Quality Management Theory and Its Application to Project Management - Assignment Example

Name: Pui Lian Pann Unit: Manage project quality Assessment task 1 Quality Management Theory and its application to project management Quality management theory is of great importance to a project since it offers valid way to manage quality in a project and ensure the effectiveness of the measures put in place to enhance the success and completion of the project. This theory is mainly applied in project management and it is of great importance since it improves the efficiency of the process and this help in the increasing of productivity in the end. Through the application of the theory, the employees are empowered and the management team is able to create a teamwork atmosphere. At the same time the theory ensures that the management focuses more on the choices of the customers so as to deliver quality products to them and in the right and most appropriate time and this means when the customers really needs them (Dennis 78) How do you decide on the quality criteria for your project deliverables? The best way to decide on the quality criteria of the project deliverables is ensuring that there is a clear acceptance of a criteria and this ought to include the metrics and all this needs to align with the different areas of quality that the final products will be evaluated against. Additionally, the criteria also need to meet SMART criteria and in this respect the quality criteria ought to be specific, measurable, assignable, time related and realistic. How to integrate your quality plan into your daily activities The best way in which one can integrate the quality plan in the daily activities is by ensuring that the quality control and assurance measures are incorporated in the project from the start up to the completion of the project (Dennis 78). This will offer an easier way and plan of managing quality since it can be assessed in a well timed and consistent manner and corrections made when necessary. This will ensure that effective completion of a project within the specified amount of time and with the highest level of standards. Difference between quality assurance and quality control Organizations, project managers and the team members needs to agree in the meaning and definitions of quality assurance and quality control since both of them are very important to the quality management plan of an organization. At the same time, the effectiveness of the teams mainly relies on the difference of the two beyond well understood by all the stakeholders in the project. In determining the differences among the two one needs to refer to the ISO 9000 family of standards and based on the family quality control is termed as part of the quality management which seems to be more focused on the fulfilling of the quality requirements. Quality assurance in the other hand is defined as the part of the quality management, which tends to be more focused on offering the required level of confidence that the quality requirements will be fulfilled (Rajkumar 47). Stage in lifecycle when one should review the processes for effectiveness and why In the lifecycle there are a number of stages and based on these the best stage to review the processes for effectiveness is the stage three which entails the exploring of all available options. During this stage, one needs to know where you are in the project and what needs to be done and them work out the best way to do it. The reason as to why this stage is critical is that based on the option chosen among all the available alternatives it will be a great determine of the success of the project or its failure. Project management techniques for managing continuous improvement Project manager at all times needs to ensure that there are continuous improvements in the projects. One major technique that ensures that their continuous improvements is the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle which is also termed as the shewhart cycle or the Deming cycle. This methods involves the identification of the opportunities and the planning of the change, this is then followed by implementation of the changes in small scale. The next step entails the analysis of results of the changes to determine if the change made a notable difference and lastly if the changes were successful the changes are implemented on a wide scale basis. Other most common continuous improvement techniques includes total quality management, lean management and the six sigma and this usually emphasis more on the involvement of the employees and teamwork, measuring and systematizing of the processes as well as the reduction of defects, variation in addition to the cycle times (Rajkumar 33). The ISO9001 This is a family of standards that aims at addressing a number of aspects related to quality management and it is composed of some of the best known and acknowledged ISO standards. They can be used and applied so as to improve the overall quality of an organization processes since they offer a lot of guidance as well as tool which the companies and organizations who aims at ensuring that there products and services meets and addresses the requirements of their target customers can make use of. At the same time the standards in this family also ensures that the quality is improved on a constant basis hence there is an overall improvement in terms of quality from time to time (International Organization for Standardization 2017). Name : PUI LIAN PANN Course: Manage project quality Assessment task 2 Part A: Determine quality requirements a. Quality Requirements Summary Deliverable Quality Requirements / Standards Quality Assurance Quality Control Project management schedule Ensure that the project schedule management activities are done through a process that is documented The project schedule review meetings takes place The meeting are well attended Any modification are approved and tracked The schedule should not exceed the planned time of the project Review of the design There needs to be a verification that the design review activities are done through a process that is documented The design review meetings ought to take place The meeting are attended well Any modification are approved tracked and at the same time well documented A communication process is in place The role and the responsibilities seems to be well designed and The design review processes are well implemented to ascertain that the inputs were selected in the right manner and incorporated. Design is followed to the letter and in case of modifications, they need to be approved. Change There needs to be a verification that the activities involved in the change management activities are performed well and this ought to be done through a process that is documented. The changes needs to be commenced immediately All members of the project will need to attend the meeting and contribute their views on issues that need to be changed. The changes are well implemented and this will demonstrate that the changes were necessary. The change process is followed to the letter and in case of any other proposed changes, they need to be pointed out and approved before being implemented. Management of risk and issues There need to be a verification that the risk and issue management activities are being performed in reference to a documented process The risks need to be identified early enough. The roles responsibilities are precisely defined to ensures that they risks are addressed on the a timely manner. The risks needs to be addressed based on order of priority. Posting of the risks results and any other risks that may have been identified with time. Test management There need to be a verification that the test management activities are taking place through the use of a documented process The review procedures of the test needs to be well defined There need to be a rigorous verification approach in place The test procedures should be easy to understand and apply Posting of test reports, results and problems reports Management of defects There needs to be a verification that the defect management activities are undertaken through the use of a process that is well documented The defects needs to be tracked The defect process is followed The defects are categorised based on their cause, type and module. b. Quality Requirements Summary Deliverable Quality Requirements / Standards Quality Assurance Quality Control Review of the Project schedule inspection Ensure that the project schedule management activities are done through a process that is documented Ensure that the meeting takes place on timely basis All the tasks should have resources allocated to them. The plan should be base aligned The resources allocated should not in any way exceed 100% All the phases of the project should be represented realistically Review of Change management There needs to be a verification that the activities involved in the change management activities are performed well and this ought to be done through a process that is documented The minutes are updated constantly The change orders needs to be documented well The changes which have been approved need to be visible in the schedule Review of Management risks and issues There need to be a verification that the risk and issue management activities are being performed in reference to a documented process The issues and risks are well documented in order of preference risks and issues are handled within a short period of time Test management review There need to be verification that the test management activities are taking place using a documented process. Clear review and definition of the how testing needs to be done Review of the results, reports and issue reports Review of defect management There needs to be a verification that the defect management activities are undertaken through the use of a process that is well documented Effective tracking of defects Repetition of the failed tests Categorization of defects based on plan Identification, documentation, addressing and tracking of the test anomalies. 2. To ensure that the project team members and the stakeholders understand the quality play that I have documented above I would ensure that I teach them and enlighten them on what the plan is all about. Thorough the session the team members and the stakeholders would have a chance to interact, discuss and ask any question on aspects of the plan that they fail to understand. Part B: Implement Quality Processes 1. quality assurance and control activities Project Schedule Yes No Resource allocations do not exceed 100%. Project Schedule is base lined. All tasks are allocated resources phases are realistically represented Change Management Documentation Review Yes No minutes are updated constantly Ordered changes are documented properly Approved changes reflected in the schedule Risk & Issue Documentation Review Yes No Risks & Issues are documented Risks & Issues are handled within a short period of time Risks & Issues categorized Requirements Traceability Matrix Audit Yes No User requirements are traced to software requirements. Requirements are uniquely identified and traced If business processes have been impacted by the project Design Document Inspection Yes No Approvals obtained Proper use of template in design Quality Control Log Review Date Deliverable Reviewed Findings Resolution Resolution Date 20/07/2017 Project management schedule The project was on track The pace should be maintained 25/07/2017 26/7/2017 Change management Changes were inevitable Changes were to be implemented only when agreed upon 28/07/2017 Quality Assurance Log Review Date Process Reviewed Findings Resolution Resolution Date 29/07/2017 Design The design template was followed The design template was to be followed even for future projects 30/07/2017 31/07/2017 Test management Some of the tests failed After collection additional testing was to take place 3/08/2017 2. A major variance in quality, which has been identified above, is that though it was expected that the user requirements were to be tracked with software this was not the case always. 3. Quality management system enables the accurate and timely recoding of quality audit data in the project in that through it use the project manager and the other stakeholders can keep records of the data. This data is more likely to be accurate as compared to other forms of data stored in other forms for example in the print media (Rajkumar 67). Part C: implement project quality improvements 1. A very good example of where I reviewed the quality processes and implemented the agree changes during the process to ensure continuous improvement is where we agreed that the period of addressing the issues was lengthy. Thus, it was agreed that any risks and issues are handled within a short period of time and in the order of preference. In this case, the most risky issues were to be addressed first while the other followed closely. 2. The performance of my project in terms of quality management processes and procedures can be termed as being very effective. This decision is mainly informed by the fact that the required results were achieved on time and there is constant improvement in a number of areas in the project. Additionally, all the stakeholders’ ion the project were informed and updated constantly on the status of the project and this ensured that they were well aware of any issues and offered solution to deal with the issues. The involvement of all the stakeholders ensured that the change process was running smoothly and in instances when resistance was faced it was minimal. 3. Quality issues and recommendation for the future Date Description of problem/opportunity Recommended Action for next time/project Lesson Learned Raised By 1/07/2017 Poor allocation of resources Adequate allocation of resources to ensure that the project of the required quality since no compromise have been made in relation to the use of resources. A major lesson learned is that in instances when there is poor allocation of resources it may eventually affect the quality of the project in general. 12/07/2017 Poor planning Ensure that there is a quality manager in the project and he will play an essential role in the planning to ensure that there is proper planning during the project. A major lesson learned is that when there is poor planning the quality of the project is more likely to be affected adversely. 18/07/2017 Poor communication Ensure that there is effective communication among all the involved parties in the project and ensure that communication is done when issues of quality arises. A major lesson learned is that with good communication people will be able to point out nay quality issues in advance and ensure that they are addressed on time. 22/07/2017 Poor scope management Ensure that the leadership team charged with the issue quality have a clear understanding of the project and this will play an essential role in ensuring that those in leadership will ensure that quality of the project is as required. A major lesson learned is that with proper scope management quality will be managed in an effective manner since all the required resources will be made available to enhance the success of the project. 30/07/2017 Poor problem solving A major recommendation for the next project is to have problem solving measures in place since when issues are not addressed the quality of projects are more likely to be affected adversely. A major lesson learned from this project is that with proper problem solving time spent on these issues can be spent of enhancing the quality of the project. References International Organization for Standardization 2017, ISO 9000 - Quality management https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html Dennis, Lock. Project Management (9th Ed.) UK: Gower Publishing Ltd, 2007. Rajkumar, Vincent. Art of communication in project management. Paper presented at PMI® Research Conference: Defining the Future of Project Management, Washington, DC. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute. 2010. Read More