MEC-7

Quality Control on Projects

Outline
▪ What ‘Controlling Quality’ on Projects is
▪ Level of Effort & Degree of Implementation in Quality Control
▪ Tools used in Controlling Quality
▪ Quality Metrics and KPIs
Readings
▪ PMBoK-7, pages 32S, 47-49S, 52, 67, 72, 87-91, 186
▪ Rita-10, Chapter 8.
▪ Lecture Notes

‘Quality’ – one of the Principles of Project Management

The 8th Principle:
“Build Quality into Processes and Deliverables”

QUALITY Ref: PMBOK-7, p 47S

Maintain a focus on quality  Entails satisfying Stakeholders’ Expectations and

that produces deliverables that
meet project objectives and
align to the needs, uses, and
acceptance requirements set
forth by relevant stakeholders
fulfilling project and product requirements
 focuses on meeting Acceptance Criteria for
Deliverables
 Entails ensuring project Processes are appropriate and
as effective as possible

MEhsanSaeed 2

1
 PMBOK’s Elaboration on ‘Quality’ … 1/2
• Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of a product, service, or result
fulfills the requirements. Includes the ability to satisfy the customer’s stated or implied needs
• A Deliverable is measured for the Quality of both the conformance to Acceptance Criteria
and Fitness for use
• Deliverable has several Dimensions insofar as Quality is concerned, like:

MEhsanSaeed
o Performance: Performing as intended

o Conformity: Fit for use and meeting requirements

o Reliability: Producing consistent results (metrics)
o Resilience: Able to cope with unforeseen failures and quickly recover
o Satisfaction: Positive feedback from the end users
o Uniformity: Parity with other deliverables produced in the same manner
o Efficiency: Maximum output with the least inputs and effort
o Sustainability: Producing a positive impact on economic, social, & environmental parameters

• Quality assesses the project approaches and activities used to produce the project’s
Deliverables, through reviews and audits (that is QA)
• Quality measured using metrics and acceptance criteria (that is QC)
• Quality closely linked to the product acceptance criteria, as described in the statement of
work or other design documents (that is also QC)
• Both QA and QC focus on detection, prevention and removal of errors and defects, and avoid
or reduce the chances/need for rework and scrap 3

PMBOK’s Elaboration on ‘Quality’ … 2/2

• Effective Quality Management leads to:
o Project deliverables that are fit for purpose, as defined by acceptance criteria (Scope
Control & Validation)
o Project deliverables that meet stakeholder expectations and business objectives (Scope
Control & Validation)
MEhsanSaeed

o Project deliverables with minimal or no defects

o Timely or expedited delivery (Schedule Control)
o Enhanced cost control (Cost Control)
o Increased quality of product delivery (SCM)
o Reduced rework and scrap (Cost of Non-Conformance)
o Reduced customer complaints (Cost of Non-Conformance)
o Good supply chain integration (SCM)
o Improved productivity (SCM/Operations)
o Increased project team morale and satisfaction (Morale & Motivation)
o Robust service delivery (SCM/Operations)
o Improved decision making, and (Leadership, Management)
o Continually improved processes (Kaizen)
4

2
What is the ‘Control Quality’ Process?
• Monitors and Records results of executing the QM activities in order to assess
Performance and ensure the project Outputs are Complete, Correct, and meet
Customer Expectations; measures the Completeness, Compliance, and Fitness for
use of a product or Service prior to User Acceptance and Final Delivery
• Verifies that project Deliverables and Work meet the Requirements specified by key
Stakeholders for Final Acceptance
• Determines if the project outputs do what they were intended to do and comply
with all applicable Standards, Requirements, Regulations, and Specifications
• Performed throughout the Project to formally demonstrate, with reliable data, that
the Sponsor’s and/or Customer’s Acceptance Criteria have been met

MEhsanSaeed 5

QC - Level of Effort & Degree of Implementation

Level of Effort to Control Quality and the Degree of Implementation may differ
between Industries and Project Management Styles:
• In pharmaceutical, health, transportation, and nuclear industries, there may be
stricter QC procedures compared to other industries, and the effort needed to meet
the standards may be extensive
• In Agile projects, the QC activities may be performed by all team members
throughout the Project Life Cycle. In Waterfall model-based projects, the QC
activities are performed at specific times, toward the end of the project or phase, by
specified team members

MEhsanSaeed 6

3
Some Quality Metrics on Projects
Metric What is it
Cost of Quality All Costs incurred on Quality Management activities
Defects Any Failure to meet a Specification or Requirement
Customer Complaints Direct Measure of Quality; entail Cost of Repair and Rework, including
& Returns logistical costs
Scrap Material Resources wasted or considered Beyond Economic Repair (BER)
Yield, Throughput & Classic metrics to measure Process or Plant Effectiveness, Efficiency and
Overall Equipment Productivity
Effectiveness (OEE)
Supplier Quality Quality Measure of the through Supplier Defect Rate; Supplier
Metrics Chargebacks; Incoming Supplier Quality metrics
Delivery Metrics Indirect Quality metric considering that timely deliveries lead to
Customer Satisfaction which is a Quality function; include On-Time
Delivery and Perfect Order Metric
Audit Metrics (Audit Pertain to Audit results: On-time Audit Completion Rate; Number of
an important Quality Non-Compliances per Area; Percentage of Non-Compliances receiving
tool) follow-up via mitigation or corrective action

MEhsanSaeed 7

Explanation of Terms used on Last Slide

Supplier Quality Metrics
Supplier Defect Rate (Percentage of materials from suppliers not meeting quality specifications)
Supplier Chargebacks (Total charged to suppliers for cost of non-conforming materials, possibly
including late delivery and payroll costs)
Incoming Supplier Quality (Percentage of materials received meeting quality requirement)
Delivery Metrics
There are two crucial metrics you should be measuring with regards to delivery from a customer
satisfaction and efficiency perspective:
On-time delivery (OTD) is calculated as the percentage of units delivered within the OTD
window.
Perfect order metric (POM) or fill rate is the percentage of orders that arrive complete, on time,
damage-free and with a correct invoice. It is harder to achieve a good POM considering that
each component of this metric gets multiplied together:
Audit Metrics
Audit metrics are another leading indicator to monitor, especially if you’re using high-
frequency layered process audits to reduce defects. Higher level audit metrics are:
• On-time audit completion rate
• Number of non-compliances per area
• Percentage of non-compliances receiving follow-up via mitigation or corrective action 8

4
Quality Control Tools – Data Gathering … 1/2
Tool Description
Checklists Help in managing QC activities in a structured
manner; an aide-mémoire
Check Sheets • used to organize facts in a manner that will facilitate the effective
aka Tally Sheets collection of useful data about a potential quality problem
• Especially useful for gathering Attributes Data while performing
Inspections to identify Defects; eg, data about the frequencies or
consequences of defects

Paintwork QC Check Sheet

Problem Frequency of Occurrence Total
Chip 1111 1111 1111 11 17
Bubble 111 3
Run 1111 1 6
Scrape/Scratch 1 1
Inadequate Coverage 1111 1111 1111 14
MEhsanSaeed Other 9

Quality Control Tools – Data Gathering … 2/2

Tool Description
Statistical • Involves choosing Part of a Population of Interest for Inspection
Sampling (eg, selecting 10 engineering drawings at random from a list of 75)
• Sample is taken to measure Controls and Verify Quality.
• Sample Frequency and Sizes determined during the PQM process
Questionnaires • Used to gather data about Customer Satisfaction after the
& Surveys deployment of the Product or Service
• The Cost of Defects identified in the Surveys may be considered as
External Failure Costs in the COQ model and can have extensive
Cost implications for the organization

‘Control Quality’ - Tools & Techniques – Data Analysis

Performance Measure, Compare, and Analyze the Quality Metrics defined by the
Reviews Plan Quality Management process against the actual results
Root Cause Used to identify the source of defects
Analysis (MEC-13) 10

10

5
Quality Control Tools – Data Representation … 1/3
Tool Description
Cause & Effect Used to identify the possible Effects of Quality Defects and Errors …
Diagram (See MEC-13 on RCA)
Histogram A type of bar chart that shows graphical representation of
numerical data in user-specified ranges called bins

Spark Plug Defects freq Bar Chart of Defects on Spark Plugs

19
Dirty Core 6 18

Raised Stud 12
13
Off-Centred Wire 19 12 12

Mixed Plugs 12 9
8
Bad Plating 18 6

Chipped Cores 0
Dirty Insulators 8 0
Off-
Core

Wire

Cement
Stud

Bad

on Core
Dirty

Raised

Mixed

Cores

Dirty

Poor
Centred

Plugs

Chipped

Insulators
Plating

Gaping
Poor Gaping 13
Cement on Core 9
11
MEhsanSaeed

11

Quality Control Tools – Data Representation … 2/3

Tool Description
Scatter Can show the Planned Performance on one axis and the Actual
Diagrams Performance on the second axis.… (See Regression Analysis in MEC-23)

Variance 1
1
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.8 0.84
0.7
0.7 0.74
Actual Value (mm)

0.6
0.6 Ideal Value
0.5 0.61
Actual Value
0.5 0.55
0.4
0.4
0.3 0.41
0.3
0.2 0.3
0.2 0.25
0.1
0.1 0.16

0 0.07
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Planned Value (mm) 12

12

6
Quality Control Tools – Data Representation … 3/3
Tool Description
USL

Control • Used to determine whether or not a process UCL

Charts is Stable or has Predictable Performance CL

• Upper & Lower Specification Limits,
LCL
(See determined by the Requirements, reflect the
LSL
MEC-24 Max and Min values allowed
on the
• Upper & Lower Control Limits, determined by using standard Statistical
subject)
calculations and principles, ultimately establish the natural capability for a
stable process
• Proj Manager and stakeholders may use the statistically calculated Control
Limits to identify the points at which Corrective Action will be taken to
prevent performance that remains outside the control limits
• Used to monitor various types of Output Variables
• Used most frequently to track Repetitive Activities required for producing
manufactured lots
• Also used to monitor Cost and Schedule Variances, Volume, Frequency of
Scope Changes, or other management results to help determine if the
project management Processes are in Control
13

13

Quality Control Tools – Others … 1/3

Tool Description
Inspections • The Examination of a work product to determine if it conforms to
documented Standards
• Results include Measurements
• May be conducted at any level
• Results of a single activity can be inspected, or the final product of
the project can be inspected
• Aka Reviews, Peer Reviews, Audits, or Walkthroughs, but may have
have narrow and specific meanings in some application areas
• Also used to Verify Defect Repairs
Testing & • An organized and constructed Investigation conducted to provide
Product objective information about the Quality of the product or service
Evaluation … under Test iaw the project Requirements
• Intent: Find Errors, Defects, Bugs, or other Nonconformance
problems in the product or service
• Type, amount, and extent of Tests needed to evaluate each
requirement are part of the QMP and depend on the nature of the
MEhsanSaeed project, time, budget, and other constraints …
14

14

7
Quality Control Tools – Others … 2/3
Tool Description
… Testing & …
Product • Can be performed throughout the project, as different components
Evaluation of the project become available, and at the end of the project on
the Final Deliverables
• Early Testing helps identify Nonconformance Problems and helps
reduce the Cost of Fixing the nonconforming components
• Different application areas require different Tests. For example:
- Software Project Testing may include Unit Testing, Integration
Testing, Black-Box, White-Box, Interface Testing, Regression
Testing, Alpha Testing, etc.
- Hardware Project Testing may may include Environmental Stress
Screening, Burn-in tests, System testing, etc
- Construction Projects testing may include Cement Strength,
Concrete Workability Test, Non-destructive Tests at construction
sites for testing the quality of hardened Concrete Structures,
Building Materials Tests, Soil Tests, etc

MEhsanSaeed
15

15

Quality Control Tools – Others … 3/3

Tool Description
Meetings Approved Change Requests Review
- Reviews all Approved Change Requests to Verify that they were
Implemented as Approved
- Also checks that Partial Changes have been completed and all parts
have been properly implemented, tested, completed, and certified
Retrospectives/Lesson Learned
A meeting held by a project team to discuss:
- Successful Elements in the project/phase,
- What could be improved,
- What to incorporate in the ongoing project and what in future
projects, and
- What to add to the OPA

MEhsanSaeed
16

16

8
QC Testing of Concrete
Press
Mold
Sample

Satisfactory Failures
Unsatisfactory Failures

MEhsanSaeed
17

17

Retrospective 18

In software engineering, a Retrospective is a meeting held by a project team at the end of a

project or process (often after an iteration) to discuss what was successful about the project or
time period covered by that Retrospective, what could be improved, and how to incorporate the
successes and improvements in future iterations or projects

Repeat 2nd
Iteration Next

1st Phase Gate 2nd 3rd

Phase/ Phase/ Phase/
Process/ Retro- Process/ Retro- Process/ Retro-
Iteration spective Iteration spective Iteration spective

Repeat 1st Next Repeat 3rd

Retrospective in Agile Projects

MEhsanSaeed

18