This course requires use of the Microsoft Project 2010 (or later) software application. The 2010 version and those released later are similar and suitable for the assignments. Please note the software is not compatible with Mac computers.
Even if you have a well-planned and controlled project, there is still 1 important but sometimes overlooked area that can impact the success of a project. This very important area is quality management and assurance. There are many quality systems that exist today thanks to the work of pioneers such as Dr. William Edward Deming. You will be evaluating different quality systems such as ISO 9000, Six Sigma, Plan-Do-Check-Act or Plan-Do-Study-Act, capability maturity model integration (CMMI), organizational project management maturity model (OPM3), and Malcolm Baldrige for their potential application to a project you will be selecting in the Individual Project for this week.
1 # Assignment Objectives
Explore and discuss definitions, concepts, principles and major contributors to the quality field.
Use effective communication techniques
write 350-500 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Research at least 2 sources (which may include your textbook) to support your response, and discuss the following:
•Compare and contrast 3 of what you consider the most appropriate types of quality systems for the project that you will use in your Key Assignment.
•In your opinion, which is the best type of quality system? Why?
•Which is the easiest to implement? Why?
Write 2 more paragraphs that are an introduction and conclusion to this topic. Be sure to include your references, and format your submission in APA format.
#2 Assignment Objectives
Explore and discuss definitions, concepts, principles and major contributors to the quality field.
Use effective communication techniques.
Word document of 10 pages (including empty sections), 600-900 words
Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday, and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.
Overview
As you have already learned in your Discussion Board this week, quality assurance in any project might be the most important but overlooked aspect of a project. Lack of quality management, however, can cause an entire project to fail if the final project deliverables do not meet customer expectations and standards. Implementing quality assurance throughout the project improves overall performance of tasks and minimizes the risk of nonacceptance at the end of the project. In this course, you are asked to develop a Quality Management Integration Plan that allows you to select and integrate quality management tools, models, and techniques in the overall performance of the project. You will select a project that you may have developed in a previous class or a known project in an organization to create this plan for.
Throughout this course, you will be working on developing several components of final Key Assignment. Additional information and the deliverables for each Individual Project will be provided in the assignment description for this project.
In this first Individual Project, you are asked to develop the outline of the sections that will be included in the Quality Management Integration Plan document and a draft of a proposal to submit to your instructor. The other information you will include is a high-level description of the project that you will be developing a quality implementation strategy for.
You will also be setting up the Final Key Assignment outline that you will add to each week. The combined Individual Project (IP) assignments will be your final Key Assignment deliverable.
Project Selection
The first step will be to select a project that you to develop a Quality Management Integration Plan for. This project will be used as the basis for each of the assignments throughout the course and should conform to the following guidelines:
1.Nontrivial: The selected project candidate should reflect a real-life project.
2.Domain knowledge: You will be applying knowledge of this project to address assignments related to quality management, integration, and performance.
Select a project that fits these requirements, and submit your proposal to your instructor before proceeding further with the assignments in the course. Approval should be sought within the first few days of the course. Your instructor will tell you how to submit this proposal and what notification will be given for project approval.
Assignment
Your first task in this process will be to select a project to use as the basis of your Key Assignment. You will also create the shell document for the final project Key Assignment document deliverable that you will be working on throughout the course. As you proceed through each project phase, you will add content to each section of the final document to progressively complete the final project delivery which is the Quality Management Integration Plan.
The project deliverables are as follows:
•Submit the project proposal to your instructor for approval
•Quality Management Integration Plan ?Use Word
?Title page ?Course number and name
?Project name
?Your name
?Date
?Table of Contents (TOC) ?Use an auto generated TOC.
?This should be on a separate page.
?This should be a maximum of 3 levels deep.
?Be sure to update the fields of the TOC so that it is up-to-date before submitting your project.
?Section Headings (create each heading on a new page with "TBD" as content, except for Week 1) ?Week 1: Project Outline
?Week 1: Organizational Readiness for Quality Management
?Week 1: Quality Systems Analysis
?Week 2: Quality Dimensions and Criteria
?Week 3: Quality Process Improvement Tools and Techniques
?Week 4: Quality Performance Monitoring and Control
?Week 5: Three Levels of Quality Management
?Week 5: Quality Performance Communication Plan
Create the following sections for Week 1:
•Project Outline ?Include a brief description of the project.
?Describe the overall project deliverables.
?Material can be taken from the approved proposal that you submitted to the instructor. This may serve as the draft for the proposal.
?Be sure that this project is approved by the instructor.
•Organizational Readiness for Quality Management ?Discuss which quality systems the organization employs today.
?Discuss the organization's readiness to incorporate in the selected project.
?Include additional support that might be required to incorporate quality management (e.g., a knowledgeable quality champion).
•Quality Systems Analysis ?Discuss the pros and cons of at least 3 quality systems (e.g., ISO 9000, Six Sigma, plan-do-check-act or plan-do-study-act, capability maturity model integration [CMMI], organizational project management maturity model [OPM3], Malcolm Baldrige).
?Identify which one or combination is most appropriate for this project, and discuss why.
#2 Assignment Objectives
Explore and discuss definitions, concepts, principles and major contributors to the quality field.
Examine and discuss key quality dimensions that play a role in meeting customer expectations and award criteria
Overview
In "Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality," in the Harvard Business Review from November-December 1987, David A. Garvin proposes the following 8 critical dimensions of quality:
1.Performance
2.Features
3.Reliability
4.Conformity
5.Durability
6.Serviceability
7.Aesthetics
8.Perception
write 350-500 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Research at least 2 sources (which may include your textbook) to support your response, and complete the following:
•For each of the 8 dimensions, using the project you selected, describe in 1-2 sentences how you would define the output of your project in terms of that dimension.
Write 2 more paragraphs that are an introduction and conclusion to this topic. Be sure to include your references, and format your submission in APA format.
#4 Assignment Objectives
Explore and discuss definitions, concepts, principles and major contributors to the quality field.
Examine and discuss key quality dimensions that play a role in meeting customer expectations and award criteria
600 words
For this assignment, you will specify what the quality dimension is specific to the projects overall deliverable and the overall criteria that you will use to measure each of the quality dimensions that you researched in the Discussion Board. Your next task is to fill in the project relevant pieces of information in Columns 2 and 3 for each quality dimensions.
For the compilation of your quality dimension criteria, you may use a matrix similar to the following table:
1.Performance
2.Features
3.Reliability
4.Conformity
5.Durability
6.Serviceability
7.Aesthetics
8.Perception
Deliverables
The overall project deliverables are the following:
•Update the Key Assignment Document title page with new date and document name.
•Update the previously completed sections based on the instructor's feedback. ?Create Quality Dimensions and Criteria section, and add it to the Quality Management Integration Plan shell.
?Construct a matrix similar to the example.
?Fill in Column 2 with refined information that you first explored in this week's Discussion Board.
?Fill in Column 3 with how you will measure or determine how each of the dimensions has been satisfied.
?Column 4 is a placeholder for when the quality assurance tasks are performed.
#5 Assignment Objectives
Apply the principles of quality management in a project context.
Analyze and apply various quality tools, models, and techniques for achieving quality.
350 words
Overview
Now that you have defined the quality dimensions, you will need to determine which quality process improvement tools and techniques would bring the biggest benefit to your project. Some of the tools that you may want to research include, but are not limited to, the following:
•Lean thinking
•Value stream process mapping
•Kaizen
•Five Ss (separate, straighten, scrub, standardize, systematize)
•Kanban
Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 350-500 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Research at least 2 sources (which may include your textbook) to support your response. Discuss the following:
•Compare and contrast 3 process improvement tools and techniques.
•In your opinion, which is the best quality process improvement tool or technique to implement in your project? Why?
Write 2 more paragraphs that are an introduction and conclusion to this topic. Be sure to include your references, and format your submission in APA format.
# 6 Assignment Objectives
Apply the principles of quality management in a project context.
Analyze and apply various quality tools, models, and techniques for achieving quality
Assignment
For this assignment, you are expanding your focus of quality management by selecting 1 of the quality process improvement tools and techniques that you researched in the discussion board to incorporate in the Quality Management Integration Plan:
•Create the Quality Process Improvement Tools and Techniques section. ?Identify which process improvement tool or technique you will included in your overall project plan.
?Explain in detail how this will be implemented and what benefits or improvements you hope to achieve.
?Discuss which processes will be impacted by the implementation of the tool or technique.
?Include a sample artifact of how this will be implemented (e.g., a flow diagram or a Kanban card)
# 7 Assignment Objectives
Explore and evaluate the importance of management's role in the three levels of quality: organizational, process, and performer.
Use effective communication techniquesYour first task is to post your own Key Assignment Outline to the discussion area so that other students are able to review your plan. Attach your document to the main discussion post, and include any notes that you feel are appropriate. The purpose of this assignment is to help improve the quality of the Key Assignment Draft that you will complete next week.
#8 Assignment Objectives
Apply the principles of quality management in a project context.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.
Assignment
1,250
For this assignment, you will further enhance your overall Quality Management Integration Plan by adding in a section to address quality performance monitoring and control. By identifying which methods you will utilize for the quality monitoring and control, you will be able to know-at any given point in the project-if you are on track with quality performance or not.
•Add the Quality Performance Monitoring and Control section. ?Identify the tasks, effort, and resources that should be added or already exist in the project plan to monitor and control quality.
?Disclose the contingency or primary budget that has been set aside for these tasks.
?Calculate the cost of quality according to the PMBOK Guide.
?Discuss which and how you will use at least 2 of the following quality performance tools and techniques to perform monitoring and control:
?Cause and effect charts
?Control charts
?Benchmarking
?Flowcharting
?Histogram
?Pareto chart
?Run chart
?Statistical sampling
?Inspection
?Be sure to include a sample of this tool or technique in use.
•Name the document "LastName_FirstName_MPM357_IP4.doc."
•Note that this is the same document that will be submitted as the Draft Key Assignment.
# 9Assignment Objectives
Explore and evaluate the importance of management's role in the three levels of quality: organizational, process, and performer.
Use effective communication techniques
Summative Discussion Board
Review and reflect on the knowledge you have gained from this course. Based on your review and reflection, write at least 3 paragraphs on the following:
•What were the most compelling topics learned in this course?
•How did participating in discussions help your understanding of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be clarified?
•What approaches could have yielded additional valuable information?
•The main post should include at least 1 reference to research sources, and all sources should be cited using APA format.
#10 Assignment Objectives
Explore and evaluate the importance of management's role in the three levels of quality: organizational, process, and performer.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.
Assignment
In the previous weeks, you developed an overall strategy for incorporating quality management in the project. In Week 1, you evaluated the overall organizational readiness. In Week 2, you made a determination and discussed the quality dimensions and criteria that will be utilized to track against customer expectations. In Week 3, you performed an analysis and selection of the quality tools, models, and techniques that are suitable for achieving quality in the selected project, and you performed an evaluation of the role in the 3 levels of quality management. In Week 4, you developed a process for monitoring and managing of quality performance and quality related issues.
In this Week, you will be evaluating the 3 levels of quality management and developing a communication plan to review and communicate on quality performance tracking to the pertinent stakeholders.
Deliverables
The overall project deliverables are as follows:
•Update the previously completed sections based on the instructor's feedback.
•Add the following sections to you Quality Management Integration Plan: ?Three Levels of Quality Management ?Evaluate and summarize overall quality management at the organization level.
?Evaluate and summarize quality management at the process level.
?Evaluate and describe quality management at the performer level.
?Quality Performance Communication Plan
?Discuss and include types of reports that will be part of the overall communications plan.
?Describe who and how often communications will occur for quality assurance activities.
?Identify final closure process on resolved quality assurance issues.
•Update the Key Assignment title page with new date and document name.
•Be sure to update your table of contents before submission.