What is Project Quality Management

Posted by shabarish on February 26th, 2021

Quality management comes under the aegis of Six Sigma Certification.

The most common of the Six Sigma processes you will encounter is the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control process or DMAIC, the DMAIC process. This is the process used to find and implement improvements in existing processes in an organization. 

In the Define phase, the business problem, goals, and objectives are defined, as well as who the customer is and what the customer's expectations are. This is called the voice of the customer. This phase is similar to the project initiation phase and typically results in the creation of a project charter. In the Measure phase, the metrics that will be used to measure performance improvement must be captured and baselined so that there is a means for determining the actual improvements made. In the Analyse phase, the process is evaluated for the identification of the causes of the variation and the defects. These causes are prioritized. In the improvement phase, the process is redesigned, or process changes are identified and implemented to reduce variation and eliminate the ability for the process to produce the defects. The process changes are tested to be sure that they work. Otherwise, additional improvements are identified and implemented. In the Control phase, the process improvements are monitored to ensure they are sustained. Six Sigma's goal is to permanently correct a process. Therefore, any indication that defects are reappearing would be problematic and would require immediate attention.

Process in Quality Management

The DPMO or defect per million opportunities is a metric with differentiates between products with many defect opportunities. If each unit has several opportunities per unit of critical to quality characteristics to be defective then, we can talk about DPMO as the defect per million opportunities, equal to our DPU times a million divided by the total opportunities for a defect in one unit. And that then translates into the total number of units, the total number of defects divided by the total number of units, which is here then equal to our DPU. Six Sigma Online training is largely dominated by calculations of different types. A defect indirectly means failure; it is said so when a process doesn't perform according to its specifications. It produces a condition that is non-compliant and called a defect. The application of Six Sigma is widespread. It can be used in several sectors like manufacturing, business, office administration, finance, health care, and so on. We know that each sector produces different products, provide different services, solutions and work in or with different environments.

Role of Organizations in Quality Management and Training

Just like any other profession, project managers need the training to supplement their experience to gain a broader understanding and appreciation for projects. Project managers are not the only ones who need training. Organizations that embrace the Organizational Project Management Framework also embrace project management training for all employees within the organization. This doesn't mean that everyone in an organization gets exactly the same training. That would be wasteful and not helpful. For example, executives don't need training on how to build and manage a schedule in Microsoft Project as they won't apply this skill to a project. But project managers need this training. The training needs to be aligned to the role of the individual, and it must be aligned to the needs of the organization's portfolio of projects and programs. In addition, there needs to be a prescribed training plan for each role. In this way, the organization can ensure consistency of training and a base level of knowledge in order to execute the organization's portfolio of programs and projects. In order to accomplish this, the organization must have an organizational training plan. The training plan would consist of the roles in the organization, defined training packages for each role, training delivery mechanisms, a training budget, and expected benefits. The roles in the organization consist of all the roles in the organization, starting with the executives and moving through all layers of management, project management, and individual employees. Organizations that have mature project management practices also have maturity around their training plan. Their training plan aligns with the business plan for the organization and the portfolio of projects and programs that must be executed to achieve the goals of the business plan. As such, the organization has done some requirements gathering and needs analysis of the type of training that is needed to support the business goals and the portfolio. This, in turn, translates into defined training and training packages for the employees within the organization.