You will learn how to manage quality using various techniques. You will learn how to effectively communicate with customers and different ways to measure customer satisfaction. You will also explore continuous improvement and process improvement techniques and how to conduct a retrospective during the project to improve processes.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the key quality management concepts of quality standards, quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
- Explain the importance of effective communication with customers and discuss different ways to measure customer satisfaction.
- Define continuous improvement and process improvement and apply them to different project scenarios.
- Describe how to create continuous improvement through data-driven improvement frameworks.
- Compare projects, programs, and portfolios and assess how all three can work together to drive continuous improvement in an organization.
- Explain the purpose of a retrospective and describe how to conduct one.
Understanding quality management
Video: Introduction: Quality management and continuous improvement
This section of the course will cover quality management, including:
- Meeting quality standards
- Quality assurance and control
- Continuous improvement using data-driven frameworks (DMAIC and PDCA)
- Conducting retrospectives to reflect on project successes and setbacks
- Maintaining a positive and blameless tone throughout the process.
The next video will dive into quality management.
Welcome back. You’re
cruising right along into your next topic. In this section of the course, we’ll teach you all about how to manage quality and meet
quality standards. You’ll also learn about quality assurance
and quality control. We’ll take a look at
continuous improvement and how to use data-driven
frameworks such as DMAIC and PDCA in order to work toward
continuous improvements. You’ll also learn how to
conduct retrospectives. These will help you reflect on the successes and
setbacks of a project. Finally, you’ll learn about the importance of
maintaining a positive, blameless tone
throughout the process. Are you ready to jump right in? Let’s start with
quality management. I’ll meet you in the next video.
Video: Key quality management concepts
The video discusses the concept of quality management in project management. It highlights the importance of meeting customer standards of quality, rather than just completing a project. The four main concepts of quality management are:
- Quality Standards: Setting requirements, specifications, or guidelines to ensure products, processes, or services meet the desired outcome. These standards should be set with the team and customer at the beginning of the project.
- Quality Planning: Identifying and determining which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. This involves planning procedures to achieve the quality standards.
- Quality Assurance (QA): Evaluating if the project is moving towards delivering a high-quality service or product. QA spans the whole project life cycle and involves regular audits, check-ins, and reporting to stakeholders.
- Quality Control (QC): Ensuring quality standards are met when a problem is identified or if the quality plan is not executed as desired. QC involves monitoring project results and delivery, and taking corrective actions when necessary.
The video uses the example of a project called Plant Pals, a new service that provides desk-friendly plants to top clients. It illustrates how to set quality standards, plan for quality, assure quality, and control quality throughout the project life cycle.
By following these quality management concepts, project managers can increase the likelihood of meeting quality standards, resulting in a high-quality deliverable that satisfies organizational goals and exceeds customer expectations.
Which quality management concept is about evaluating if a project is moving towards delivering a high-quality service or product?
Quality assurance
Quality assurance, or QA, spans the project life cycle. QA is about monitoring the project to confirm it will deliver a high-quality service or product. This comes after quality planning and before quality control.
Hi again. In this program, we’ve discussed that when you’re
managing a project, you always have to consider the triple constraint:
time, scope, and budget. Each of these three elements
will impact the project, and if any one of them suffers, the overall quality of
the project suffers too. There’s an important distinction between “quality” and “done.” Simply finishing a
project isn’t enough; the project must meet the
customer’s standards of quality, rather than
just be completed. Like all things in
project management, the more effectively you
communicate with your team, the more likely your team will produce high-quality
deliverables. How do we define quality in
a project management sense? Quality is when you fulfill
the outlined requirements for the deliverable
and meet or exceed the needs or expectations
of your customers. When it comes to quality, it’s important to
deliver a product or service that meets
your customer’s needs. To meet their needs,
you have to know important quality
management concepts and oversee the implementation of a project management
quality plan. To set yourself up for success, you should consider
the four main concepts of quality management, which are: quality standards, quality planning, quality
assurance, and quality control. The quality process begins with setting quality standards. Quality standards provide
requirements, specifications, or guidelines that can be
used to ensure that products, processes, or services are fit for achieving
the desired outcome. Set quality standards
with your team and your customer at the
beginning of your project. Take the time to define the quality standards and
criteria for your current work so that your team
members and stakeholders understand exactly what they are. After you set those
well-defined quality standards, you’ll want to check-in
periodically and make sure everything looks okay and
the requirements are met. Remember that well-defined
standards and requirements lead to less
rework and schedule delays. Let’s put this in
an example using the scenario we’ve been using
throughout the program. You’re a project manager
at Office Green, a company that specializes in plant decor for offices
and other businesses, and you’re leading a
project called Plant Pals, a new service that will provide top clients with
desk-friendly plants. Here’s an example of a few quality standards
for this project. Reliability standards: Each planter arrives by the agreed-upon time
and in good condition, ready to be placed at a desk. The suppliers have enough
plants in their warehouses to fulfill the customer
demand on time. Usability standards: Planters won’t cause customers allergic
reactions or illness and will be suitable for all people and
animals, if necessary. Similarly, you may have
product standards: The supplier should meet
your brand’s look and feel, use the specified materials, and be delivered intact. You should adhere to
quality standards across all products
and processes. For instance, you may have usability standards
implemented in the website development
process by stating that the website must
be easy to navigate, whether from a phone,
computer, or tablet. Next step, quality planning. Quality planning refers
specifically to the actions of a project manager or
the team to establish and conduct a process
for identifying and determining exactly
which standards of quality are in fact
relevant to the project as a whole, and how to satisfy them. To steer that discussion, you can ask yourself, “What outcome do my customers want at the end of this project? What does quality
look like for them? How can I meet
their expectations? How will I determine if the quality measures will
lead to project success?” This is where you’ll
plan the procedures to achieve the quality standards. Recall that one of the Project Plant Pals quality standards is reliability, the expectation that each plant arrives on time and
in good condition. So as a quality planning measure, you’ll need to make plans with your plant provider to test the durability of your planters before you decide to use them. The third concept of quality management is
quality assurance. Quality assurance,
often shortened to QA, is all about evaluating
if your project is moving towards delivering a high-quality
service or product. Unlike quality standards
and quality planning, QA spans the whole
project life cycle, rather than taking place
at a specific phase. Your quality plan should include regular audits to confirm that everything is
going to plan and the necessary procedures
are being followed. Regular check-ins and
reporting to stakeholders will help boost their confidence,
and yours, along the way. Quality assurance is where
you’ll make sure that you and your clients are getting
the exact product you contracted for. So with Project Plant Pals, this is where your team
will inspect options for planters and perhaps sit in
on the durability testing. If you make plans for
your plant provider to handle the durability
testing on their own, make sure you are tracking their progress and
checking in regularly. The final concept of quality management
is quality control, often shortened to QC. Here, techniques are used in order to ensure
quality standards when a problem is identified, or if the quality plan is not
executed in the desired manner and corrective actions
should be affected. Quality control involves
monitoring project results and delivery to determine
if they are meeting desired results or not. If not, then alternative
actions should be taken. Quality control is
also integral to creating a more successful
landing for the next project. After the plants are placed throughout the
customers’ offices, quality control may
look like you or your team member taking a final walk-through of the offices where the plants were delivered. You’d be checking for things like broken planters or plants that were damaged in transit and swapping them
out when necessary. You may not do this
for every customer, but it’s a good idea to do it as you’re starting
out in case you spot issues to improve upon when you’re
back in the office. If you stuck to
your quality plan, checking on quality throughout the life cycle of your project (QA), and of course
correcting as needed (QC), the likelihood of meeting
your quality standards is high, resulting in a
high-quality deliverable at the end of your
project that satisfies your organizational goals and exceeds the customer’s
expectations. And there you have it—quality
management! Great! So now we’ve learned
more about how to identify and explain the
concept of quality management, which includes quality standards, quality planning, quality
assurance, and quality control. In the next video,
we’ll discuss how to use soft skills,
like negotiating and practicing empathy, to meet customers’ needs in terms
of quality. Meet you there!
Reading: Recap: Quality management concepts
Reading
You are learning to define quality in your projects. Quality is when the outlined requirements for the deliverable are fulfilled and meet or exceed the needs and expectations of customers.
In this reading, we’ll review the four main concepts of quality management we discussed in the previous video: quality standards, quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
- Quality standards provide requirements, specifications, or guidelines that can be used to ensure that products, processes, or services are fit for achieving the desired outcome. These standards must be met in order for the product, process, or service to be considered successful by the organization and the customer. You will set quality standards with your team and your customer at the beginning of your project. Well-defined standards lead to less rework and schedule delays throughout your project.
- Quality planning involves the actions of you or your team to establish and conduct a process for identifying and determining exactly which standards of quality are relevant to the project as a whole and how to satisfy them. During this process, you’ll plan the procedures to achieve the quality standards for your project.
- Quality assurance, or QA, is a review process that evaluates whether the project is moving toward delivering a high-quality service or product. It includes regular audits to confirm that everything is going to plan and that the necessary procedures are being followed. Quality assurance helps you make sure that you and your customers are getting the exact product you contracted for.
- Quality control, or QC, involves monitoring project results and delivery to determine if they are meeting desired results. It includes the techniques that are used to ensure quality standards are maintained when a problem is identified. Quality control is a subset of quality assurance activities. While QA seeks to prevent defects before they occur, QC aims to identify defects after they have happened and also entails taking corrective action to resolve these issues.
Additional reading
To learn more about these concepts, check out these articles:
Practice Assignment: Test your knowledge: Quality management
As a project manager, you conduct a process to determine which standards of quality are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. Which quality management concept does this describe?
Quality control
Quality standards
Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality planning
During the quality planning process, the project manager determines exactly which quality standards are relevant to the project plan and the procedures for how to achieve them.
blueberry
The process you described, which involves determining which standards of quality are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them, aligns with the concept of Quality Planning in quality management.
Quality Planning is the process of identifying and defining the quality standards, related quality control and quality assurance requirements, and specifying the quality activities necessary to satisfy those requirements. It involves:
- Identifying relevant quality standards and regulations.
- Determining how to satisfy them throughout the project lifecycle.
- Developing a quality management plan that outlines the quality activities, resources, and responsibilities needed to meet the project’s quality objectives.
This proactive approach ensures that the project’s deliverables meet the required quality standards from the outset and helps in avoiding quality issues later in the project.
So, the concept you described is Quality Planning.
llama-3.1-405b-instruct-fp8
The correct answer is: Quality planning.
Quality planning is the process of identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them. This process involves defining quality objectives, identifying quality metrics, and establishing a plan to achieve the desired quality levels.
Quality planning is an essential part of the quality management process, as it sets the foundation for ensuring that the project meets the required quality standards.
Here’s a brief explanation of the other options:
- Quality control: This refers to the process of monitoring and controlling the project’s quality during execution, to ensure that it meets the planned quality standards.
- Quality standards: These are the established criteria or benchmarks that define the required quality levels for the project.
- Quality assurance: This refers to the process of ensuring that the project meets the required quality standards, through a systematic and structured approach that includes quality planning, quality control, and continuous improvement.
So, while quality planning is the process of determining which standards are relevant and how to satisfy them, quality assurance is the broader process that encompasses quality planning, quality control, and continuous improvement.
llama 3.2
The correct answer is:
Quality planning
Quality planning refers to the process of identifying and determining which standards of quality are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. This involves planning procedures to achieve the quality standards and ensuring that the project meets the required quality standards.
Quality planning is the second concept of quality management, which comes after setting quality standards and before quality assurance and quality control.
Which quality management concept—often set at the beginning of a project—uses multiple guidelines, such as reliability and usability, to ensure its desired outcome?
Quality standards
Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality control
Quality standards
Project managers set multiple quality standards to help the team achieve their desired outcome. When the team defines high-quality standards, the results are clear expectations and less rework.
o1-mini
The best answer is Quality planning.
Explanation:
Quality Planning is a fundamental quality management process that occurs early in a project lifecycle, typically at the beginning. It involves identifying the quality requirements and standards relevant to the project and determining how to achieve them. This process uses multiple guidelines, such as reliability, usability, performance, and other quality attributes, to ensure that the project meets its desired outcomes.
Here’s a brief overview of the options:
- Quality Standards: These are the specific criteria or benchmarks that a project must meet. They define what is considered acceptable quality but do not encompass the planning or implementation process.
- Quality Planning: This involves defining the quality standards relevant to the project and determining how to achieve them. It sets the foundation for all subsequent quality management activities by outlining the guidelines and processes to ensure quality.
- Quality Assurance: This focuses on providing confidence that quality standards will be met. It involves the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project to ensure that standards are being followed.
- Quality Control: This involves the operational techniques and activities used to fulfill quality requirements. It is about monitoring specific project results to ensure they comply with the relevant quality standards.
Given that Quality Planning is about establishing the guidelines and standards necessary to achieve the desired quality outcomes at the outset of a project, it is the most appropriate choice for the scenario described.
Answer:
Quality planning
chatgpt-4o-latest-20240903
The correct answer is Quality planning.
Quality planning is the process where quality goals and standards are set at the beginning of a project. It involves identifying the quality requirements for the project and determining how to meet them. This stage uses multiple guidelines—such as reliability, usability, performance, and others—to ensure the desired outcome. The goal of quality planning is to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
The other terms have related but distinct meanings:
Quality control involves the actual inspection and testing to ensure that the products or services meet the required quality standards.
Quality standards refer to established criteria, often from external sources, that a product or project must meet.
Quality assurance is the proactive process of ensuring that the quality standards and procedures are being followed throughout the project’s lifecycle.
llama 3.2
The correct answer is:
Quality standards
Quality standards are guidelines, specifications, or requirements that are set at the beginning of a project to ensure that the desired outcome is achieved. These standards can include multiple aspects, such as:
- Reliability: ensuring that the product or service is reliable and functions as expected
- Usability: ensuring that the product or service is easy to use and meets the needs of the customers
- Performance: ensuring that the product or service meets the required performance standards
- Safety: ensuring that the product or service is safe to use and does not pose any risks to the customers or users
Quality standards provide a clear understanding of what is expected from the project and help to ensure that the final product or service meets the required quality standards.
ministral-8b-2410
The quality management concept you’re referring to is Quality Planning. Quality planning is a vital aspect of the project management process that aims to establish the quality standards, policies, and practices that will be used throughout the project. This concept is typically set at the beginning of a project to ensure that all aspects of the project, including reliability and usability, are addressed and met.
Quality planning involves:
- Defining quality objectives and standards.
- Identifying the processes, resources, and activities needed to achieve these objectives.
- Setting quality criteria and metrics to measure and evaluate progress.
- Creating a quality plan that outlines how these objectives will be achieved and maintained throughout the project lifecycle.
The other options have different focuses:
- Quality Standards: These are guidelines or specifications that define the requirements for a product, service, or system.
- Quality Assurance: This involves the systematic monitoring and evaluation of various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met.
- Quality Control: This is the operational technique of inspecting and testing products and services to ensure they meet the specified quality standards.
So, the correct answer is Quality Planning.
claude-3-opus-20240229
The quality management concept that is often set at the beginning of a project and uses multiple guidelines, such as reliability and usability, to ensure its desired outcome is Quality planning.
Quality planning involves defining quality standards and criteria at the start of a project to ensure that the end product or service meets the desired quality levels. It takes into account various factors such as reliability, usability, performance, and customer satisfaction. Quality planning sets the foundation for the entire quality management process and guides the team throughout the project lifecycle.
The other options mentioned:
Quality control: This involves testing and inspecting the product or service to identify and correct any defects or deviations from the quality standards.
Quality standards: These are the specific requirements, specifications, or guidelines that a product or service must meet to be considered acceptable.
Quality assurance: This is the process of ensuring that the quality standards are being followed throughout the project, preventing defects and errors.
As a project manager, you and your team monitor project results and delivery to determine if the desired results are being met. If issues are identified, you take corrective action to resolve them. Which quality management concept does this describe?
Quality assurance
Quality planning
Quality standards
Quality control
Quality control
Quality control includes the techniques that are used to ensure quality standards are maintained when a problem is identified. Additionally, quality control helps the project manager learn how to successfully land future projects as they review and improve the current project’s results.
qwen2.5-72b-instruct
The quality management concept that describes monitoring project results and delivery to determine if the desired results are being met, and taking corrective action if issues are identified, is Quality Control.
Explanation:
- Quality Control (QC): This involves the operational techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality. It focuses on inspecting and testing products or processes to ensure they meet specified standards and requirements. When issues are found, corrective actions are taken to address them.
- Quality Assurance (QA): This is a proactive process that focuses on preventing defects and ensuring that quality standards are met through the development and implementation of processes and procedures. QA aims to ensure that the processes are in place to produce a quality product or service.
- Quality Planning: This involves setting quality goals, determining the processes needed to achieve those goals, and defining the resources required. It is a strategic activity that sets the foundation for quality management.
- Quality Standards: These are established benchmarks or criteria that define what is considered acceptable in terms of quality. They provide the basis for quality assurance and quality control activities.
In your scenario, the focus is on monitoring and taking corrective actions, which aligns with the principles of Quality Control.
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The quality management concept described in your scenario is Quality Control.
Quality Control involves monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance. It includes activities such as measuring, examining, and testing project deliverables to ensure they meet the desired quality requirements. When issues are identified, corrective actions are taken to resolve them, ensuring the project outcomes align with the expected standards.
llama 3.2
The correct answer is:
Quality control
Quality control (QC) is the process of monitoring project results and delivery to determine if the desired results are being met. If issues are identified, corrective action is taken to resolve them. QC involves:
- Monitoring project results and delivery
- Identifying issues or defects
- Taking corrective action to resolve issues
- Ensuring that the project is meeting the required quality standards
Quality control is an ongoing process that occurs throughout the project life cycle, and its primary goal is to ensure that the project deliverables meet the required quality standards.
Quality assurance (QA), on the other hand, is a broader concept that involves evaluating the overall quality management process to ensure that it is effective and efficient. QA is more focused on preventing issues from occurring in the first place, rather than detecting and correcting them.
As a project manager, you and your team conduct a review process. Your goal is to evaluate whether the project is moving toward delivering a high-quality service or product and to prevent defects before they occur. Which quality management concept does this describe?
Quality standards
Quality assurance
Quality control
Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality assurance includes regular audits to confirm that everything is going to plan and that the necessary procedures are being followed. Quality assurance spans the whole project life cycle.
gemini-test
Let’s break down each of these quality management concepts and determine which one best fits the scenario you described:
1. Quality Planning
- Definition: This is the process of identifying relevant quality standards for a project and determining how to satisfy them. It involves establishing quality objectives and specifying the necessary operational processes and related resources to achieve those objectives.
- Focus: Proactive and preventative. It sets the stage for how quality will be managed throughout the project lifecycle.
- Activities: Defining quality policies, procedures, and metrics; selecting tools and techniques for quality management; planning for quality audits and reviews.
- Relevance to the Scenario: While quality planning is crucial, it’s about laying the groundwork for quality rather than evaluating ongoing progress. Your scenario focuses on reviewing the current state of the project to ensure it’s heading towards high quality.
2. Quality Assurance (QA)
- Definition: Quality assurance is a set of planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled. It focuses on preventing defects by focusing on the process used to make the product.
- Focus: Process-oriented and preventative. It’s about ensuring that the processes being followed are effective and will lead to a high-quality outcome.
- Activities: Audits, process checklists, training, documentation review, and other activities designed to ensure that the right things are being done the right way.
- Relevance to the Scenario: This fits your description very well. You are conducting a review process to evaluate if the project is moving toward delivering a high-quality product/service and preventing defects. QA is specifically about these proactive measures within the process.
3. Quality Control (QC)
- Definition: Quality control is a set of activities for ensuring quality in products by identifying defects in the actual products produced.
- Focus: Product-oriented and detective. It’s about inspecting and testing the product or service to identify and correct any defects after they have occurred.
- Activities: Testing, inspections, measurements, and other methods used to determine if the product/service meets the defined quality standards.
- Relevance to the Scenario: While important, QC focuses on finding defects after the fact, whereas your scenario is about proactively reviewing progress to prevent defects.
4. Quality Standards
- Definition: These are the set of requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that are used to establish minimum acceptable levels of quality for a product or service.
- Focus: Defining the benchmarks that products/services need to meet.
- Activities: Establishing and documenting quality criteria, following industry standards or regulatory requirements.
- Relevance to the Scenario: Quality standards provide the basis for evaluation, but they are not the process of evaluating itself. Your scenario is about the process of reviewing and evaluating the project’s progress.
Conclusion
The quality management concept that best describes the review process you and your team are conducting is Quality Assurance (QA).
Why QA?
- Preventative Focus: Your goal is to prevent defects before they occur, which is a core aspect of QA.
- Process Evaluation: You are reviewing the project’s processes to ensure they are aligned with achieving high quality.
- Ongoing Monitoring: QA involves regular reviews and evaluations to ensure that the project stays on track to meet quality objectives.
In essence, QA acts as a safety net to ensure that the processes are robust and will lead to a high-quality output, preventing issues down the line.
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The quality management concept described is Quality Assurance (QA).
While all the options relate to quality management, they represent different aspects. Let’s break down why QA is the most fitting answer in this scenario:
- Quality Assurance (QA): This focuses on preventing defects before they occur. It’s a proactive approach that involves establishing and implementing processes, procedures, and systems to ensure that the project delivers a high-quality product or service. Your description of reviewing the project’s progress to prevent defects aligns perfectly with this definition. QA involves things like regular reviews, inspections, audits, and the establishment of quality standards to guide the project.
- Quality Control (QC): This is a reactive approach. QC focuses on detecting defects after they’ve been created. It involves inspections and tests to identify defects and correct them. While QC is important, it’s not the primary focus of your described process which aims to prevent defects proactively.
- Quality Planning: This is the stage where you define the quality standards, processes, and resources needed to achieve the desired quality level. It’s a crucial precursor to QA, but it’s not the action of reviewing the project’s progress to prevent defects.
- Quality Standards: These are the benchmarks or requirements that define acceptable quality levels. They are a component of both QA and QC, but not the overarching process described.
In summary, your team’s review process, aimed at evaluating progress and preventing defects, is a core activity within a comprehensive Quality Assurance program. It’s about proactively building quality into the project from the start, rather than fixing problems later.
llama 3.2
The correct answer is:
Quality control
Quality control (QC) is the process of monitoring project results and delivery to determine if the desired results are being met. If issues are identified, corrective action is taken to resolve them. QC involves:
- Monitoring project results and delivery
- Identifying issues or defects
- Taking corrective action to resolve issues
- Ensuring that the project is meeting the required quality standards
Quality control is an ongoing process that occurs throughout the project life cycle, and its primary goal is to ensure that the project deliverables meet the required quality standards.
Quality assurance (QA), on the other hand, is a broader concept that involves evaluating the overall quality management process to ensure that it is effective and efficient. QA is more focused on preventing issues from occurring in the first place, rather than detecting and correcting them.