8.1 Quality Planning
Quality planning involves identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them. It is one of the key facilitating processes during project planning (see Section 3.3.2, Planning Processes ) and should be performed regularly and in parallel with the other project planning processes. For example, the changes in the product of the project required to meet identified quality standars may require cost or schedule adjustments, or the desired product quality may require a detailed risk analysis of an identified problem. Prior to development of the ISO 9000 Series, the activities described here as quality planning were widely discussed as part of quality assurance.
The quality planning techniques discussed here are those used most frequently used on projects. There are many others that may be useful on certain projects or in some application areas.
The project team should also be aware of one of the fundamental tenets of modern quality management—quality is planned in, not inspected in.
Inputs
.1 Quality policy
.2 Scope statement
.3 Product description
.4 Standars and regulations
.5 Other process outputs
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Tools & Techniques
.1 Benefit/cost analysis
.2 Benchmarking
.3 Flowcharting
.4 Design of experiments
.5 Cost of quality
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Outputs
.1 Quality management plan
.2 Operational definitions
.3 Checklists
.4 Inputs to other processes
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8.1.1 Inputs to Quality Planning
.1 Quality policy. Quality policy is "the overall intentions and direction of an organization with regard to quality, as formally expressed by top management" [4]. The quality policy of the performing organization can often be adopted "as is" for use by the project. However, if the performing organization lacks a formal quality policy, or if the project involves multiple performing organizations (as with a joint venture), the project management team will need to develop a quality policy for the project.
Regardless of the origin of the quality policy, the project management team is responsible for ensuring that the project stakeholders are fully aware of it (e.g., through appropriate information distribution, as described in Section 10.2).
.2 Scope statement. The scope statement (described in Section 5.2.3.1 ) is a key input to quality planning since it documents major project deliverables, as well as the project objectives that serve to define important stakeholder requirements.
.3 Product description. Although elements of the product description (described in Section 5.1.1.1 ) may be embodied in the scope statement, the product description will often contain details of technical issues and other concerns that may affect quality planning.
.4 Standards and regulations. The project management team must consider any application area-specific standards or regulations that may affect the project. Section 2.5.1 discusses standards and regulations.
.5 Other process outputs. In addition to the scope statement and product description, processes in other knowledge areas may produce outputs that should be considered as part of quality planning. For example, procurement planning (described in Section 12.1 ) may identify contractor quality requirements that should be reflected in the overall quality management plan.
8.1.2 Tools and Techniques for Quality Planning
.1 Benefit/cost analysis. The quality planning process must consider benefit/cost tradeoffs, as described in Section 5.2.2.2 . The primary benefit of meeting quality requirements is less rework, which means higher productivity, lower costs, and increased stakeholder satisfaction. The primary cost of meeting quality requirements is the expense associated with project quality management activities. It is axiomatic of the quality management discipline that the benefits outweigh the costs.
.2 Benchmarking. Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned project practices to those of other projects to generate ideas for improvement and to provide a standard by which to measure performance. The other projects may be within the performing organization or outside of it, and may be within the same application area or in another.
.3 Flowcharting. A flowchart is any diagram that shows how various elements of a system relate. Flowcharting techniques commonly used in quality management include:
Cause-and-effect diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams, which illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems lems or effects. Figure 8-2 is an example of a generic cause-and-effect diagram.
System or process flowcharts, which show how various elements of a system interrelate. Figure 8-3 is an example of a process flow chart for design reviews.
Flowcharting can help the project team antic