Download: Pareto Example with Explanation
What is Project Quality Management?
It is the process of ensuring that all activities of a project are effective and efficient with respect to the objective and performance. It is an inseparable part of Project Management. However Quality Management is a continuous process and is more about prevention and avoidance than fixing the mistakes
Catastrophic project failures due to quality issues
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Avon Products, a Canadian based company introduced a new Sales Management Software for its employees. The Software was tablet enabled and had a back-end ERP System. Basic functions such as logging in, saving orders and checking inventory were not working properly. This led the company to finally abandon the software
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State of Minnesota, USA tried to develop its own System in accordance with the affordable healthcare law by Obama Government. However there were many issues with the operating of the system as of Dec 2013, with some reports that the system did not perform a proper eligibility check for healthcare facilities.
Why Project Quality Management?
The main purpose of project quality management is to ensure that the project meets the stakeholders’ requirement. Quality must also be adhered to along with scope, schedule and budget.
The next step is to define quality. There must be proper documented standards of quality which the project team is expected to follow.
Quality management is the ability to anticipate situations and take actions that prevent those situations.Typically we see the project quality management as
- Functionality- It is the extent to which the project performs its desired function
- Reliability- Reflects the probability of a project’s failure
- Features- Secondary characteristics that supplement the project’s basic function
- Completeness- The quality that the service is complete and includes the entire scope of services.
- Consistency, services are delivered in the same way for every beneficiary.
- Timeliness- How the product or service is delivered in time to solve the purpose
- Relevance- The characteristics how a product meets the actual needs of its beneficiaries
The PDCA cycle
Also known as the Shewhart cycle, this tool includes four steps
Plan, Do, Check, Act
Plan- Establish objectives to achieve a result
Do- Implement the process
Check- Evaluate the process by checking the results against the objectives
Act- Apply actions necessary to improve the results
The PDCA cycle is a never-ending cycle.
Seven QC tools
- Frequency Distribution- Shows the frequency distribution between high and low values
- Pareto Diagram- A Pareto chart, named after Vilfredo Pareto, is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line.
Example of pareto diagram
Let’s say in a Project it is anticipated that the following number of errors occur in these stages
Requirement gathering -20, Feasibility study- 5, Analysis-100, Design -80, Coding 200, Testing 30, Implementation 12.
I will now draw a paretodiagram using an excel sheet. The image below shows the pareto diagram on the excel sheet.
- Cause and effect Diagram– This helps in identifying the cause of the problems
Also known as cause and effect diagram it is one of the commonly used method for risk identification. In this method the various causes of a problem are categorised under People, machine, environment, measures and methods category. Very useful for project of all kinds
Source: http://salesperformance.com/help-sales-managers-put-out-the-fires-to-improve-results-this-year
The above diagram shows the risk management using fish bone diagram for Sales and Marketing business
Source: http://salesperformance.com/help-sales-managers-put-out-the-fires-to-improve-results-this-year
The above diagram shows the risk management using fish bone diagram for Sales and Marketing business
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Scatter diagram- Shows the correlation between two variables
- Cause and effect Diagram- This helps in identifying the cause of the problems
Also known as cause and effect diagram it is one of the commonly used method for risk identification. In this method the various causes of a problem are categorised under People, machine, environment, measures and methods category. Very useful for project of all kinds
The above diagram shows negative correlation. However the correlation is weak as the points are scattered
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Run Chart- It shows how a variable has changed over time
The diagram below shows the run chart for error over various time stages
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Control Charts- Control Limits are the statistical boundaries of a processwhich define the amount of variation that can be consideredas normal or inherent variation
3 sigma control limits are most common.
Measures inside control limits are assumed to come from a stable process – Measures outside the control limits are unexpected and considered the result of a assignable cause
Within 3 sigma limits only 3 out of 1000 process fails.
Control chart types
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