Process Group
6. Assignable Cause/Special Cause Variation20
An assignable cause or special cause variation Signifies that a process is out of control. If there is an assignable cause or special cause variation, it means a data point or series of data points (as discussed with the rule of seven) falls outside the control limits and requires investigation to determine the cause of the variation. The project manager could use additional tools, such as a cause and effect diagram, to try to uncover the root cause of the variation.
623. Understanding the Tools and Techniques Used in Quality Management
As you have read through this chapter, have you found yourself asking questions like, "Now when are all these tools and techniques used?" or "What are the differences between the three-part of the quality management process again?" Although there are not a lot of questions on the exam on these topics, people tend to struggle with these concepts.
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624. Here is a trick: if the situation is looking forward in time, it is most likely a planning function. If it is looking back in time at project results, it is most likely part of quality control. If it is looking back in time at processes and procedures, it is most likely part of quality assurance.
625. Process improvement plan concerns about
Set process boundaries (inputs, outputs, metrics, control limits)
Process configuration: a graphical representation of the process steps
Exam the process efficiency of the Targeted process
Improve the performance of the process
626. Cost of poor quality is called rework. It may be internal or external.
627. Variance limits is decreased during the project life time.
628. Other Tools and Techniques (P: 245) WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
There are several additional tools and techniques that can help you analyze data, as well as establish priorities and recommend corrective or preventive action, for Perform quality Assurance:
Affinity Diagrams ( used in collect requirement )
o We first saw this technique in the collect requirements process. in perform quality assurance, affinity diagrams can help you organize and group the results of a root cause analysis. For example, in control quality you may have determined the cause of variance.
o Product defects or deliverables not meeting requirements. You can then use this information in quality assurance to determine whether a change to the policies, procedures, and standards in the quality plan would address the root cause of the problems
Tree Diagrams ( create WBS, OBS or used in decision tree)
o Useful for decision analysis, tree diagrams can help you organize data, map out relationships, decompose processes to find a solution to a problem, and arrive at corrective or preventive action.
Process Decision Program Charts (PDPC)
o Typically used in conjunction with tree diagrams, these charts let you decompose a goal into the steps required to achieve it. Each step is then reviewed for potential risk.
o For example, imagine that one goal of your process improvement plan is to increase the accuracy of estimates to 88 percent. Using PDPC, you can break down the steps to achieve that goal. The team might then brainstorm ideas for anything that could go wrong, and come up with contingency plans to keep things on track.
o This diagram contains: activities, decision points and order of processing.
Interrelationship Digraphs28
o An interrelationship digraph allows you to see and analyze the relationships among numerous different issues. For example, in Perform Quality Assurance you may need to establish the root cause of schedule variances to determine if organizational processes need to be improved.
o You might first gather data through analysis like (affinity, tree diagram or fish born) and then use the interrelationship digraph to identify the cause and effect relationships between the data.
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Matrix Diagrams
o Used for data analysis, the matrix diagram is a visual representation of the relationship between two or more sets of items.
o There are several different types of matrix diagrams, and the one chosen will depend on the information that needs to be conveyed.
Prioritization Matrices
o A type of matrix diagram, a prioritization matrix is useful for decision analysis about process improvement and quality management plan components (organizational policies, processes, and requirements) that may need to change.
o In quality assurance, you'll need to prioritize both issues and solutions for implementation. This prioritization helps focus analysis and implementation efforts on the most beneficial solutions to the most critical issues.
o In Perform Quality Assurance, the criteria defined in Plan Quality Management are given scores, and the issues or solutions are ranked.
Project Schedule Network Diagrams or Activity Network Diagrams
In Perform Quality Assurance, you might use network diagrams if you're looking to improve time management processes.
629. If the performing organization lacks the formal quality policy, or if project involves multiple performing organizations, The project management team, will develop the quality policy for each project
630. Jurans Quality Triology = Quality PLANNING Quality IMPROVEMENT Quality CONTROL 631. 46.UCL : Upper control limit : Is derived from Random variation
632. UTL : Upper tolerance limit is the higher of two tolerance limits
633. The project management team should have a working knowledge of statistical quality control, especially sampling and probability, to help evaluate quality control outputs.
634. The area consisting of typically three standard deviations on either side of a mean value of a control chart to plot measured values found in statistical quality control – THIS IS DEFINITION FOR CONTROL CHARTS 635. A process goes out of control when there are special causes of variation
636. Whenever you use any of the seven basic tools of quality to examine the results of an inspection of your product, you are performing Quality Control. If you were examining the process your company uses to build multiple projects, you would be performing Quality Assurance.
637. Quality metrics are specified in Plan Quality and used in the Perform Quality Assurance and Control Quality processes. PMBOK ® Guide – 5th Edition, page 232, figure 8-3
638. Quality Metrics: the project manager must know how the project is going and be able to determine when to request changes. The only way to effectively do this is to determine metrics in advance.
639. This means the project manager needs to think through the areas on the project that are important to measure and (in most cases) decide what measurement is acceptable. (See the previous discussion of control limits.) The following are some examples of quality metrics:
a. The number of changes (to help measure the quality of the project management planning process) b. The variance related to resources utilization
c. The number of items that fail inspection
d. The variance of the weight of a product produced by the project compared to the planned weight e. The number of bugs found in the software that is being developed as part of the project
640. Group creativity techniques use specifically: Brainstorming, Delphi technique and mind mapping.
641. Special causes are considered unusual and preventable by process improvement, while common causes are generally normal and accepted.
642. Breakdown Structures are considered as a tree diagrams.
643. Affinity diagrams are closely related to mind mapping .
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644. A scatter diagram shows the relationship between two variables. This tool allows the quality team to study and identify the possible relationship between changes observed in two variables. Dependent variables versus independent variables are plotted. The closer the points are to a diagonal line, the more closely they are related
645. A comparison of project activities against a known standard is called benchmarking .
646. Weighing the cost of implementing quality against the benefit it will deliver for the project is called a cost-benefit analysis.
647. The tool that is used to test multiple factors simultaneously is called design of experiments
648. A statistical method that helps identify which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production is DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS.
649. Prevention is the lowest cost of quality, while internal is the highest cost of quality.
650. Planning costs are not related to cost of quality.
651. The tipping point where benefits or revenues received from improving quality equals the cost to achieve that quality is called a marginal analysis 7.
652. A process that establishes a financial measure of the user dissatisfaction with a product's performance as it deviates from a target value is described in Taguchi’s loss function
653. ‘Fitness for use’ was a concept pioneered by Joseph Juran.
654. The five levels of the CMMI are in order; Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively managed, Optimized.
655. The amount of inventory carried in a just in time process is typically zero.
656. Six Sigma represents an accuracy of 99.999%
657. Continuous, incremental improvement in a product or process is called kaizen in Japan
658. Deming observed that at least 85% of the cost of quality (poor quality or failure costs) is management’s responsibility.
659. DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze Improve Control) is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process.
660. DMADV (Define Measure Analyze Design Verify) is used for projects aimed at creating new product or process designs.
661. Statistical Independence states that: the probability of one event occurring does not affect the probability of another event occurring.
662. The key output of the Plan Quality process is the Quality Management Plan
663. A product that is not particularly attractive but meets your quality criteria for fitness for use can be described as low grade, but high quality.
664. The key output of Perform Quality Assurance is change requests.
665. Data that you can perform mathematical computations is called variable or continuous, whereas data that describes a label or a pass/fail scenario is described as attribute or discrete data.
666. The quality pioneer that promoted the idea of zero defects was Philip Crosby.
667. Philip Crosby considered the following to be the Absolutes of Quality Management: