Management of Project coursework
Linda111
W9.pptxQuality Management and Managing Requirements
Bringing Meaning to Projects
Delivered by
Dr Kamal Qazi
Session Agenda
What do we mean by Quality
Is it easy to define?
Who is responsible for defining and managing quality in a project?
What are requirements?
Why are they so important?
The PM Triangle and the Project Life Cycle
COST
TIME
QUALITY
Define the
Project
Design the
Project
Process
Deliver the
Project
Develop
the
process
Strategy ,goals
Estimating
Approval
budgeting
Control
Decision making
Problem solving
Review
Feedback
Why do we need Quality?
Defining Quality
Quality perspective
“inspection with the aim of finding the bad ones and throwing them out is too late, ineffective and costly. Quality comes not from inspection but improvement of the process”
Dr W. Edwards Deming
Deming WE 1993 Public Sector Quality Report Lakeville
Project Quality: A definition
‘The fitness for purpose or the degree of conformance of the outputs of a process’
APM BoK 6th Ed. 2012
APM BoK 7th Ed. 2022
Implications, and expectations by sector:
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
M&S or John Lewis vs Primark
Cheap flip-flops
Quality Perspectives
Project methodologies establish a process format to guide the project manager through what is (arguably) a ‘quality’ assurance process
Quality assurance processes came to prominence in U.K. Organisations in the 80s & 90s as western corporations sort to mimic the success of Japanese corporations who had enthusiastically adopted Demming’s ideas about ‘Quality Management’ and attributed their incredible industry performance to this
(It is notable that Toyota for instance, with their ‘Toyota way’ and Nissan have found they can readily export these processes to other countries including the U.K.)
What’s the Purpose of a Project Method[ology]?
Over complicated?
Like many ‘management techniques’ Quality Management, found their original concept failed for many in implementation, and got subsequently adapted, reinterpreted and ‘enhanced’ to things like ‘Total Quality management’ which arguably is the original Demming concept explained more fully to include the human aspect of it.
Schools of thoughts in PRM
Optimisation
Modelling
Governance
Behaviour
Process
Contingency
Success
Decision
Marketing
Too scientific and rational
Disregards the importance of human interaction
Based on deductive reasoning, biased assumptions and partial analysis
Bredillet 2010
Therefore ……..
Essentially, quality is meeting the requirements of our stakeholders, whoever they are.
But, will they always know what they want? Will they ever change their minds?
Now we understand the complexity of managing quality in projects!!
A 10 minutes exercise…
5
4
3
2
1
5
4
3
2
1
5
4
3
2
1
Only allowed a maximum Score of 9
Quality
Cost
Time
Task-1:
To deliver a Valentines present to your loved one
Cost : Gift and dinner Budget:£500
Time : 5pm to 10pm
Quality : luxury end
Task-2:
To Deliver the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic games
Cost : Budget:£50M
Time : 6 years
Quality : World Class
Scoring:
Priority:
1 = Low
5 = High
Goals of Projects
Bowen, Clark, Holloway, and Wheelwright (1994) suggest that the goal of every project should be twofold:
successful development of delivery and
enhanced organisational learning
So, what does that mean on a Project?
A function of the time / Cost / Quality - The Iron Triangle
There is an element of compromise
Why is that important?
COST
TIME
QUALITY
Project Control
Methods of control are set up in the definition (planning) phase of the lifecycle
Used in the ‘doing’, or ‘development’ phase
Define the
Project
Design the
Project
Process
Deliver the
Project
Develop
the
process
Strategy ,goals
Estimating
Approval
budgeting
Control
Decision making
Problem solving
Review
Feedback
Four Quality Components
Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality control
Continual improvement
These include procedures, tools and techniques that are used to ensure that the outputs and benefits meet customer requirements
What does the APM say about quality
Quality - A perspective from ‘Requirements Management’
IT sector - Through Life Project Management
Introduction
Requirements are the single thread that goes through a project from concept through build, test, operation and support
Based on the need to measure a physical entity, requirements are envisioned by the system to meet the need
Requirements are then refined, expanded and flowed down to lower levels through an iterative process
Introduction – three aspects of Requirements Management
Requirements in the beginning …….
What are they?
How are they derived?
Requirements in the middle ……..
How are they maintained?
Can they be changed?
Requirements at the end ……..
Verification
Validation
Customers, Users, Stakeholders
Customers are the person or entities the system responds to. It could include users, project management, enterprise in general
Users are those who engage with the system on a regular basis
Stakeholders are those affected by the system, again these could include users, customers, developers.
Scope
Concept
Development
Build
Develop Requirements
Maintain, Change, Control
Verify, Validate
Requirements run through the entire Project Lifecycle
Definition ……..
“Project requirements start with what the user really needs, not what the provider perceives that the user needs, and ends when those needs are satisfied”.
Traditional Vee Model
Vee Model in PM Context
Define the
Project
Design the
Project
Process
Deliver the
Project
Develop
the
process
Strategy ,goals
Estimating
Approval
budgeting
Control
Decision making
Problem solving
Review
Feedback
Requirements Development
What are the top level requirements?
Set context
What must the system do?
Functional requirements
How well must it perform?
Performance requirements
How do we record requirements?
Organised into a hierarchy that flows down
Requirements Process
Iterative process between stakeholders, users and customers at the beginning
What needs to be done?
What can be done?
What new technologies are required to achieve feasibility?
Requirements Process
Maintain the interactions throughout development
Re-evaluate needs
Clarify needs
Change requirements if necessary
Must separate ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ during concept selection
Done early in the feasibility study
Describes systems characteristics and performance from an operations perspective
Helps scope development costs, schedule, constraints
Managing requirements during Development
Requirements are not always static during development
They can change for many different reasons
Legitimate new requirements might be added
Systems design must be reviewed to assess the impacts
New resources must be added, e.g. budget, schedule, labour
Getting requirements right at the beginning is critical because they run through the whole project
Iteration with users and stakeholders is critical
As you proceed through the project, they must be validated regularly with stakeholders
Control must be maintained through a configuration management process
Don’t ignore necessary changes
Finally, accountability …
The purpose of requirements accountability is to ensure:
That all requirements have been responded to
Have all been verified by test, inspection, demonstration and analysis
The accountability extends from the beginning of the project to the end
So … Designing and Planning for Quality
Quality of design
- A measure of how well the product or service is designed to achieve the agreed requirements
Quality of conformance to design
- The extent to which the product or service achieves the quality of design
- Customer satisfaction must be designed into the whole system
A set of specifications which can be used as a basis for service or product design:
- Characteristics of performance and reliability – Must make reference to the conditions of use and any important environmental factor (s).
- Aesthetic characteristics (e.g. style, colour, feel, etc.).
- Any obligatory regulations or standards governing the nature of the product or service
Tools and Techniques for Quality
Learning from experience: Project history and Project reviews
Learning from experience and transferring knowledge across projects is key to PM (post mortem and maintaining project histories/records/libraries
Brainstorming
Useful in identifying causes of quality failures. The role of the facilitator in running a brainstorming exercise is crucial
Cost/benefit analysis
Consider benefit/cost trade-offs (In many cases there is a correlation between cost and quality)
Benchmarking
Comparing actual or planned project practices to those of other projects
Flowcharting
Any diagram which shows how various elements of a system relate (e.g. cause-and-effect diagram)
In Essence Quality Planning
Involves the preparation of a quality management plan that describes the processes and metrics that will be used
This plan needs to be agreed with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that their expectations for quality have been correctly identified
The processes described need to align with those of the host organisation along with its culture and values
Thoughts to take away…
Why Improve Quality?
Organisational reputation is built upon quality, reliability, delivery and price
Why 99% is Not Good Enough
20,000 lost articles of mail per hour
Unsafe drinking water almost 15 minutes each day
5000 incorrect surgical operations per week
Two short or long landings at most major airports each day
200,000 wrong drug prescriptions each year
No electricity for almost 7 hours each month
Dale (1997)
Competitive advantage:
Maintain market share
Pre-qualification/get on tender list
Repeat business, partnerships
Improve reputation
APM – PMBoK 7th edition
‘Project quality management is the discipline for ensuring that the outputs, benefits and the processes by which they are delivered, meet stakeholder requirements and are fit for purpose’
The golden thread…
Thank you for listening and participating!!
