Project Quality Management

Part Two

Six Sigma 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.”

Sigma measures how far a given process deviates from perfection.

A highly disciplined process that enables organizations deliver nearly perfect products and services.

The figure of six arrived statistically from current average maturity of most business enterprises

A philosophy and a goal: as perfect as practically possible.

A methodology and a symbol of quality2

Six Sigma A statistical concept that measures a process in

terms of defects – at the six sigma level, there 3.4  defects per million opportunities

Six Sigma is not: A standard A certification Another metric like percentage

Rather! It is a Quality Philosophy and the way of improving performance by knowing where you are and where you could be.

Methodology to measure and improve company’s performance, practices and systems

Six Sigma projects normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC

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DMAIC Define – Define the problem/opportunity, process, and

customer requirements. Important tools used in this phase include a project charter, a description of customer requirements and voice of customer data.

Measure – Measure reduction of defects that is define measures, then collect, compile, and display data

Analyze – Scrutinize process details to find improvement opportunities. A Six Sigma team investigates and verifies data to prove the suspected root causes of quality problems. Important tools include fishbone diagrams.

Improve – Generate solutions and ideas for improving the problem. Improve process on bases of measurements and analysis

Control – Track and verify the stability of the improvements and the predictability of the solution. Control charts are one tool used in this phase.

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Six Sigma 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

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

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Six Sigma Conversion Table

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Sigma Level ( Process Capability)

Defects per Million Opportunities

2 308,537

3 66,807

4 6,210

5 233

6 3.4

In a billing system the opportunities for defects could be misspelled name, incorrect address, wrong date of service, calculation error and so on.

Testing Many IT professionals think of testing as a

stage that comes near the end of IT product development

Testing should be done during almost every phase of the IT product development life cycle

Figure on next slide shows one way of portraying the systems development lifecycle. This example includes 17 main tasks involved in the software development project and shows their relationships to each other.

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Types of Testing Unit testing tests each individual component (often a

program) to ensure it is as defect-free as possible. Unit tests are performed before moving on to the integration.

Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test functionally grouped components. It ensures a subset(s) of the entire system works together.

System testing tests the entire system as one entity. It focuses on the big picture to ensure system is working properly.

User acceptance testing is an independent test performed by end users prior to accepting the delivered system. It focuses on the business fit of the system to the organization, rather than technical issues.

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Testing Alone is Not Enough Watts S. Humphrey, a renowned expert on software

quality, defines a software defect as anything that must be changed before delivery of the program

He believes that the traditional code/test/fix cycle is not enough. As code gets more complex, the no of defects missed by testing increases.

Testing does not sufficiently prevent software defects because: The number of ways to test a complex system is huge Users will continue to invent new ways to use a system

that its developers never considered Humphrey suggests that people rethink the software

development process to provide no potential defects when you enter system testing; developers must be responsible for providing error-free code at each stage of testing

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Modern Quality Management Modern quality management:

Requires customer satisfaction

Prefers prevention to inspection

Recognizes management responsibility for quality

Noteworthy quality experts include Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa, Taguchi, and Feigenbaum

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Quality Experts Deming was famous for his work in rebuilding

Japan and his 14 Points for Management. His model of quality suggests Plan, Do, Check and Act. This model is the basis of Six Sigma principles.

Juran wrote the Quality Control Handbook and ten steps to quality improvement. Juran stressed the difference between project team’s view of quality (Conformance to requirements) and customer’s view (fitness for use).

Crosby wrote Quality is Free and suggested that organizations strive for zero defects. He stresses that the cost of poor quality should include all the costs of not doing the job right the first time.

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Quality Experts Ishikawa developed the concepts of quality circles

and fishbone diagrams. Quality circles are groups of nonsupervisory people and work leaders in a single department, who volunteer to conduct group studies for improvement in their departments.

Taguchi developed methods for optimizing the process of engineering experimentation. Key concepts in his methods are the quality should be designed into the product and not inspected into it.

Feigenbaum developed the concept of total quality control which empowers all the people working on the products to maintain quality by stopping production and addressing the quality problems whenever they are incurred13

ISO Standards ISO stands for International standards organization Different countries used different standards and

concentrated on product orientation Later on transition from product to process occurred As market became global, companies thus found

having to meet many standards for different countries that were sometimes conflicting and usually confusing

To eliminate confusion ISO 9000 was issued ISO 9000 is a series of documented standards

prescribing quality management. Written by the International Organization for Standardization. ISO was established in 1987

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ISO 9000 A company should first use ISO 9000 to design

and to implement a quality system. Once the quality has been installed, the company may use the quality assurance models of ISO 9001, ISO 9002, or ISO 9003 to demonstrate the adequacy of the quality system.

ISO 9001 is the one of the basic ISO 9000 series of standards for Quality Assurance

The standard requires: Say what you do Do what you say Record what is done Improve, based on results

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Why ISO 9000 Certifications The stakeholder-motivated approach The company

implements a quality system in response to demands by customers or other stakeholders.

The management-motivated approach. The company’s own management initiates the effort to install a quality system.

Better organizational definition Greater quality awareness Better documentation of processes Increased control of operations Ongoing analysis of and solution to problems Positive cultural change Improved customer satisfaction and increased market

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Improving IT Project Quality Suggestions for improving quality for IT

projects include:

Establish leadership that promotes quality

Understand the cost of quality

Focus on organizational influences and workplace factors that affect quality

Follow maturity models

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Leadership As Joseph M. Juran said in 1945, “It is most

important that top management be quality-minded. In the absence of sincere manifestation of interest at the top, little will happen below.”

A large percentage of quality problems are associated with management, not technical issues

Leadership provides an environment conducive to producing quality.

When every employee insists on providing high quality products, then top management has done a good job of promoting the importance of quality.

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Cost of Quality The cost of quality is the cost of

conformance plus the cost of nonconformance Conformance means delivering products that

meet requirements and fitness for use. Examples of these costs include the cost of developing a Quality Plan, costs for analyzing and maintaining product requirements and costs for testing.

Cost of nonconformance means taking responsibility for failures or not meeting quality expectations

According to RTI research one third of these costs can be eliminated by improved testing infrastructure to enable earlier detection and removal of defects.

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Five Cost Categories Related to Quality Prevention cost: cost of planning and executing a project so it

is error-free or within an acceptable error range. These include preventive actions such as training, detailed studies related to quality and quality surveys of suppliers and subcontractors

Appraisal cost: cost of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure quality. Activities such as inspection and testing, maintenance of testing equipment, processing and reporting inspection data are included.

Internal failure cost: cost incurred to correct an identified defect before the customer receives the product. Include Items such as rework, late payments due to delayed deployment and correcting documentation.

External failure cost: cost that relates to all errors not detected and corrected before delivery to the customer. Costs include product liability suits, complaints handling, future business losses etc.

Measurement and test equipment costs: capital cost of equipment used to perform prevention and appraisal activities

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Organizational Influences, Workplace Factors & Quality Study by DeMarco and Lister showed that

organizational issues had a much greater influence on programmer productivity than the technical environment or programming languages

Study found no correlation between productivity and programming language, years of experience, or salary

A dedicated workspace and a quiet work environment were key factors to improving programmer productivity

The manager’s function is not to make people work but to make it possible for people to work by removing political roadblocks.

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Maturity Models - CMMI CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model

Integration This is a standard published by SEI – Software

Engineering Institute established by US DOD in 1984 The CMMI is “a process improvement approach that

provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational function, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes”

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Maturity Models - CMMI

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Level 5

Initial

Level 1

Processes are unpredictable, poorly controlled, reactive.

Managed

Level 2

Processes are planned, documented, performed, monitored, and controlled at the project level. Often reactive.

Defined

Level 3 Processes are well characterized and understood. Processes, standards, procedures, tools, etc. are defined at the organizational (Organization X ) level. Proactive.

Quantitatively Managed

Level 4

Processes are controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques.

Optimizing

Proce

ss M

atur

ity

Process performance continually improved through incremental and innovative technological improvements.

CMMI – Behaviors At Each Level

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Initial

Managed

Defined

QuantitativelyManaged

Optimizing

Process is unpredictable,poorly controlled, and reactive

Process is characterized for projects and is oftenreactive

Process is characterizedfor the organization andis proactive

Process is measuredand controlled

Focus is on continuousquantitative improvement

Maturity Level Process Characteristics Behaviors

Focus on "fire prevention";improvement anticipated anddesired, and impacts assessed.

Greater sense of teamwork and inter-dependencies

Reliance on defined process. People understand, support and follow the process.

Over reliance on experience of goodpeople – when they go, the processgoes. “Heroics.”

Focus on "fire fighting";effectiveness low – frustration high.

Syllabus for Mid-Term Exam Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project

Management Chapter 5 – Project Scope Management Chapter 6 – Project Time Management Chapter 7 – Project Cost Management

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