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Quality Planning
PMI Westchester Quality SIG
-Best Practices-
December 2007
Quality Planning Objectives
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During Quality Planning, we develop a
Quality Management Plan.
We also identify the following:
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Customers
Requirements
Specifications
This presentation will provide an overview of
the above.
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Quality Planning
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The PMBOK describes quality planning as
“…identifying which quality standards are relevant to
the project and determining how to satisfy them.”
Quality is planned in, not inspected in. During
Quality Planning, Project Managers should design in
and build in quality.
Project Managers should use conformance and
prevention to achieve quality.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge – Third Edition, Project Management Institute, Newtown
Square, PA, 2004, p. 183.
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Quality Management Plan
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The quality management plan communicates
the plan that will be used to ensure high
quality for the project and deliverables. This
plan will define the goals, processes and
responsibilities required for effective quality
management
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Identify Customers
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Customers may be classified as external,
internal and hidden:
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External customers – paying customers,
suppliers, and end users
Internal customers – elements in the supplierprocess-customer chain
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Supplier – provides inputs to a process
Process – all the tasks that convert inputs into outputs
Customer – receives outputs from the process
Hidden customers – not directly involved but
concerned about the project’s outcome
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Prioritize Customers
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The project team should prioritize the
customers in order to gain an understanding
of their importance in order to avoid
showstoppers – customers that could cause
the project to stop work.
An L-Shape Matrix could be used as the tool
to prioritize customers.
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Identify Requirements
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Project requirements are usually identified by the
customers
Requirements are useful to the project team
Requirements are generally stated but details will
come later
Requirements may be explicitly stated as in the case
of contracts
Requirements may be implied or unstated as in the
requirements of users, affected groups and
concerned groups
Requirements are measurable through
specifications
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Prioritize Requirements
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The project team should prioritize the
requirements in order to gain an
understanding of their importance in order to
avoid showstoppers – requirements that
could cause the project to stop work.
An L-Shape Matrix could be used as the tool
to prioritize requirements.
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Identify Standards
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Standards are prescribed ways of doing things.
Standards address how something is to be done.
Standards guide project implementation and
describe how the project team should or must
employ a process.
Some organizations develop their own standards for
project implementation.
Other organizations develop standards that are
widely available to use; the ISO standards is an
example.
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Specifications
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Specifications detail the general stated requirements.
Specifications are the specific and measurable statements of
requirements.
Specifications provide the specific targets for performance
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Note: Operational definitions provide clarification of ambiguous terms and allow the
project team to develop specifications by this rational analysis rather than guesswork.
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Specification is a three-step process:
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1. Identify Requirement: Answer phone calls
2. Develop Operational Definitions: the amount of time before a call is answered
expressed as the number of rings as measured by the phone system.
3. Develop a specific value against which performance will be measured to determine
project success: Answer 80 percent of phone calls on the second ring
Note: Metrics are the means of measurement for determining conformance to
specifications and are part of quality assurance.
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Contact Information
Linda P. Dowdell, PMP, MBA, MS
President of Dowdell Consulting Services, LLC
A Project Management Services Company
www.mypmtools.com
[email protected]
914-874-4343
Public Relations Program Manager
& Quality Chair for
Project Management Institute Westchester
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