

management plan

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Poor Quality Examples The Sustainable Computing Consortium, a

collaboration of major corporate IT users, university researchers and government agencies, estimated that flawed (or buggy) software cost organizations $175 billion worldwide in 2001

In the U.S. software bugs cost organizations nearly $60 billion per year, according to the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). According to NIST, one-third of these costs could be eliminated with improved testing methods especially early in the development cycle

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Poor Quality Examples Faulty baggage-handling software at the then

new Denver International Airport delayed the opening of the airport from October 1993 until February 1995 at an estimated cost of $1,000,000 a day

Therac-25 was a radiation therapy machine produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and CGR MeV of France. It was involved with at least six known accidents between 1985 and 1987, in which patients were given massive overdoses of radiation. At least five patients died of the overdoses due to a software bug

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Poor Quality Examples The Pentium FDIV bug was a bug in Intel’s

original Pentium floating point unit. Certain floating point division operations performed with these processors would produce incorrect results. Intel eventually had to recall all of the initial chips and replace them once the flaw was found and fixed

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Poor Quality Examples The Northeast U.S. blackout of 2003 was a

massive power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario Canada. It affected an estimated 10 million people in Canada and 40 million people in the U.S. Outage-related financial losses were estimated at $6 billion. The initial cause of the outage was not due to a computer flaw but had the software been operating correctly the outage would have been greatly reduced

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What Is Project Quality Management? International Organization for Standardization (ISO) definition: the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs

The American Society for Quality and the PMBOK define quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.”

Text: the degree to which the product satisfies both stated and implied requirements

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Triple Constraint Plus Quality Can be inflated for more quality or deflated for

less quality.

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ISO Quality Management Principles

Customer Focus Provide Leadership Involvement of People Use a Process Approach

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ISO Quality Management Principles

Take a Systems Approach Encourage Continual Factual Approach to Decision Making Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

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Quality Management Planning Process

Quality planning: identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and organization and determining the activities necessary to meet the established standards in order to deliver the product fit for customer use

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Quality Management Terms Cost of quality – total costs incurred by an

organization to prevent a faulty product or development of a system that does not meet system requirements. Costs include: assessments, rework, lost time, injury, and deathPrevention costs – up-front costs associated with satisfying

customer requirements (design reviews, all forms of system testing, training, surveys, etc.)

Appraisal costs – costs associated with assuring that all requirements have been met (customer acceptance tests, demonstrations, lab tests, etc.)

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Quality Management Terms Cost of non-conformance – total costs incurred by an

organization because the product does not meet user requirements for example, rework or poor user productivity

Internal failure costs – costs associated with system defects before a system is fully deployed (scrap and rework)

External failure costs – costs associated with system defects after fully deployed (scrap, rework, returns, market share, lawsuits, etc.)

Rework – due to poor quality the same task must be repeated to correct an identified error

Fitness for use – the product can be used as it was originally intended

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Quality Management Terms Conformance to requirements/specifications –

the product conforms to the written specifications

Reliability – the probability of the product performing as specified without failure over a set period of time

Maintainability – the time and expense needed to restore the product to an acceptable level of performance after the product has failed or began a trend toward failure

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Quality Research Review

Walter A. Shewhart W. Edwards Deming Joseph Juran Philip Crosby Kaoru Ishikawa Genichi Taguchi

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Walter A. Shewhart In 1924, Shewhart created the “control chart” to

better understand variation and to distinguish between “assignable-cause” and “chance-cause”

In order to aid a manager in making scientific, efficient, economical decisions, he developed Statistical Process Control methods

He also believed that quality must be a continuous process and developed what is referred to as the PDSA cycle: Plan, Do, Study and Act which was later extended and made famous by W. Edwards Deming

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W. Edwards Deming Deming estimated that as much as 85 percent

of all quality problems could be corrected by changes in the process and only 15 percent could be controlled by the workers on the line

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W. Edwards Deming 14 Points1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of

products and services, the aim to become competitive, and to stay in business, and to provide jobs

2. Adopt the new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) from management on down to all employees, customers, and suppliers

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag

alone. Instead minimize total cost over the long run5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning,

production, and service. This will improve quality and productivity and thus, continually reduce costs

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W. Edwards Deming 14 Points6. Institute training on the job7. Adopt and institute leadership for the management of

people, recognizing their different abilities, capabilities, and aspirations

8. Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone may work effectively

9. Break down barriers between staff areas (departments). Abolish competition and build a win-win system of cooperation

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity

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W. Edwards Deming 14 Points11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force and

numerical goals for management and substitute leadership12. Remove barriers that rob people of workmanship. Eliminate

the annual rating or merit system and create pride in the job being done

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone in the organization

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation

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Joseph Juran Often credited with adding the human

element to quality control as well as statistical methods

In 1951 he published the Quality Control Handbook, which put forth the view that quality should be viewed more from the customer’s perspective “fitness for use” as opposed to the manufacturer’s adherence to specifications

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Joseph Juran Dr. Juran has also been credited with the

Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule. As a general rule, a small amount of issues cause the most problems on a project. For example, 80% of the rework time spent on the product was caused by 20% of the requirements. More on this principle will be presented in the quality control section of chapter 12

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Juran 10 Steps

1. Build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement

2. Set goals for improvement3. Organize to reach the goals (establish a

quality council, identify problems, select projects, appoint teams, designate facilitators).

4. Provide training5. Carry out projects to solve problems

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Juran 10 Steps

6. Report progress7. Give recognition8. Communicate results9. Keep score10. Maintain momentum by making annual

improvement part of the regular systems and processes of the company

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Philip Crosby Best known for the phrase “zero defects” or

“doing it right the first time” He spent most of his career educating

managers that preventing defects was cheaper than fixing them later

He believed that quality is free because the cost of conformance should be counted as the normal cost of doing business and that the cost for nonconformance is the only cost of quality

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Philip Crosby Conformance to requirements Prevention over inspection and rework The standard should be “zero defects.” Measured by the cost of nonconformance

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Kaoru Ishikawa

In this work he created quality circles and development of the Ishikawa Diagram or commonly referred to as a Fishbone diagram because of its resemblance to the skeleton of a fish

The Fishbone diagram is a “cause-and-effect” tool to aid workers in discovering the true root cause for quality issues

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Fishbone diagram

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Genichi Taguchi Quality should be designed into the product

and not inspected into it Quality is best achieved by minimizing the

deviation from a defined target reducing the affect of uncontrollable environmental factors

Cost of quality should be measured as a function of deviation from the standard and collected system-wide (scrap, rework, inspection, returns, warranty service calls, product replacement)

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Recent Quality Initiatives Total Quality Management (TQM) ISO 9000 provides minimum requirements for

an organization to meet their quality certification standards

Balanced Scorecard Six Sigma Maturity Models (excellent way to improve

quality)CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated)OPM3 (Organizational Project Mgmt. Maturity Model)

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ISO 9000

Based in Geneva Switzerland, consortium of approx. 100 world’s industrial nations. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) represents the U. S.

Quality system standard applicable to any product, service, or process anywhere in the world

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ISO 9000 Series ISO:9000 – defines the key terms and acts as a

road map for the other standards ISO:9001 – defines the model for a quality system

when a contractor demonstrates the capability to design, produce, and install products or services

ISO:9002 – quality system model for quality assurance in production and installation

ISO:9003 – quality system model for quality assurance in final inspection and testing

ISO:9004 – quality management guidelines

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ISO 9000 Series ISO 9001-2000 – update, combines 9001, 9002, 9003 Industry Specific:

TickIT – UK board of Trade version of ISO 9001-2000 for ITAS9000 – Aerospace Basic Quality System StandardPS9000 – Pharmaceutical Packaging Materials ISO/TS 16949:2002 - Major automotive manufacturers

(GM, Ford, Chrysler)TL 9000 – Telecom Quality management and Measurement ISO 13485:2003 – Medical Industry’s equivalent

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ISO 9000 Issues

Can be a paperwork nightmare when starting from scratch

Does not guarantee that an organization will produce quality products or services. It only confirms that the appropriate system/process is in place.

Time consuming and cost money, ROI doesn’t happen right away

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TQM Total Quality describes the culture, attitude

and organization of a company that strives to provide customers (internal and external) with products and services that satisfy their needs

it is a combination of quality tools and management specific tools to achieve increased business while reducing costs and waste

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TQM Employee empowerment – training, commitment, full

participation with reward and recognition programs tied to quality performance

Management Involvement – leadership, commitment, involvement, lead by example, support workers

Decisions based on facts – Statistical Process Control, rational vs. emotional decision making, accurate and timely data collection

Continuous Improvement – eliminate waste and non-value added activities, quality improvement is never complete, data is continuously collected, continually refine standards

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TQM Customer-driven – customer comes first,

continued assessment of satisfaction and needs, strive to meet and exceed customer requirements

Culture – establish an open, cooperative, trusting, communicative environment where information can be easily shared up the management chain and back down

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Balanced Scorecard

An approach for managing and measuring business performance which takes into consideration factors beyond the typical financial metrics

The key new element of this approach is focusing on the human issues that drive financial outcomes to force organizations to focus on the future

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Balanced Scorecard The balanced scorecard suggests viewing

organizational activity from four perspectives:Learning and growth – training, continuous

improvement, investmentBusiness process – reduce non-value added

activities, number of opportunities and success rates

Customer perspective – customer satisfaction and needs, delivery performance

Financial – ROI, shareholder value, Return on equity, Cash flow

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Balanced Scorecard

Organizations should list each metric, establish goals and objectives for each, measure results, and establish initiatives to adjust results if issues are found. (sound familiar!)

The key issue with implementing a balanced scorecard is to make sure you pick the right metrics

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Six Sigma The main purpose of the Six Sigma quality

methodology is to reduce variation thus reducing the number of product or service defects

uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating defects

The Greek letter Sigma (σ) is used in the field of statistics to represent the standard deviation to measure variability from the mean or average

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Six Sigma A small standard deviation means that data

cluster closely around the middle (mean) and there is little variability among the data

A normal distribution is a bell-shaped curve that is symmetrical about the mean

Using a normal curve, if a process is at six sigma, there would be no more than two defects per billion items produced. A defect is any instance where the product or service fails to meet customer requirements

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Six Sigma

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Six Sigma Six Sigma for IT projects is calculated based on

the number of defects per million opportunities

A simple invoice produced from the accounting system’s accounts receivable module may have 50 opportunities for defects in just one document

to reach six sigma you would have no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities on your IT projects

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Six Sigma

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Six Sigma Process referred to as DMAIC (dee-may-ic)

Define – determine customer quality goalsMeasure – setup relevant metrics based on

customer goals and collect dataAnalyze – evaluate data results for trends,

patterns, relationships. Improve – make changes based on factsControl – don’t slip backwards once targets are

reached but set up control methods to maintain performance

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Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)

Federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology

The SEI contract was competitively awarded to Carnegie Mellon University in December 1984

The U.S. Department of Defense established SEI to advance the practice of software engineering because quality software is a critical component of U.S. defense systems

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CMMI The quality of a system is highly influenced by the

quality of the process used to acquire, develop, and maintain it

This premise implies a focus on processes as well as on productsThis is a long-established premise in manufacturing

(and is based on TQM principles as taught by Shewhart, Juran, Deming, and Humphrey)

Belief in this premise is visible worldwide in quality movements in manufacturing and service industries (e.g., ISO standards)

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Maturity Model Overview A maturity model is a structured collection of elements that

describe characteristics of effective processes. A maturity model provides

a place to start the benefit of a community’s prior experiencesa common language and a shared visiona framework for prioritizing actionsa way to define what improvement means for your

organization A maturity model can be used as a benchmark for assessing

different organizations for equivalent comparison

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Maturity Model Overview A CMMI model provides a structured view of

process improvement across an organization. CMMI can help

integrate traditionally separate organizationsset process improvement goals and prioritiesprovide guidance for quality processesprovide a yardstick for appraising current practices

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Maturity Model Overview Models in Four Disciplines

Systems Engineering (SE)Software Engineering (SW)Integrated Product and Process

Development (IPPD)Supplier Sourcing (SS)

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Maturity Model Overview Substantial reduction in systems integration

and test time with greater probability of success

Cause integration of, and interaction among, the various engineering functions

Extend SW-CMM benefits to the total project & organization

Employ systems engineering principles in software development

Increase & improve SE content in programs Leverage previous process improvement

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OPM3

Organizational Project Management Maturity Model

Is universal, supporting all types of projects and organizations, across the world.

The OPM3 maturity model has four levels of maturity, and each level can exist at different domains of project management. The three domains of project management are portfolio, program, and project

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OPM3

As a general rule, organizations new to organizational project management maturity are encouraged to begin at the individual project stage and gain maturity before moving on to maturity in their project management practices for programs and then portfolios

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OPM3 Four Stages of Maturity

Standardize—A standard process, with defined deliverables, is adopted.

Measure—Metrics are created and measured. Control—Actions are taken, based on facts

gathered to improve the project. Continuously improve—Modifications are

made to improve the process with each project

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OPM3 Process Cycle

Prepare for assessment Perform assessment Plan for improvements Implement improvements Repeat the process

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Maturity Model Warnings

No guarantees they produce quality product just that they follow a standard process

No “silver-bullet” No auditing agencies exist to review claims

after the fact

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Quality Planning Process The quality management plan consists of: metrics

(thresholds such as the number of software bugs allowed), missed requirements, system response time, failure rates, etc.), checklists (verify that a required set of steps was completed), improvement plan (identify non-value added steps and remove or improve them), and finally a baseline of where the organization is currently operating

Important to pick the correct metrics, what get measured is what gets attention

Metrics: simple and easy to understand, inexpensive to use, robust, consistent, easily collected, and easily accessible by all stakeholders

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Quality Management Plan

Philosophies and principlesAuthority levels of each individual The organization’s quality process defined on its

own or one of the popular methodologies identified earlier in the chapter (Six Sigma, TQM, etc.)

Overall objectives, timing of corrective actions

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Quality Management Plan Standards and Metrics

“-ilities” Adaptability, Flexibility, Generality, Install-ability, Interoperability, Maintainability, Modifiability, Portability, Reliability, Replace-ability, Reusability, Scalability, Test-ability, Understand-ability, Usability

Return on Investment goals (Economy) Efficiency Documentation Customer satisfaction criteria Performance criteria Number of change requests and time to implement Earned Value

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Quality Management Plan Data Acquisition and validation

SamplingSurveysOutside assessmentsSystem test resultsWhen should data be gathered, stored and by whoAutomated testing tools being used or needed

Configuration Management Plan

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Quality Management Plan

Roles and ResponsibilitiesWho collects information and who verifies the

accuracy of the dataWho is to receive and act on the dataWho makes final decisions on changes

Status ReportsWho is responsible for producing them, what do

they look like and how often Who receives which reports

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Tools and Techniques to Build the Plan

Cost-benefit analysis – is used to determine the trade-off between the costs of building a quality product or service and the benefits obtained from a product that meets defined quality standards

Brainstorming Benchmarking – study a competitor’s product, service,

or business practice Design of experiments - is a statistical method to help

identify which factors have influence on the quality of the product or process. It allows you to change certain parameters (> one at a time) and observe the results

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Communications Planning Importance of Good Communications:

The greatest threat to many projects is a

“failure to communicate” Effective project communications is paramount to success

on all projects and especially on IT projects due largely to the language gap that occurs on many projects

Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for IT professionals

It has been estimated that as much as 90% of a project manager’s time is spent in some form of communication

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Old Adage

“if the organization’s management team knows nothing of what you are doing, they will assume you are doing nothing”

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Art of Communications Communication can include several

definitions: an exchange of information, a verbal or written message, a technique for expressing ideas effectively, a process by which meanings are exchanged

between persons through a common system of symbols and/or sounds

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Importance of Good Communications Medium – communication transport (email,

phone,…) Encode – translate thoughts into language Message – output of encoding Noise – anything that interferes with the

transmission and understanding of the message

Decode – translate message into meaningful thoughts or ideas

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Communications Process

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Project Communications Management Process

Communications planning: determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders

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Communications Planning

Every project should include some type of communications management plan, a document that guides project - written and oral communications (timing, detail)

Much of the information contained in the communications management plan is taken from the stakeholder analysis already completed in an earlier process

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How to Communicate with Each Stakeholder

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The Communications Plan Must Answer the Following Questions:

Who are the stakeholders? What information do the stakeholders need,

when do they want it, at what level of detail do they need, and in what form?

Who on the project team is responsible for collecting data, creating the reports, and disseminating the reports?

Who on the project team is the first contact for stakeholders with questions and issues?

Who on the project team is the first contact for external vendors with questions and issues?

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Steps to Conducting the Quality Planning Process

1. Obtain commitment and shared understanding from stakeholders on the quality standards to be used on this specific project.

2. Conduct training for all on the Organization’s quality initiative (Six Sigma, TQM, CMMI)

3. Define the quality standards which consist of metrics (goals) to be measured and the acceptable result parameters

4. Determine how each metric result will be collected and who is responsible for collecting each data item.

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Steps to Conducting the Quality Planning Process

5. Conduct Project Team training on the chosen metrics and the defined process for control and monitoring.

6. Build checklists to aid the project team in collecting and monitoring quality standards

7. Define and report the current baseline of metrics for the organization

8. Build process improvement plans, disseminate and execute

9. Finally, accumulate information from previous steps and build the Quality Management plan

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Steps to Conducting the Communication Planning Process

1. Review the stakeholder analysis and add information if necessary pertaining to communications management and complete the stakeholder communications matrix.

2. Define content for status reports and timing3. Establish who on the project team is responsible for

collecting data for status reports4. Establish who on the project team is responsible for

creating the reports and disseminating the reports5. Establish key project team contacts for each stakeholder

to serve as first contact references 6. Finally, accumulate information from previous steps and

build the Communications Management plan

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