Quality Control Performance

00:02 Now we'll be looking at quality control.

00:06 Quality standards vary more from project to project than time and cost.

00:11 But we will highlight a few common things that you can do when performing quality control activities.

00:18 So you have defined targets and requirements during quality planning and you have collected actuals from the quality checks during execution.

00:26 The same question needs to be asked again.

00:29 Are the quality targets being met? The quality standards targets and how they are controlled will be very different from one project to the next, as is the scope.

00:41 But as we said, we will highlight common things that need to be done in the control quality activities.

00:48 We analyse quality on three different levels input, process and output.

00:56 So how about an example? Imagine that your project was to cook a lasagna.

01:02 You check your ingredients, decide on fresh or dried pasta and the beef percentage in the mincemeat. You follow all the steps during the preparation, preheating the oven, chopping the vegetables and so on.

01:15 Then you assess the completed dish.

01:18 Is the béchamel sauce smooth, the pasta soft and the cheese melted.

01:24 These are your input checks, process checks and output checks.

01:30 Okay. Let's look at this in more detail with our laboratory project.

01:35 We start with input.

01:37 This is when you need to get your work started on the right foot.

01:40 If your resources aren't good enough to reach the desired scope, should you even start at all? Consider the construction materials for the building as an example. Here it would be sensible to give the responsibility of validating the materials to the owner of the construction Workstream as they are an expert in the field. While doing that, they will likely go through a checklist similar to this one.

02:05 They will ensure all materials reach the necessary quality standards, either set internally or by safety regulations.

02:12 A similar process will obviously take place in areas like car production and interiors, among others. Then comes quality control during the process. This is when you will need to ensure all steps are being carried out during an activity and no shortcuts are taken.

02:29 In the hiring workstream for example, if each sales person knows everything about each car model and we decide to skip customer service training, then that knowledge will be useless as our sales agents would not have the needed skills to actually make the sales.

02:45 Again, delegating the responsibility to a member of the marketing team who keeps a checklist of all employees and the training they have taken will make the most sense.

02:55 Finally the quality control of the output.

03:00 These are the quality checks at the completion point of a deliverable or activity. For instance, when the augmented reality effects on the cars have been finished, checks need to be made to ensure that they connect quickly with the electronic interface and that inputs are responsive.

03:17 If the target is for the effects to happen in under 3 seconds, is that criteria met at least nine times out of ten? Awesome. No formulas for this one.

03:29 But the core of this type of control is still comparing the actuals to the measurable targets you set during the planning.

03:38 Remember, though, that you as project manager are not the final point of contact when it comes to quality checks.

03:45 Many deliverables will need to be approved by the project's stakeholders and especially the project client.

03:52 Lamborarri are notoriously careful when it comes to their safety and emissions checks on cars, especially since the Volkswagen emissions scandal in 2015.

04:01 They will not approve the project if this quality criteria is not met, as just one example.

04:09 Quality is as important as time, cost and scope are when it comes to project planning.

04:15 Without quality checks being signed off, the project is at a huge risk.

04:21 Promising a car in three months for $100,000.

04:24 That accelerates from 0 to 100 in 3 seconds and delivering a car in three months for $100,000 that accelerates from 0 to 107 seconds is not a successful project.

04:37 The triple constraint triangle is just as affected by quality.

04:41 Also, increasing the quality requirements will take more time and resources and vice versa.

04:50 Excellent. We discuss some ways to control quality.

04:54 So let's jump into another big part of our project, the risks.

04:59 Obviously risks themselves, can't be controlled, but how we deal with them can be.

05:04 Well, you'll see in the next lesson.