IT Project Management

Six Sigma Principles

2009-08-02T05:46:00.002+07:00

Organizations use Six Sigma principles to improve quality, decrease costs, and better meet customer needs. In the book "The Six Sigma Way", define Six Sigma as "a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention for managing, improving, and reinventing business process".

Six Sigma's target for perfection is the achievement of no more than 3.4 defects, errors, or mistakes per million opportunities. This target number is explained in more detail later in this section. An organization can apply the Six Sigma principles to the design and production of a product, a Help Desk, or other customer-service process.

Projects that use Six Sigma principles for quality control normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC (pronounced de-MAY-ic), which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze,Improve, and Control. DMAIC is a systematic, closed-loop process for continued improvement that is scientific and fact based. The following are brief descriptions of each phase of the DMAIC improvement process:

Define: Define the problem/opportunity, process, and customer requirements. Important tools used in this phase include a project charter, a description of customer requirements, process maps, and Voice of the Customer (VOC) data. Examples of VOC data include complaints, surveys, comments, and market research that represent the views and needs of the organization's customers.
Measure: Define measures, then collect, compile, and display data. Measures are defined in terms of defects per opportunity.
Analyze: Describe process details to find improvement opportunities. A project team working on a Six Sigma project, normally referred to as a Six Sigma team, investigates and verifies data to prove the suspected root causes of quality problems and substantiates the problem statement. An important tool in this phase is the Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram.
Improve: Generate solutions and ideas for improving the problem. A final solution is verified with the project sponsor, and the Six Sigma team develops a plan to pilot test the solution. The Six Sigma team reviews the results of the pilot test to refine the solution, if needed, and then implements the solution where appropriate.
Control: Track and verify the stability of the improvements and the predictability of the solution. Control charts are one tool used in the control phase.

Project Management Knowledge Areas

2009-07-15T06:08:00.001+07:00

Project management knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project managers mus develop. There are nine knowledge areas of project management. The four core knowledge areas of project management include project scope, time, cost, and quality management. These are core knowledge areas because they lead to specific project objectives. Brief descriptions of each core knowledge area are as follows:

Project scope management, involves defining and managing all the work required to complete the project successfully.
Project time management, includes estimating how long it will take to complete the work, developing an acceptable project schedule, and ensuring timely completion of the project.
Project cost management, consists of preparing and managing the budget for the project.
Project quality management, ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied needs for which it was undertaken.

The four facilitating knowledge areas of project management are human resource, communications, risk, and procurement management. These are called facilitating areas because they are the processes through which the project objectives are achieved. Brief descriptions of each facilitating knowledge area are as follows:

Project human resource management, is concerned with making effective use of the people involved with the project.
Project communications management, involves generating, collecting, disseminating, and storing project information.
Project risk management, includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks related to the project.
Project procurement management, involves acquiring or procuring goods and services for a project from outside the performing organization.

Project integration management, the ninth knowledge area, is an overarching function that affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas. Project managers must have knowledge and skills in all nine of these areas.

Project Management Offices

2009-07-09T19:56:00.003+07:00

The concept of a project management office, sometimes referred to as the PMO, has been around for several years. You’ll find that many organizations are establishing PMOs in many different forms. PMOs might also be called project offices or program management offices. The PMO is usually a centralized organizational unit that oversees the management of projects and programs throughout the organization. The most common reason a company starts a project management office is to establish and maintain procedures and standards for project management methodologies.

In some organizations, project managers and team members might report directly to the PMO and are assigned to projects as they are initiated. In other organizations, the PMO provides support functions only for projects and trains others in project management procedures and techniques. Still others, depending on their size and function, have experts available that assist project managers in project planning, estimating, and business assumption verification tasks. They serve as mentors to junior-level project managers and act as consultants to the senior project managers.

The PMO usually has responsibility for maintaining and archiving project documentation for future reference. This office compares project goals with project progress and gives feedback to the project teams. It also measures the project performance of active projects and suggests corrective actions. The PMO evaluates completed projects for their adherence to the project plan and asks questions like “Did the project meet the time frames established?” and “Did it stay within budget?” and “Was the quality acceptable?”

Project management offices are becoming more common in organizations today, if for no other reason than to serve as a collection point for project documentation. Some PMOs are fairly sophisticated and prescribe the standards and methodologies to be used in all project phases across the enterprise. Still others provide all these functions and also offer project management consulting services. However, the establishment of a PMO is not required in order for you to apply good project management practices to your next project.

Understanding the Project Environment

2009-07-08T19:50:00.002+07:00

Virtually all projects are planned and implemented in a social, economic, and environmental context, and have intended and unintended positive and/or negative impacts. The project team should consider the project in its cultural, social, international, political, and physical environmental contexts.

Cultural and social environment. The team needs to understand how the project affects people and how people affect the project. This may require an understanding of aspects of the economic, demographic, educational, ethical, ethnic, religious, and other characteristics of the people whom the project affects or who may have an interest in the project. The project manager should also examine the organizational culture and determine whether project management is recognized as a valid role with accountability and authority for managing the project.
International and political environment. Some team members may need to be familiar with applicable international, national, regional, and local laws and customs, as well as the political climate that could affect the project. Other international factors to consider are time-zone differences, national and regional holidays, travel requirements for face-to-face meetings, and the logistics of teleconferencing.
Physical environment. If the project will affect its physical surroundings, some team members should be knowledgeable about the local ecology and physical geography that could affect the project or be affected by the project.

Application Area Knowledge, Standards and Regulations

2009-07-05T18:17:00.002+07:00

Application areas are categories of projects that have common elements significant in such projects, but are not needed or present in all projects. Application areas are usually defined in terms of:

Functional departments and supporting disciplines, such as legal, production and inventory management, marketing, logistics, and personnel
Technical elements, such as software development or engineering, and sometimes a specific kind of engineering, such as water and sanitation engineering or construction engineering
Management specializations, such as government contracting, community development, and new product development
Industry groups, such as automotive, chemical, agriculture, and financial services.

Each application area generally has a set of accepted standards and practices, often codified in regulations. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) differentiates between standards and regulations as follows:

A standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context. Some examples of standards are computer disk sizes and the thermal stability specifications of hydraulic fluids.
A regulation is a government-imposed requirement, which specifies product, process or service characteristics, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory. Building codes are an example of regulations.

There is an overlap in the concepts of standards and regulations that cause confusion. For example:

Standards often begin as guidelines that describe a preferred approach and later, with widespread adoption, become generally accepted as if they were regulations
Different organizational levels can mandate compliance, such as when a government agency, the management of the performing organization, or the project management team establishes specific policies and procedures.

Reference: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ® Guide)

Project Phases and Project Life Cycles

2009-07-03T17:40:00.003+07:00

All projects are divided into phases, and all projects, large or small, have a similar life cycle structure. At a minimum, a project will have a beginning or initiation phase, an intermediate phase or phases, and an ending phase. The number of phases depends on the project complexity and the industry. For example, information technology projects might progress through phases such as requirements, design, program, test, and implement. All the collective phases the project progresses through in concert are called the project life cycle.

The end of each phase allows the project manager, stakeholders, and project sponsor the opportunity to determine whether the project should continue to the next phase. In order to progress to the next phase, the deliverable from the phase before it must be reviewed for accuracy and approved. As each phase is completed, it’s handed off to the next phase. You’ll look at handoffs and progressions through these phases next.

Handoffs
Project phases evolve through the life cycle in a series of phase sequences called handoffs, or technical transfers. The end of one phase sequence typically marks the beginning of the next. However, the completion of one phase does not automatically signal the beginning of the next phase. For example, in the construction industry, feasibility studies often take place in the beginning phase of a project.

The purpose of the feasibility study is to determine whether the project is worth undertaking and whether the project will be profitable to the organization. A feasibility study is a preliminary assessment of the viability of the project; the viability or perhaps marketability of the product, service, or result of the project; and the project’s value to the organization. It might also determine whether the product, service, or result of the project is safe and meets industry or governmental standards and regulations. The completion and approval of the feasibility study triggers the beginning of the requirements phase, where requirements are documented and then handed off to the design phase, where blueprints are produced. The feasibility might also show that the project is not worth pursuing and the project is then terminated; thus, the next phase never begins.

Phase Completion
You will recognize phase completion because each phase has a specific deliverable, or multiple deliverables, that marks the end of the phase. A deliverable is an output that must be produced, reviewed, and approved to bring the phase or project to completion. Deliverables are tangible and can be measured and easily proved. For instance, a hypothetical deliverable produced in the beginning phase of a construction industry project would be the feasibility study.

Deliverables might also include things such as design documents, project budgets, blueprints, project schedules, prototypes, and so on. This analysis allows those involved with the opportunity to determine whether the project should continue to the next phase. The feasibility study might show that environmental impacts of an enormous nature would result if the construction project were undertaken at the proposed location. Based on this information, a go or no-go decision can be made at the end of this phase. The end of a phase gives the project manager the ability to discover, address, and take corrective action against errors discovered during the phase.

Sometimes phases are overlapped to shorten or compress the project schedule. This is called
fast tracking. Fast tracking means that a later phase is started prior to completing and approving the phase, or phases, that come before it. This technique is used to shorten the overall duration of the project.

Most projects follow phase sequences within a project life cycle and, as a result, have the following characteristics in common: In the beginning phase, which is where the project is initiated, costs are low, and few team members are assigned to the project. As the project progresses, costs and staffing increase and then taper off at the closing phase. The potential that the project will come to a successful ending is lowest at the beginning of the project; its chance for success increases as the project progresses through its phases and life cycle stages. Risk is highest at the beginning of the project and gradually decreases the closer the project comes to completion.

Stakeholders have the greatest chance of influencing the project and the characteristics of the product, service, or result of the project in the beginning phases and have less and less influence as the project progresses. This same phenomenon exists within the project management processes as well.

Project Characteristics

2009-06-17T19:33:00.002+07:00

1. Temporary

Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. The end is reached when the project's objectives have been achieved, or it becomes clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no longer exists and the project is terminated. Temporary does not necessarily mean short in duration; many projects last for several years. In every case, however, the duration of a project is finite. Projects are not ongoing efforts.

In addition, temporary does not generally apply to the product, service or result created by the project. Most projects are undertaken to create a lasting outcome. For example, a project to erect a national monument will create a result expected to last centuries. Projects also may often have intended and unintended social, economic and environmental impacts that far outlast the projects themselves.

The temporary nature of projects may apply to other aspects of the endeavor as well:

The opportunity or market window is usually temporary some projects have a limited time frame in which to produce their product or service.
The project team, as a working unit, seldom m created for the sole purpose of performing the project will perform that project, and then the team is disbanded and the team members reassigned when the project ends.

2. Unique Products, Services, or Results

A project creates unique deliverables, which are products, services, or results. Projects can create:

A product or artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can be either an end item in itself or a component item
A capability to perform a service, such as business functions supporting production or distribution
A result, such as outcomes or documents. For example, a research project develops knowledge that can be used to determine whether or not a trend is present or a new process will benefit society.

Uniqueness is an important characteristic of project deliverables. For example, many thousands of office buildings have been developed, but each individual facility different owner, different design, different location, different contractors, and so on. The presence of repetitive elements does not change the fundamental uniqueness of the project work.

3. Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration is a characteristic of projects that accompanies the concepts of temporary and unique. Progressive elaboration means developing in steps, and continuing by increments 1 . For example, the project scope will be broadly described early in the project and made more explicit and detailed as the project team develops a better and more complete understanding of the objectives and deliverables. Progressive elaboration should not be confused with scope creep (Section 5.5).

Progressive elaboration of a project's specifications needs to be carefully coordinated with proper project scope definition, particularly if the project is performed under contract. When properly defined, the scope of the proj the work to be d ld be controlled as the project and product specifications are progressively elaborated.

The following examples illustrate progressive elaboration in two different application areas:

Development of a chemical processing plant begins with process engineering to define the characteristics of the process. These characteristics are used to design the major processing units. This information becomes the basis for engineering design, which defines both the detailed plant layout and the mechanical characteristics of the process units and ancillary facilities. All of this results in design drawings that are elaborated to produce fabrication and construction drawings. During construction, interpretations and adaptations are made as needed and are subject to proper approval. This further elaboration of the deliverables is captured in as-built drawings, and final operating adjustments are made during testing and turnover.
The product of an economic development project may initially be defined as: Improve the quality of life of the lowest income residents of community As the project proceeds, the products may be described more specifically as, for exam and water to 500 low-income residents in community xt round of progressive elaboration might focus exclusively on increasing agriculture production and marketing, with provision of water deemed to be a secondary priority to be initiated once the agricultural component is well under way.

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) ® Guide

2009-06-07T18:41:00.003+07:00

The primary purpose of the PMBOK ® Guide is to identify that subset of the Project Management Body of Knowledge that is generally recognized as good practice. means to provide a general overview as opposed to an exhaustive means that the knowledge and practices described are applicable to most projects most of the time, and that there is there is general agreement that the correct application of these skills, tools, and techniques can enhance the chances of success over a wide range of different projects. Good practice does not mean that the knowledge described should always be applied uniformly on all projects; the project management team is responsible for determining what is appropriate for any given project.

The PMBOK ® Guide also provides and promotes a common lexicon for discussing, writing, and applying project management. Such a standard lexicon is an essential element of a profession.

The Project Management Institute uses this document as a foundational, but not sole, project management reference for its professional development programs including: Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification
Project management education and training offered by PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s)
Accreditation of educational programs in project management.

As a foundational reference, this standard is neither comprehensive nor all- inclusive. Appendix D discusses application area extensions, while Appendix E lists sources of further information on project management.

This standard addresses only single projects and the project management processes that are generally recognized as good practice. There are other standards on organizational project management maturity, project manager competency, and other topics that address what is generally recognized as good practices in those areas. Some of the material in those other standards impacts single projects. The other standards should be consulted for additional information and understanding of the broader context in which projects are accomplished.

Project management standards do not address all details of every topic. Topics
are not mentioned should not be considered unimportant. There are several reasons
a topic may not be included in a standard: it may be included within some other related standard; it may be so general that there is nothing uniquely applicable to project management; or there is insufficient consensus on a topic. The lack of consensus means there are variations in the profession regarding how, when or where within the organization, as well as who within the organization, should perform that specific project management activity.

The organization or the project management team must decide how those activities are going to be addressed in the context and the circumstances of the project for which the PMBOK ® Guide is being used.

Reference: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ® Guide) Third Edition

Project Management Body of Knowledge

2009-06-01T18:38:00.002+07:00

The definition from Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) ® Guide 2004 (Third Edition):

The Project Management Body of Knowledge is the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management. As with other professions such as law, medicine, and accounting, the body of knowledge rests with the practitioners and academics who apply and advance it.

The complete Project Management Body of Knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied, as well as innovative practices that are emerging in the profession, including published and unpublished material. As a result, the Project Management Body of Knowledge is constantly evolving.

Dealing with Performance Problems

2009-05-27T17:54:00.001+07:00

Leaders can help their employees improve their performance by using a progressive discipline system.

To help an employee with a performance problem, you should:

get to the heart of the problem
respond to the problem by preparing an action plan
use discipline to deal with the problem.

Get to the heart of the problem
When there is a problem with an employee's performance, you should get to the heart of the problem before you attempt to correct it. This is important because the cause of a performance problem is not always apparent.

To correct the problem, you need to address the cause. To determine what is causing a performance problem, you should ask the following questions:

Does the employee understand the goals and standards of the job?
Does the employee get timely feedback on his or her performance?
Did the employee get adequate training for the job?
Does the employee demonstrate competency in other tasks?
Is the employee capable of doing the work?
Does the employee have the resources to do a good job?

Respond to the problem by preparing an action plan
Once you have determined the cause of a performance problem, you should meet with the employee involved to discuss possible solutions.

When you do this, don't get personally involved in the problem or apologize for having to deal with it. You want to help the employee succeed. Find out what the employee would like to see as an outcome. Then set up a plan of action.

Begin with the assumption that any corrective action you take should first and foremost help improve an employee's performance.

The following gives more about preparing an action plan:

Make sure that employees with performance problems have a clear understanding of their jobs.
Present clear information about how the job should be done, clarify each step, and emphasize the major responsibilities.
Provide training if necessary.
Make your employees responsible for the outcome of this process. Ask them to check back with you frequently.
Encourage your employees.

Use discipline to deal with the problem
When it becomes necessary to take disciplinary measures, you should use a four-step procedure. Because these steps sometimes lead to termination, you should ensure that you have all of the facts and use the same procedure for all employees.
It's also important that you do not allow your judgment to be clouded by prior, unrelated problems. There is more information on the steps below:

In step one, verbally remind the employee about the problem, and state that the problem is now in the formal disciplinary stage.
Go to step two if the problem continues. Give the employee formal written notification of the continuing problem.
If these steps fail, move to step three, in which the employee is given one day of paid leave to decide whether to stay and improve or leave. This demonstrates the organization's desire to give the employee control over whether to stay or leave.
Step four is termination. Having documented all the previous steps in the employee's file, set a specific time for an interview. Inform the employee of your decision. Keep the meeting simple and short. The employee had every opportunity to improve. There is no need for further discussion.

By following well-thought-out steps in correcting performance problems, a leader can keep employees motivated and effective. Do you have procedures in place that make discipline a progressive measure?

Identifying Performance Standards

2009-05-24T17:52:00.002+07:00

Performance standards are target measurements for achieving quality in work. The guidelines for setting performance standards follow these three perspectives:

establishing criteria for quality-performance standards
clarifying quality-performance standard
providing positive reinforcement and recognition for quality-performance standards

Establishing criteria for quality-performance standards
Before you set performance standards, it's important to establish your criteria. You should consider quality, quantity, time, and customer requirements as criteria for establishing performance standards.

Clarifying quality-performance standard
You should clarify your performance standards once you have established your criteria for setting them. It's important to involve your employees in this process. The following provide more information on how to do this:

Once you establish your criteria for setting performance standards, you should describe your criteria to your employees. You should work with your employees to prioritize the tasks according to the customer requirements, and the time, quantity and level of quality needed.
You should meet with your employees to record all the tasks and standards that are required to meet your criteria. To make your standards meaningful, they should be measurable.
You should develop a tracking system and hold regular one-on-one discussions with your employees about work in progress. Don't wait until you have problems to establish a tracking system.

Providing positive reinforcement and recognition for quality-performance standards
After you establish your criteria and clarify your performance standards, it's important to encourage your employees to follow them. You should:

provide positive reinforcement for following standards
recognize those who adhere to the standards.

Performance standards are target measurements for achieving quality in work. You can use them to help your organization.

Identifying Performance Problems

2009-05-20T17:49:00.001+07:00

In most organizations, it's essential that employees maintain certain performance standards in order for the department to meet its quotas.

When quotas are not met, you must determine why. What are the reasons for poor performance that you must understand?

There are a number of reasons for poor performance. You'll approach these reasons from three different perspectives:

the reasons for performance problems
the elements of performance
the attitude behind performance.

The reasons for performance problems
Most performance difficulties arise for four different reasons. These reasons are explained below:

Employees' lack of knowledge prevents them from knowing what to do.
Employees lack the aptitude to do what is required of them and therefore are not capable of completing tasks.
Excessive interferences from processes, people, or technology can create a situation where employees are not allowed to do what is required of them.
Finally, some performance problems are caused by employees refusing to do what's required of them. When there are no safety issues involved, this is usually a result of attitude problems.

The elements of performance
When you discover performance problems, what are you actually measuring these results against? There are seven elements of performance that help you target employees' achievements. These elements of performance are:

Goals: What do they need to achieve?
Standards: How are their achievements quantified?
Feedback: Do they have the guidance they need?
Competence: Have we properly trained them?
Opportunity: Do they have chances for advancement?
Means: Do they have the tools to do their job?
Motive: Do they have good reasons to want to do this?

A useful tool for analyzing performance is to chart the reasons for performance problems against the elements of performance. This can help you figure out how to specifically address each performance problem.

The attitude behind performance
Attitudes are often part of vicious cycles in which an attitude provides a mental excuse to behave in a certain way. Quite often, this behavior creates a result that reinforces the original attitude.

Attitudes are not always easy to change because they can come from so many different sources. Some are brought to work by employees, and some are formed as a result of things that happen in the work setting. The following provide more about the source of attitudes:

personal background
self-esteem
prior experience
unclear goals
poor feedback
lack of recognition
nature of the work
inadequate compensation.

Consider the principal causes for performance problems for addressing the problem areas in your workplace.

Understanding Communication Strategies

2009-05-12T17:42:00.003+07:00

Many employees are expected to argue for themselves in order to promote the organization's interests through their own department.

But how do you monitor the strategies these people use to argue for their interests?

You can encourage people to use communicative strategies to resolve conflicts. You can also stress the importance of avoiding contentious strategies that result in division. To do this, considers these points:

rules for open communications
conflict-resolution methods
avoiding contentious strategies.

Rules for open communications
When you hire someone for your department, or when meetings start to get out of hand, you could bring up a series of basic rules for open communication. These are communicative strategies. The following provide more about the elements of open communication:

I statements: When discussing your feelings about an emotional situation, use statements such as, "I feel this way when this happens." It's non-accusatory and expresses what you feel.
willingness: People on both sides of a disagreement need to indicate their willingness to resolve their differences.
listening: Everyone needs to hear the speaker and acknowledge through verbal and nonverbal means that he or she is listening.
restating: When it's your turn to speak in reply to what someone else has said, restate what you believe you heard him say. This helps eliminate misunderstandings.
agreements: It's also important to point out what interests you have in common with those you disagree with. This sets an optimistic tone for possible agreements.
requests: It's divisive to ask someone to stop doing something you don't like; however, it's OK to request a change of behavior, especially if you suggest alternatives.
consistency: Be consistent with your verbal and nonverbal message.
word choice: Be careful with the words you use when describing negative feelings. Try to choose noninflammatory language and tone down your emotions.

Conflict-resolution methods
There are other strategies you can use, but these strategies should be used as a last-resort tactic, when nothing else has worked. These strategies lie somewhere in between communicative and contentious.

The following provide more about these strategies:

Giving in is an acceptable strategy when you won't suffer long-term harm. It can be an effective bargaining chip that lets you move on to a more important point.
When it appears that a conflict is about to escalate, it's OK to break off or even give up on trying to resolve it.
Avoiding a problem can be OK if time will take care of it. This is a difficult decision to make.
In emergencies, when quick and decisive actions must be taken, when you must implement an unpopular decision, or when someone is playing games with you, it is OK to be abrupt.

Avoiding contentious strategies
It is very important to point out to the people in your group what you consider to be contentious strategies. The following provide more about these inappropriate tactics:

Sometimes, when people try to become your new best friend, and flatter and compliment you, they may be trying to get you to make a decision against your interests.
Inducing guilt is an inappropriate way to get someone to change her mind.
Gamesmanship is the use of maneuvers that further your own position over others.
Another contentious tactic is the use of threats.
Side issue remarks are derogatory comments directed at your opponent.

To resolve a conflict with an employee, it's important to use appropriate communicative strategies and avoid contention. You should show willingness and consistency in resolving a conflict, use I statements and proper word choice, listen to and restate a message, find common ground and request a change of behavior.

If these strategies do not work, you should then use an appropriate last-resort strategy.

Understanding Cooperative Resolution

2009-05-07T17:40:00.001+07:00

Conflict occurs in every organization.

Organizations that successfully manage conflict can do so by resolving it cooperatively.

There are two means that effective leaders use to reach cooperative conflict resolution. They:

set preconditions to a cooperative resolution
follow the steps to a cooperative resolution.

Set preconditions to a cooperative resolution
Whenever there is a conflict between your employees, it's important to set the preconditions for cooperative resolution before any attempt is made to resolve the conflict.

This will help both parties in a conflict to separate the problem from the people involved, and work together for a mutually beneficial solution. Begin by meeting separately with each side and establishing the following preconditions for cooperative resolution.

Make certain that both parties understand that they can meet their own interests by helping others meet theirs.

Encourage both parties to come up with an alternate plan. It's important that neither side enter negotiations with a rigid mindset.

Make sure that both parties separate the people involved in the dispute from the dispute itself. Work-related problems that become personal disputes are more difficult to resolve.

Follow the steps to a cooperative resolution
Once the preconditions for a cooperative resolution are set, a leader should get the parties in a conflict to sit down together and follow the steps for a cooperative resolution. These are the four steps that a leader should follow:

Conflicts often arise over simple misunderstandings. Taking time to eliminate all misunderstandings between parties in a conflict can make it much easier to reach a cooperative resolution.
The second step is identifying and analyzing all issues and interests. This is an important step because it is easy to overlook issues in a conflict, yet difficult to find solutions if all issues are not identified.
In the third step of the cooperative resolution process, leaders should help employees find integrative solutions. This type of solution allows both parties to win. As you negotiate for a mutually beneficial solution, you should make sure that neither party dominates and that both remain flexible.
If unable to find a successful integrative solution, a leader should proceed to the fourth step. This involves revisiting each of the steps in an attempt to find a solution. If still unsuccessful, the leader makes the final decision.

To resolve conflicts between employees, it is important to follow the steps for reaching a cooperative resolution. To do this, you should eliminate misunderstandings, analyze the issues and interests of both sides, and find solutions that benefit both parties.

If a cooperative resolution is not found after following these steps, you should revisit the previous steps. If a solution is still not reached after revisiting all the steps, you will have to make the decision yourself.

By applying a variety of methods, you can resolve the conflicts between your employees cooperatively. How could these skills contribute to your own leadership abilities and to the success of your organization?

Understanding Conflict

2009-05-04T17:35:00.002+07:00

Conflicts among employees occur in every organization.

As an effective leader you need to know how to deal with conflict.

Understanding conflict means examining:

the concept of conflict
constructive conflict
the escalation of conflict
the psychological changes that accompany conflict
the two primary reasons for conflict.

Constructive conflict
While we all know conflict when we feel it, most of us don't work with it well because we don't understand its dynamics. What are the inner workings of conflict?

Conflict is an everyday, naturally occurring fact of life. Without it, there is no progress, evolution, or art. Don't fear it; learn how to face it and work with it. It occurs when you believe that in order to get what you want, someone else won't be able to get what he or she wants.

The concept of conflict
The resolution of a problem can show the three ways conflict can be constructive. These are:

when it leads to unity of purpose and collaboration
when it leads to better decision making
when it produces change.

The escalation of conflict
Many conflicts, however, turn destructive because they escalate out of control. Consider the following reasons that conflict escalates:

Cooperation turns into accusations and threats.
One issue becomes many.
A specific issue gives way to general complaints.
Consideration turns to getting even.
More people begin to get involved.

The psychological changes that accompany conflict
There are a number of psychological changes that happen to people when they get involved in conflicts. These are explained in detail below:

When you are in conflict, you develop selective perception, only seeing your own side of the story. You begin to look for evidence to prove you're right.
Conflict can also cause you to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where you create a worst-case scenario, and then get what you expect by acting as if it's going to happen.
When conflict is played out, a complete communication breakdown occurs. Trust is rarely reestablished, and any polite conversation that follows is filled with tension and bitterness.

The two primary reasons for conflict
There are two primary reasons for conflict. One primary reason for conflict is that two people have different interests; they want different things. Another primary reason for conflict is two people have the same interests, which are in conflict; they believe only one of them can have what they want.

Exploring conflict resolution within your organization can improve the atmosphere in the workplace and lead to greater creativity and collaboration.

Understanding Listening Strategies

2009-04-24T10:44:00.001+07:00

Listening is one of the most valuable skills a leader can have.

Many people assume that listening is a passive experience, but it actually requires active participation. There are a variety of methods for effective listening, including:

using attentiveness, silence, and neutrality
reflecting and summarizing
sorting and patterning
noting gaps and interruptions
expressing feeling and testing for responsibility.

When people talk, they expect others to listen to them, but they generally give little thought to what this means. The following are some first steps to good listening:

Focus your attention on the person who's talking. Maintain eye contact. If your body language says you're not interested, the person will sense it.
Remain silent, except for recognition that you're following along, such as a semi-verbal "uh-huh" or a head nod. This says you're paying attention.
Maintain a neutral frame of mind. This means not judging or attempting to control the conversation, not suggesting or correcting, and not praising or criticizing.

There are two other techniques for making people aware that you are paying attention. First, use reflective statements. These are words that echo important words or phrases that the patient uses. Second, summarize what you have just heard and repeat it back to the speaker.

You can also wait for a break in the narration, and then sort out and find patterns in their experiences. This can help to sort out the differences between symptoms and deeper problems.

Try to notice inconsistencies in narratives. What is left out of a conversation can be as helpful in analyzing a situation as what is included.

Toward the end of a conversation, you can encourage the speaker to step back from their story and summarize it for themselves.

Remember that effective listening requires active participation. You should use attentiveness, silence and neutrality when listening. It's important to use reflective statements and summarize the employee's message. You should also sort symptoms from deeper problems, note gaps and interruptions in your employee's story, encourage your employee to express feeling, and test for responsibility.

Understanding Good Questions

2009-04-21T10:43:00.002+07:00

To accomplish your goals as a businessperson and leader, one of the best strategies is knowing how to ask key questions.

Key questioning strategies can help you:

uncover the problem in front of you
identify the purpose of your actions
discover the premise you're following
determine the resources you need
determine customer interest
gather the data you need.

One questioning strategy used by Japanese teachers of quality is the use of Why? They suggest asking this question five times to discover the underlying causes of a problem and then finding solutions.

Another key question is aimed at discovering the purpose of any action. For example, whenever someone suggests a new project or product, you could ask, "What is the purpose of this?"

You should also subject every suggestion or idea that is presented to a question concerning its premise. A premise is the belief or attitude that forms the basis of an assumption.

Every new project, idea, or suggestion that is presented to you requires effort and resources to be carried out. To help employees figure out how to convert these thoughts into actions, you should ask them questions about resources.

Occasionally, your employees will come to you with a suggestion that you know they have not researched. Instead of dismissing the idea, use questions designed to encourage employees to come up with the data they need.

You can maintain a thriving business by knowing how to ask good questions that engage your employees in the process of improvement.

Understanding Leadership through Questioning

2009-04-17T10:42:00.001+07:00

One of the most important things that you can do to improve your company is to ask the right questions in the right way.

Questioning strategies that improve the way employees and production process work include:

collaborating
experimenting
educating
reviewing.

Collaborating
There are many different ways that leaders can approach working with their employees. In the old style of organizations, leaders would direct rather than collaborate.

Leaders who direct have a hard time learning to ask questions. They tell others what to do and pack unsolicited advice into their conversations with subordinates. On the other hand, leaders who collaborate with their team do so by asking questions and using what they discover to improve the way the team operates.

A good piece of advice is to learn the difference between opinions and facts. Employees and co-workers are much more likely to be drawn into dialog with someone who knows the difference.

Experimenting
Leaders who understand what they don't know take the experimenter approach, using questions to learn. Leaders who think they know everything use their opinions as facts and don't listen to those who actually know.

Educating
Another hallmark of leadership is educating. When teachers start giving advice, they have failed as teachers. When leaders spell out what they believe to be true, with no room for inquiry, they are telling others what to do. But when leaders use step-by-step questions designed to let others figure out answers for themselves, they are educating.

The trickiest questioning strategy has to be employed when there is something wrong with someone's work. In the old school of management, leaders often served as inspectors. When they found a mistake, they pointed it out. "This is a mistake," they'd say. This accusatory manner makes people defensive and works against positive solutions.

Reviewing
Leaders who use reviewing as a questioning strategy learn how to ask the questions that get others to see the flaws in their own work. "How can you stop this problem from occurring?" or "What can you do to track down the source of the problem?" are inquiries that encourage participation and involvement.

By using a variety of questioning strategies to involve others in the production process, you can significantly improve quality and efficiency at your organization.

Understanding Group Communications

2009-04-14T10:40:00.001+07:00

Group communications are essential to successful organizations.

Leaders can improve group communication by:

increasing team communication
improving organizational communication
using informal communication networks.

Increasing team communication
There are a number of things you can do to improve the way your group shares information. Some of these are shown below:

Use a variety of formats to get the team together to talk, including team meetings, informal chats, and scheduled informational discussions.
Ensure everyone understands the purpose of these sessions.
Ensure that the group understands how proud you are of their work.
Some people in a group can be bashful about raising questions, so you could attempt to anticipate their needs when responding to others' questions.
You could use newsletters, bulletin boards, and e-mail to communicate with your team.

Improving organizational communication
In addition to improving communications, it is important to contribute to the communications of the larger organization. The following are examples of how contributions to organizational communications could be made:

Every organization needs a dependable internal communications program. In larger companies, someone is usually in charge of this. In smaller companies, it can be a collective function of leaders at all levels.
Good organizational communication means that the members are well informed on all significant issues which affect them, including business challenges, policy changes, and operational and strategic issues.
Other issues which are included in organizational communications include organizational structure, customer service, workplace improvements, and the use of information technology.
Leaders should always be searching for ways to improve communications outside of their immediate realms. You are also responsible for correcting any misinformation about your subordinates or department.
It's also necessary for a leader to actively communicate with other departments to discover information that you need but has not been given to you.
Another way of improving communications among different groups is to suggest a shared function such as a potluck lunch or weekend social activity.

Using informal communication networks
Another means used to communicate is to use informal networks. This is not much different than what is commonly called the grapevine. Leaders can use this type of communication in the following ways:

An informal network, or grapevine, can complement or detract from other group communications.
Accept the fact that grapevines can't be eliminated and are very difficult to control. They are, however, easy to use.
Talking informally or casually with your subordinates and others can provide you with a vast amount of information about your organization.
As a leader, it's your responsibility to correct and dispel any incorrect information that you discover in the grapevine.

You can use a variety of methods to improve communications among your group and between your group and the rest of the organization. How can these techniques improve your own group communications?

Improving Personal Communication Skills

2009-04-09T10:38:00.001+07:00

Improving leadership abilities is intrinsically connected to improving communication skills.

Factors that improve personal communications include the following:

face-to-face communicating
listening to others
speaking well
presenting effectively
writing clearly

Most staff interactions, like most business communications, occur one-on-one and in small groups. You should try to increase the quality and quantity of these small encounters because they are the most effective means of delivering his message.

The following four suggestions can be used in this setting:

One key in getting people to come to you when they need your help is to be approachable. Do this by adjusting your speaking style to more closely resemble those to whom you're speaking.
Be understanding and sincere. Being empathetic towards others and trying to understand their motivations and concerns helps create a two-way relationship.
Consistency in the way you communicate to others improves communication. If your approach to others is erratic, this sends confusing and conflicting messages.
It's also valuable to repeat your important messages from time to time to make sure that they are received and understood. Also, having your instructions mirrored back to you helps when you're having a difficult time communicating with certain people.

In addition to the face-to-face communication skills, there are other skills that would improve communication abilities:

Leaders should aim to spend more time listening than talking. This is an active, not passive process in which you try to understand the other person's perspective. Let your ears be the gateway to others' strengths and concerns.
Leaders need to communicate clearly. Proper speech and grammar, along with easy-to-follow points are vital to your effectiveness. Seek help if this is a problem for you.
Making presentations is part of being a leader. Being natural, using visual aids, and including humor are all part of good presentations. Rehearse with someone whose criticism you value.

Writing skills are another area that should be considered important to your development as a leader. Learning to write correctly takes time, effort, and a real commitment. The following are tips to improve your writing:

Visit a library or bookstore to see the resources available. In addition, write whenever possible.
Make note of the purpose and main points of your document before you begin to write it.
Consider who will be reading what you write, what they know about the subject, and what you want them to do after they read the document.
Avoid using phrases that make excuses, lack confidence, or suggest incompetence.
Keep your language simple, use a minimum of jargon, or specialized words, and be as brief as possible.
Reread what you've written at least twice and make whatever corrections or improvements you can.
Have an assistant or associate review the document for effectiveness, clarity, and correctness before you send it.

Finally, you should learn to improve your awareness of what you communicate nonverbally.

People are naturally aware of your physical actions when they are contradicting or working against what you're saying. Tapping your pen out of nervousness, avoiding eye contact, or looking bored all work against effective communications.

On the other hand, you can use nonverbal communications to your advantage by relaxing, maintaining good posture, staying energetic, and directly addressing others. Videotaping one of your presentations can help you correct bad habits.

The continued success of your company is due, in part, to the effectiveness of your personal communication skills. Consider which of these skills would improve your abilities.

Understanding Clear Messages

2009-04-03T10:34:00.001+07:00

For executives, communication is a critical part of leadership.

The essential elements of sending clear messages include:

conceiving your messages
sending your messages
monitoring your messages.

Conceiving your messages
There are a number of steps that you can follow to create a clear message. These are shown below:

The first step in creating a clear message is knowing why the message needs to be sent. You could be requesting information or asking for a specific action. Carefully consider the reason for your message before you craft it.
Focus on who it is you're contacting. The greater your awareness of that person and his or her concerns, the greater the effectiveness of your message.
Believe that the details of the message already exist within you. Learn how to let this information come to the fore, and distinguish between the details that are important and those that are extraneous.

Sending your messages
The second stage of communicating her message is choosing the means of delivering her message and actually sending it.

If the message dictates a personal delivery and you can't go yourself, consider a spoken form such as a messenger, a telephone call, or a videotape. However, if the message is nonpersonal, technical, or routine in nature, then consider delivering it via letter, e-mail, news release, or organizational publication.

Monitoring your messages
The last step that you have to consider before sending your message is how you are going to monitor the receipt of the information and whether or not it was understood.

The following are a few key ideas about following up after the message is sent:

Set up a way to check whether the message was received, understood, and retained.
If the recipient didn't receive the message, find out why and correct the problem.
Make sure you have the attention of the person to whom you're sending the message.

By carefully following the steps to sending a clear message and understanding the key elements of the process, you can effectively communicate information.

The Benefits of a Risk Database

2009-03-27T10:29:00.001+07:00

William Pollard, a businessman and author, once said, "Information is a source of learning. But unless it's organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit."

A risk database is a repository that can organize, process, and format the information that is collected and used in the risk management processes. The use of a risk database throughout a project's life cycle will make documented information easily accessible for important decision-making purposes.

Project risk information that you may need to store in a database could include agreements, current priorities, specifications, project plan changes, instructions, results, and other information depending on the nature of the project.

You must enter information into the database on a regular basis so that this information is up to date.

You can use a risk database not only for storing and retrieving data, but also for analysis. A database can sort information into categories and generate reports based on what you need to know.

The database can perform complicated calculations in seconds, which provides information that may help decision makers avoid mistakes. You can analyze project information for risks and alert team members about any emerging risks.

Over time, your company will gain experience in keeping track of project risks in a risk database. This documentation can be compiled for a single project or across similar projects, and be used as lessons learned for future projects. Prior to planning new projects, team members can search through the lessons learned to avoid making similar mistakes.

You can use a risk database to help you avoid mistakes and plan effectively for future projects. A risk database can organize and format information so that it is a learning source to help you make important project decisions.

Updating Risk Identification Checklists and Response Plans

2009-03-23T10:27:00.001+07:00

Have you ever tried to follow a plan only to find that the plan wasn't up-to-date and contained inaccuracies? For a plan to be effective, it must be kept current. New information, changes, and corrections have to be made in a timely manner to prevent inappropriate actions being taken on inaccurate or outdated information.

When monitoring and controlling risks, documentation is especially important because project managers and teams use risk documentation to:

track risks
to identify new risks
to plan additional risk responses
to record any actions taken to control risks

If the information being acted on is not current, a new risk is introduced—the risk of acting on inaccurate or outdated information. To avoid this confusion, you must strive to keep all documents up to date.

Two of the most important documents to keep current are the risk identification checklist and risk response plan.

Risk identification checklists
Risk identification checklists describe the criteria used to identify new risks. Project team members should use the experience gained during their projects to update the checklists. This will make the checklists more effective for use in the risk management of future projects.

Risk response plans
The risk response plan is a document that describes in detail what actions should be taken in response to specific risks. Since the risk response plan acts as a guide to risk monitoring and control, the project team should update it regularly to keep everyone equally informed.

There are many elements that you can include in updates to risk response plans. Usually updates are the product of an action or event that changes the risk situation of the project. In some cases, the fact that an action was not taken leads to the need for an update. Some of the common elements included in updates to a risk response plan are:

Implementing risk controls - The implementation of risk controls may reduce the impact or probability of identified risks. Documenting the implemented risk controls will provide the project team with the information it needs to change its future expectations for particular risks.
Changing risk rankings - Risk rankings change throughout the project's life cycle. You should document these changes so you and your team can properly control higher ranking risks.
Closing risks - Risks that do not occur and that are no longer considered a threat should be documented and closed in the risk response plan.

Updating documentation can help avoid confusion and keep everyone on the project equally informed. The information added to the documentation will help you prepare for similar risks that may occur in future projects.

Processing Project Change Requests

2009-03-18T10:25:00.004+07:00

Imagine that your project has just encountered a risk. You have implemented a workaround to control the risk, but the cost of the workaround will affect the project budget. What should you do to ensure that this change is incorporated into the project plan?

When the members of the project team determine that changes must be made to compensate for controlling risks, they issue a project change request. Project change requests are used to recommend changes in project scope, budget, schedule, or quality. There are various types of change requests including oral or written, direct or indirect, externally or internally initiated, and legally mandated or optional.

Regardless of the type of project change being requested, either the person requesting the change or a project team member will have to fill out a project change request form. The form should include the project name, client name, who requested the change, a description of the requested change, the reason for the change, the impact of the change, and whether it is accepted or rejected.

Project change requests are processed using integrated change control. Integrated change control is concerned with maintaining the project scope and the project's integrated performance baseline. Its ultimate goal is to accept or reject project change requests.

Integrated change control is achieved in a series of five steps.

Step 1: Submit the change request.
The process is initiated by the submission of a project change request. The person requesting the change, or a project team member, should fill out the project change request form.
Step 2: Record the request in the project change request log.
Once the project manager receives the change request, he records it in the project change request log. This log keeps track of change request submissions and the status of those requests.
Step 3: Assess the impact of the proposed change.
One or more of the project team members must assess the impact that the proposed change will have on the project as a whole. Project changes may affect many project areas, such as the scope, budget, schedule, quality, and objectives.
Step 4: Make recommendations whether to accept, reject, or modify the request.
The people who were in charge of the assessment will make recommendations about whether to accept, reject, or modify the change request. They will base these recommendations on the validity of the request and its impact on the project.
Step 5: Decide whether to accept or reject the request.
The project authority will use the recommendations to decide whether to accept or reject the project change request. Rejected requests will be closed and filed. Accepted requests will be incorporated into the project plan.

Project change requests are processed through the integrated change control process. This process leads your company to make informed decisions on whether or not change requests should be incorporated into the project plan.

Managing Risk with Contingency Plans and Workarounds

2009-03-16T10:25:00.001+07:00

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "What you don't do can be a destructive force." This is especially true in terms of risks. Leaving risks to run their course without taking action can be very destructive to your project.

When a risk occurs, you must take corrective action to harness the risk and lead it down the least destructive path. In project risk monitoring and control, two of the most helpful forms of corrective action are contingency plans and workarounds.

Contingency plans
Contingency plans are management plans that identify alternative strategies project teams can use to ensure project success if specified risk events occur. They are developed before the risk occurs and are used if the original risk response is not effective. Contingency plans go beyond the original risk response to address "what if" scenarios that may further complicate risk control efforts. Risks that pose a significant threat to the project should have a contingency plan.

Contingency plans should contain information such as the plan's objective, criteria for implementation, roles and responsibilities, and the details for implementation.

Untouchable Tires is producing winter tires to stock its retail outlets. During this project, the company has encountered a major risk. The employees have gone on a strike that has lasted longer than the company had originally anticipated. The original response was to negotiate with the employees to get them back on the job as soon as possible.

To ensure that production deadlines are met and that retail orders can be filled, the company reassigned the work that would be done at this factory to other factories nearby. It will make production more expensive, but it will help meet the deadlines.

Workarounds
Another type of corrective action is a workaround. Workarounds are unplanned responses to emerging risks that weren't accepted or identified. Workarounds give you a way to "work around" the problem and as a result, reduce the effects that the risk has on the project. Workarounds should not be applied without documentation. Since using workarounds may have a positive or negative effect on the project, you need to incorporate them into the project plan and risk response plan.

Corrective action is any action taken to bring expected future project performance in line with the project plan. Implementing corrective actions such as contingency plans and workarounds will help your company keep its project performance in line with the project plan.

Two Indicators of Additional Risk Planning

2009-03-12T10:22:00.001+07:00

When you build a house, many factors can cause construction to veer off track. Similarly, in project management, there are many risks that can affect the progress of a project. The risk monitoring and control process watches for signs that a project is going off track so project managers can do additional planning to regain control of the risk.

Two signs that may indicate the need for additional risk response planning are: the occurrence of an unanticipated risk and a risk having a greater effect on a project than expected.

the occurrence of an unanticipated risk
When an unanticipated risk occurs, you must do additional risk response planning. Since unanticipated risks are not covered in the initial risk response plan, the project team will now have to decide on a strategy to deal with the risk. The most common risk response strategies include avoidance, transference, mitigation, or acceptance.
- Avoidance - is a strategy that requires changing the project plan to eliminate the risk. This is done to protect the project from the potential effects of the risk. A team might reschedule an activity to avoid the risk of having resources spread too thin.
- Transference - is a strategy that does not eliminate the risk but moves the ownership of the risk to a third party. This third party is then responsible for the management of the risk. A team might transfer a financial risk by paying a premium to insure against the risk.
- Mitigation - is a strategy that attempts to reduce the risk to a manageable level. Early actions will reduce the probability of the risk occurring. A team might add more time to its schedule to reduce the effects of a risk.
- Acceptance - is a strategy that indicates that the project team has decided not to take any actions in regards to this risk. For example, a team might decide to accept the effects that an employee strike will have on the project if it occurs.

a risk having a greater effect on a project than expected
The second sign that additional risk response planning is necessary is a risk that has a greater effect on a project than expected. In this case, the planned response was implemented but was not effective in controlling the risk. If there is no contingency plan in place, the project team must then reevaluate the risk response and decide what changes need to be made to gain control of the risk or to better control the risk in the future.

Skilled project managers look for risks that have a greater effect on the project than expected. They also look for unanticipated risks. Learning to recognize these signs that additional risk response planning is necessary will help you gain control of project risks and increase your chances of achieving your project objectives.

Using TPM Analysis to Identify Technical Risks

2009-03-06T10:19:00.002+07:00

Marcus, a project manager at Playerz Gaming, Limited, is working on the development of a new search and destroy mission-oriented game. The game is projected to hit store shelves within the next nine months. There is still much work to be done before the project enters the final testing stages.

Recently, Marcus discovered that a technical component of the game is not yet functional. This upset Marcus because it could mean a project delay of up to six months. How could this risk have been monitored and controlled sooner?

Technical performance measurement (TPM) is an analysis and control technique that can help identify technical risks so that action can be taken sooner rather than later. TPM compares technical accomplishments during the project to the expected accomplishments in the project plan. TPMs provide an early warning of deviations from the project plan. For example, a deviation could be a technical parameter that does not demonstrate functionality as planned. Uncontrolled deviations can affect project success.

TPMs include a variety of performance measures depending on the project's content. Performance measurements that are common to all projects include cost and schedule variances and performance indices.

There are three basic steps involved in TPM analysis.

Step 1: Choose technical performance parameters.
The first step is to choose your technical performance parameters (TPP). You should choose TPPs to measure based on the risk areas of your project. More parameters should be chosen from project areas that are considered high risk than from other areas. This will ensure that these areas are being measured effectively.

Choosing TPPs is not always an easy task. You must be careful to choose parameters that your project team can measure, but also monitor over a period. For example, the survivability of a product under adverse conditions may be a product requirement. Survivability itself is not particularly measurable, but there may be other TPPs—like product speed, weight, and power—that your team could measure to indicate the survivability of the product.
Step 2: Record actual performance.
The second step of TPM is to record actual performance. The actual performance of the TPPs will be measured at specific intervals over the life of the project and will be recorded in the form of a graph. TPPs are generally measured in units such as speed, weight, size, power, or number of units completed. The risk management plan will state when you should measure the parameters and how to record the measurements.
Step 3: Compare actual versus expected performance.
The third step for TPM is to compare actual versus expected performance. In order to monitor and control the technical risks, you must compare the results from the actual performance measurements to the expected results and graph the results for each TPP separately.

To monitor the progress of TPPs, you should perform this comparison of actual versus expected performance periodically. This will allow you to take steps to control any TPPs that are deviating significantly from the expected performance.

How can you tell when a TPP is a risk? You must look at where the achieve-to-date line falls on the graph. Lines that are outside of the tolerance band are already considered risks. Lines that are inside of the tolerance band, but are moving away from the planned value line toward the outside of the tolerance band, are potential risks. Lines that are steadily within the tolerance band or are moving toward the planned value line are not considered risks.

Knowing how to interpret TPM results can help you monitor and control technical risks. This will allow you to be proactive and implement controls sooner rather than later.

Using EV Analysis to Monitor and Control Risk

2009-03-02T10:16:00.001+07:00

Did you know that you can use earned value analysis to monitor and control risks? Earned value analysis is traditionally used to monitor overall project performance against a baseline plan and to identify any deviations from the plan. In keeping track of these deviations, you will also help your company to monitor and control project risks, which increases your chances of a successful project.

Earned value analysis calculates whether the work for a given period is accomplished as planned. This type of analysis uses three key values: earned value, actual cost, and planned value.

earned value (EV) - EV is the budgeted value of work actually completed in a given period of time. It answers the question: "How much work is done and what was the original budget to complete that work?"
actual cost (AC) - AC is the total of costs incurred in accomplishing work on an activity during a given period of time. It answers the question: "How much has it cost to complete the work that has been done so far?"
planned value (PV) - PV is the portion of the approved cost estimate budgeted for an activity during a given time. It answers the questions: "What should the work planned for this period cost?" and "How much work should be done by now?"

The formula for calculating earned value is:

EV = PV x % Work Complete

EV is the PV of your project multiplied by the percent of work complete. The PV is in the project budget and you can determine the PC by dividing the amount of work completed by the total amount of work that is expected to be completed during this time period.
With a good basic understanding of these key values, you can move on to performing the calculations used in earned value analysis. A careful interpretation of the results will help you determine if additional risk identification and analysis is required.

To determine whether your project requires additional risk identification and analysis, you must calculate four performance measurements.

cost variance (CV)
schedule variance (SV)
cost performance index (CPI)
schedule performance index (SPI).

CV is the difference between the budgeted value of work actually completed and the total of costs incurred to complete that work in a given period of time. The formula is:

CV = [(EV - AC) / EV] x 100

SV is the difference between the budgeted value of work actually completed and the amount the company planned to spend to complete the work during a given period of time. The formula is:

SV = [(EV - PV) / PV] x 100

The last two performance measurements are ratio expressions of CV and SV. CV and SV tell you the percent that your project varies from the baseline, while the CPI and SPI tell you how efficiently the work has been performed.

CPI is the cost efficiency ratio of earned value to actual costs. The formula is:

CPI = EV / AC

SPI is the schedule efficiency ratio of earned value accomplished against planned value. The formula is:

SPI = EV / PV

Once you have calculated the results for CV, SV, CPI, and SPI, they must be interpreted. This is the information the company needs to decide whether additional risk identification and analysis is necessary.

When analyzing the CV and SV for a project, you must look at how close to zero the results are. A result that is equal to zero indicates that the project or activity is performing as estimated. A result that is greater than zero indicates the project or activity is ahead of the estimates. A result of less than zero indicates that the project or activity is behind the estimates. When the result varies significantly above or below zero, additional risk identification and analysis may be necessary.

When analyzing CPI and SPI for a project, you must look at how close to one the result is. A result that is equal to one indicates that the project or activity is performing as estimated. A result that is greater than one indicates that the project is performing ahead of the estimates. A result of less than one indicates that the project is performing behind the estimates. When the result varies above or below one and exceeds the company's predetermined acceptable range, additional risk identification and analysis is necessary.

Earned value analysis can help you determine when additional risk identification and analysis is necessary. Being able to perform the calculations and interpret the results will help you handle and control project risks properly.

Two Risk Monitoring and Control Techniques

2009-02-24T10:15:00.001+07:00

Professional consultant Gary Blair says that "Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity."

The thoughtful caution of risk monitoring and control helps you seize project opportunities and avoid destructive risks. By learning how to monitor and control these opportunities, you can boost their potential for success.

Two risk monitoring and control techniques can help you learn how to handle and control risks, increasing your chances of a successful project. The techniques are:

project risk response audits
periodic project risk reviews

To determine whether a risk owner has taken appropriate action to prevent a risk from occurring, you can use a project risk response audit. Risk response audits examine and document the effectiveness of the risk response and the risk owner. Risk response audits verify that those responsible conduct the responses as planned. You perform these audits throughout the project's life cycle to help control risk.

Companies must decide when they want to conduct risk response audits and under what circumstances. A company may decide to conduct an audit on risks with a potential cost to the project over a certain amount. This amount will vary from project to project, but will be set out at the beginning of the project.

To avoid biased results, you must have an objective third party conduct your risk response audits. Your company may have a risk specialist or internal audit department, otherwise it will have to hire an external auditor.

The second risk monitoring and control technique that can help you learn how to handle and control risks is periodic project risk reviews. Periodic project risk reviews are regularly scheduled examinations of potential risks. Since project risks are always changing, they should be an agenda item at all team meetings.

Depending on the phase of the project's life cycle, risk ratings and prioritization may change. If team members decide to change the risk rating or prioritization of a risk, they may have to perform additional qualitative or quantitative risk analyses.

Project risk response audits and periodic risk reviews keep track of project risks and how your team responds to them. This helps you handle and control risks properly and increases your chances of managing a successful project.

Managing Additional Risks and Scope Changes

2009-02-20T10:14:00.001+07:00

Since you never know when a situation will arise that will cause you to reevaluate your project risks, you should prepare for unanticipated situations by knowing what to do when they occur.

There are two ways to recognize new risks. The first is identifying additional risks during project management processes. The second is identifying new risks caused by changes to the project scope. Your initial risk management plan and risk response plan will not account for these new risks, which is why additional risks and scope changes are important inputs to the risk monitoring and control process.

As the project team members go through their normal project management processes like weekly meetings or status reporting, they may identify additional risks. You must add these additional risks to the risk log. The risks listed in the risk log are inputs to the risk monitoring and control process.

Once a project scope change has been approved, the change log becomes the input. The project team will then review the approved changes to see if any new risks emerged as a result of the scope change.

To identify priorities and triggers and to plan responses, you must input the information about additional risks and the approved scope change into the cycle of risk management processes. There are six main risk processes.

risk management planning
risk identification
qualitative risk analysis
quantitative risk analysis
risk response planning
risk monitoring and control

As you implement the six processes, you will find that often the information from one process is needed to drive the next process. For example, you must complete risk management planning before risk identification can occur.

Risk management planning addresses how the additional risks and scope changes will be approached in regards to risk management. Depending on the magnitude of the risk or scope change, it may or may not affect how you conduct risk management for the project as a whole. For example, a new risk or scope change may be important enough that the budget for risk management of the project is increased.

A project team should consider any changes that may need to be made to the risk management plan before moving on to risk identification.

Risk identification determines which risks are most likely to affect the project. The project team will examine scope changes to identify any new risks that may threaten the project. The team will then take these new risks, or the additional risks that were already identified, and document their details and characteristics. From this point on, new risks will refer to both additional risks and risks identified from scope changes.

After examining the risk management plan and identifying new risks, the next logical step is to find out the potential impact of each risk and how likely it is that each new risk will occur. To do this, you must implement the next two risk management processes: qualitative and quantitative risk analysis.

Qualitative risk analysis assesses the potential impact of new risks and determines the likelihood that each will occur. Qualitative risk analysis prioritizes the new risks based on their potential impact on project objectives. This helps determine which risks are most likely to threaten the project.

Quantitative risk analysis is a numerical analysis that determines the probability that the new risk will occur. It also explores the consequences that the new risk will have on project objectives and on the project as a whole.

The first four processes direct the project team to the risks that are most likely to threaten the project. Risk response planning is the process where specific actions are planned in response to these new, threatening project risks. During this process, project managers assign individuals or groups ownership of particular risks. Common risk responses include avoidance, transference, mitigation, and acceptance.

Risk management planning and risk response planning will help you monitor and control risks effectively. The risk management plan and the risk response plan provide the details that a project team needs to carry out the risk monitoring and control process.

By inputting additional risks and scope changes into the cycle of the risk management process, you will be able to identify priorities and triggers and plan responses. This will help you monitor and control your project effectively.

Using Project Communication Documents to Control Risk

2009-02-15T10:12:00.001+07:00

Often, team members spend time sharing information that may provide clues to potential project risks. How can this valuable information be incorporated into the risk monitoring and control process?

Project managers and project team members can monitor risks through project communication. Generally, these are documents that provide information on project performance and risks throughout the project's life cycle. As project performance is being monitored, so are project risks. Performance that is lower than expected may indicate that a project risk is emerging, or if performance improves, this may indicate that a risk has been brought under control.

The most obvious communication documents to use in monitoring risks are the work results, project records, and project reports.

Work results
Work results are the outcomes of a project and may include results such as information on the completion status of project deliverables, acquired or allocated costs and resources, and whether project quality standards have been met. It is important to gather reliable and consistent work results, as they are useful for performance reporting and monitoring project risks.

Project records
Project records contain other project information that you should consider when assessing project performance and risks. Project records may include correspondence, memos, and documents describing portions of the project. Project team members may even keep personal records in a project notebook.

Project reports
Project reports are a type of formal documentation that you and your project team can use for risk monitoring and control. Some of the most commonly used reports are:

issue logs keep track of issues that are risks and issues that could lead to risks. Issue logs contain information such as the date, time, details of the issue, responses implemented, and person reporting the issue.
action-item lists record information regarding responses to risks. These lists often include a description of the action, the name of the person assigned the action, when it is due, and its status.
jeopardy warnings are reports that warn project team members that a risk may be about to occur. This information gives the team a chance to prepare its response.
escalation notices are reports that inform decision makers that a risk has escalated to a higher level. With this information, decision makers can determine the best way to respond.

You and your project team can extract important clues for risk monitoring and control from project communication documents such as work results, project records, and project reports.

Components of Risk Management and Risk Response Plans

2009-02-08T10:05:00.001+07:00

H. Stanley Judd, author, film producer, and communications consultant, once said, "A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there." Like a good roadmap, a good project plan points out potential risks and includes strategies for managing and responding to those risks. The plan accomplishes this with a risk management plan and a risk response plan, two important aspects of project risk monitoring and control.

Risk management plan
The risk management plan, created during the risk management planning process, is a document that focuses on how to plan for and deal with all risks associated with a project. It describes how risk monitoring and control will be carried out during the project's life cycle. It does not look at the specific responses that will be implemented if a risk occurs.

The risk management plan has several components that are inputs to risk monitoring and control.

Methodology - outlines the approaches, tools, and resources that can be used to carry out risk monitoring and control. The methodology used will depend upon the information available and the current project phase.
Roles and responsibilities - is the designation of risk monitoring and control actions to specific individuals or groups. External risk monitoring and control teams are able to provide independent, unbiased risk analyses.
Budgeting - requires a specific amount of funds to be allocated to the risk monitoring and control process of a given project.
Timing - is how often risk monitoring and control processes will occur during the project's life cycle. Results must be reviewed periodically so they can be used in decision making.
Scoring and interpretation - are methods used to score risks and assign them a rank. This risk-ranking process will indicate which risks need constant, close monitoring in order to control their impact on important project objectives.
The acceptable threshold - is the set limit that the project team members will use to decide when they will implement a control.
Reporting formats - describe what is in the risk response plan and how it is formatted. It also identifies how the outcomes of risk monitoring and control will be documented, analyzed, and communicated to team members and stakeholders.
Tracking - is the documentation process that records information about risk monitoring and control activities. The tracking process saves the information so you can use it for the current project, or for future projects.

Risk response plan
The risk response plan is a document that addresses the specific responses to individual project risks.

The project manager and project team create the risk response plan during the risk response planning process. The plan provides project team members with the details they need when a risk occurs. The information in the risk response plan allows team members to take specific actions to control risks.

The risk response plan has several components that project teams use during the risk monitoring and control process.

Identified risks - The risk response plan lists the identified project risks. The project team will monitor and control the identified risks throughout the project's life cycle.
Risk owners and responsibilities - The risk response plan identifies risk owners and the details of their responsibilities. The risk monitoring and control process examines and documents the effectiveness of the risk owner.
Agreed responses - The risk response plan clearly states the agreed responses for each identified risk. These responses may include avoidance, transference, mitigation, or acceptance. Once the project team implements a response, the response will be monitored to determine if further action is necessary.
Specific actions - The risk response plan not only describes the response strategy for each risk, but also describes the specific actions that will be necessary to carry out each strategy. Risk monitoring and control determines if these actions are adequate.
Residual risk - The risk response plan outlines the expected residual risk. Residual risks are the risk effects that remain after the implementation of a risk response. These residual risks must be monitored and controlled.
Contingency and fallback plans - The risk response plan will outline any potential contingency or fallback plans. The project team will monitor the use of these contingency and fallback plans and take action if the plans are deemed inadequate.

The risk management and risk response plans provide you with the processes and actions required to prevent, reduce, recognize, and deal with risks. Using these plans as inputs will help lead your project along the path of success.

Primary Risk Response Planning Outputs

2009-01-26T10:02:00.001+07:00

As a project manager, you will often face sudden or unexpected risks—risks that were not identified or prepared for during risk response planning. The best way to respond to these kinds of risks is to monitor and try to control them by examining the primary risk response planning outputs.

In addition to the risk response plan, there are four primary risk response planning outputs that you can use to ensure successful project completion: residual risks, secondary risks, contractual agreements, and contingency reserve amounts.

residual risks
The first output that will result from your project's risk response planning process is residual risks. These are the risks that remain after avoidance, transference, and mitigation responses have been implemented.

Residual risks also include any minor risks that have been accepted and addressed during risk response planning through the addition of contingency amounts to the project budget or schedule.
secondary risks
The second output that will result from your project's risk response planning process is secondary risks. These are risks that arise as a direct result of implementing a risk response.

Secondary types of risks should be identified as soon as possible so that appropriate and effective risk responses can be planned. For example, due to the complexity and detail involved in most projects, it is possible that adding personnel resources to address one identified risk may result in a risk of cost or schedule overruns in another project phase.
contractual agreements
Another risk response planning output that is useful in promoting project success is contractual agreements. These types of agreements help to ensure that all parties involved in a project's development are aware of their responsibilities and bound by law to fulfill all agreed-upon commitments.

A contract is typically defined as a mutually binding agreement that obligates a seller to provide a specified product and requires a buyer to pay for it. As a result, contractual agreements are essential to risk management.

Contractual agreements are also used to help specify each party's responsibility for specific risks. For example, a contract between an insurance provider and a company will detail the insurance provider's responsibility to pay out a certain amount of money to the company in the event that an insured risk occurs. Contractual agreements, as an output of risk response planning, will help you be confident that specific identified risks will be responded to in a timely and efficient manner.
contingency reserve amounts
The final output that results from your project's risk response planning process is contingency reserve amounts. These reserve amounts are over and above the estimated amount of time and resources allotted for a particular project. These additional resources are set aside to help reduce the risk of overruns to project objectives as a result of risk.

Contingency reserve amounts will help you lower potential overruns to a level that is acceptable to your project stakeholders.

Contingency reserve amounts are usually determined by the project manager with the aid of the project's established risk thresholds and probabilistic analyses. These analyses are used to forecast potential project schedule and cost results.

As a project manager, it is important to remember that almost every risk response will have a corresponding effect. Most risk responses involve expenditures of additional time, cost or resources and therefore require changes to the project plan. The results of the risk response planning process must be incorporated into the project plan to ensure that agreed actions are implemented and monitored as part of the ongoing project.

Other risk response planning outputs contribute to project success. You will want to use them to ensure that your project is protected from threatening project risks and prepared for the risk monitoring and control process.

Determining the Most Appropriate Risk Response

2009-01-22T09:58:00.001+07:00

As a project manager, you can use a risk response plan to ensure that you meet your project objectives. A risk response plan is a document that details an identified risk, its cause, probability of occurrence, potential impact, and proposed responses. An effective risk response plan will help you enhance risk opportunities and reduce risk threats.

A risk response plan, which is sometimes called a risk register, is comprised of a number of different components. A typical project's risk response plan includes the following components:

a detailed list of all identified project risks
the risk owners responsible for formulating and implementing one or more risk responses
the results from the project's qualitative and quantitative risk analyses
the established responses for each identified risk
the expected level of residual risk
the specific actions required to implement the chosen response
the budget and timing for all risk responses
a description of any contingency or fallback plans.

One of the most important components of a risk response plan is "the established responses for each identified risk." As a project manager, it is your job to select the most appropriate and effective response for managing that risk. Once this selection is made, the agreed-upon risk response is entered into the project's risk response plan.

How do you determine which risk response will be the most appropriate and effective for an identified project risk? There are three important questions that you should ask yourself when making this critical decision.

What are the potential risk responses?
The first question that you should ask yourself when determining the most appropriate risk response for one of your identified project risks is: What are the potential risk responses? You should apply the four risk response strategies to your risk, discard those strategies that are either impossible or impractical to use, and formulate potential responses from the strategies that remain.
- Avoidance - should be used when the level of risk is unacceptable, when the means for controlling the risk are not feasible or when there is a potential for harm. This risk response strategy involves changing the project plan to eliminate the risk or the condition causing the risk.
- Transference - should be used when there is a potential for significant financial exposure. Risks can be transferred through insurance, performance bonds, warranties, and contracts. This strategy shifts the consequences of a risk to a third party, such as an insurance company.
- Mitigation - should be used when there is an opportunity to significantly reduce the probability or consequences of an identified risk. Throughout a project's life cycle, it may be possible to perform risk mitigation by reducing both the risk probability and the risk consequences.
- Acceptance - should be used when the probability and consequences of an identified risk are low. This strategy results in no changes to the project plan. It involves leaving a project team to deal with a risk when it occurs or forming a contingency plan to deal with the risk if it occurs.
What are the project constraints?
The second question that you should ask yourself when determining an appropriate and effective risk response for an identified risk is: What are the project constraints? The PMBOK Guide defines a constraint as an "applicable restriction that will affect the performance of a project." No project is completely free of constraints. As a result, you will need to keep this in mind when selecting an appropriate risk response. Constraints will limit the choices available to you during risk response planning.

For example, you may initially decide that avoiding a risk by changing the project scope is an appropriate response for a given risk. However, a careful examination of the constraints facing your project may indicate that avoidance is not possible or that it is unwise given your circumstances.

During the life cycles of your projects, you may encounter many different types of constraints. However, there are some constraints that you will face more frequently than others. A few of these constraints are listed below.
- An established project budget - An established project budget is one constraint that can affect your selection of risk responses. For example, if your project is restricted by a tight budget, any responses that require a vast amount of funding to implement will be deemed unwise and detrimental to project success.
- A defined project schedule - A defined project schedule can also act as a constraint when determining the most appropriate response for an identified risk. For example, if your project's sponsors have established an inflexible schedule, the responses that will add time or cause delays to the project schedule will have to be rejected.
- Contractual obligations - Another constraint is contractual obligations. Risk responses may need to be discarded if they have the potential to deviate from a signed contract. For example, you cannot reduce the risk of cost overruns by paying your contractor less than the amount agreed upon in the project contract.
- Product specifications - The final constraint that can affect your selection of risk responses is product specifications. If project sponsors are expecting a particular product, they may be unwilling to approve any changes to the project scope. This decision can limit your options when responding to risk.
Which risk response will be the most appropriate for managing the risk?
The final question that you need to ask yourself when determining an appropriate risk response for an identified project risk is: Which risk response will be the most appropriate for managing the risk? Once you have decided what the potential risk responses are and what constraints are facing your project, you can then determine the most appropriate and effective risk responses for your project risks.

By eliminating those responses that are not feasible for your project or those that cannot be achieved due to certain constraints, you will be left with only the responses that are appropriate for the chosen risk. These responses will serve to protect the project from the risk's potential impact.

As a project manager, you can determine the most appropriate risk response for a given project risk by answering the following questions: what are the potential risk responses, what are the project constraints, and which risk response will be the most appropriate for managing the risk?

Once this determination is made, you can include your chosen risk response into your risk response plan. This plan will help you enhance risk opportunities and reduce risk threats to project objectives and overall project outcomes.

Accepting Risks with a Contingency Plan

2009-01-14T09:54:00.001+07:00

In addition to avoidance, transference, and mitigation, acceptance is also an important strategy for effective risk response planning. Acceptance is a strategy that indicates that a project manager and a project team have decided not to change the established project plan in order to deal with an identified risk. Acceptance may also be performed if a project manager is unable to identify any other suitable risk response strategy to effectively handle the identified risk.

If you choose to accept a project risk, you need to develop a contingency plan that can be implemented should the risk occur. Developing a contingency plan in advance can greatly reduce the cost of future risk responses.

Every contingency plan contains specific details that are only relevant to the identified risk and the project at hand. However, all contingency plans should contain the following components: the plan objective, implementation criteria, roles and responsibilities, resource requirements, operation procedures, and discontinuation criteria.

The plan objective
For a contingency plan to be effective, a project manager must first ensure that there is an established plan objective. This objective should clearly detail the risk of failure that prompted the creation of the contingency plan.

A project manager must also decide what the desired outcome of implementing the plan will be: to continue normal operations, to continue operations in a degraded mode or to abort a project area as quickly and as safely as possible. The plan objective should also outline the potential impact, in terms of financial costs, on the organization.
Implementation criteria
In addition to establishing a plan objective, a project manager must ensure that an effective contingency plan contains well-defined implementation criteria.

You and your project team must understand when your contingency plan should be implemented. In addition, this criteria outlines the specific failure, or risk trigger, that necessitates the start up of your project's contingency plan. For example, the contingency plan will be implemented in the event of a network failure.
Roles and responsibilities
The third essential component of an effective contingency plan is the designation of roles and responsibilities. A project manager must decide who will be responsible for making implementation decisions, such as implementing the contingency plan or informing the team that the project is operating in contingency mode.

The roles and responsibilities component clearly outlines who is responsible for plan implementation. For example, the technical engineer on duty will be in charge of activating the contingency plan in case of a network failure.
Resource requirements
The resource requirements component details the equipment, supplies, funding, and overtime estimates needed to activate the planned response. To create a list of required resources, you need to ask yourself the following questions.
- What equipment will be needed to implement the contingency plan? What equipment will be required once the plan is activated and in full operation?
- What types of materials or supplies will be needed to implement and operate the contingency plan? What quantity of materials and supplies will be required?
- How much should your contingency plan budget be in order to effectively fund the contingency mode operations?
- How much overtime will employees be expected to undertake in order to keep the project on track during contingency mode?
Having a list of resource requirements available before an emergency arises allows you to move quickly and easily into contingency mode to meet the plan objective.

Operation procedures
Operation procedures outline plan implementation instructions so that everyone will know what to do in an emergency. For example, in case of a network failure, Sarah will switch the network to backup mode in order to save important data.

The procedures must also describe how project personnel will be informed that the plan is being implemented. Operation procedures should also define how records will be managed and data security ensured.

Discontinuation criteria
Discontinuation criteria describe how to determine when a project should move from contingency mode back to normal operating mode. This criteria will outline the conditions or events and the timing that make it possible to discontinue the contingency plan. For example, the network has to be fully tested and be 100 percent operational before returning to normal mode.

The development of an effective contingency plan, as part of acceptance, will help you create options and potential actions that will serve to reduce threats to critical project objectives and to promote project success.

Methods for Mitigating Project Risks

2009-01-12T09:51:00.001+07:00

All project managers want to make certain that their projects are on the road to successful project completion. One way for project managers to accomplish this is to use a risk response strategy called mitigation. Mitigation attempts to reduce the probability and consequences of identified project risks to an acceptable threshold.

It is important to remember that taking early action to reduce the probability of a risk's occurrence or its consequences on critical project objectives is often more effective than trying to repair the adverse consequences after the risk has occurred. During the risk response planning process, every effort should be made to prepare for project risks in advance so that a project's completion will not be severely threatened by its identified risks.

Project managers use two primary strategies to mitigate identified risks. The first strategy is to reduce risk probability. The second is to reduce risk consequences.

Reduce risk probability.
Reducing risk probability is a mitigation strategy that attempts to deal with a risk before it gets out of control. Since not every risk can be avoided, reducing its probability of occurrence to the lowest possible percentage may be the most effective and realistic option.

The purpose of reducing the probability of a risk's occurrence is to minimize the potential threat to critical project objectives and outcomes. Examples of reducing risk probability include safety training, improved quality of project materials, cost control systems or marketing a more stable and sellable product.

Reducing risk probability is a preventative approach and its corresponding risk responses are always implemented before a risk actually occurs.
Reduce risk consequences.
In many instances, there will be no way for you to prevent or significantly reduce the probability of risk occurrence. As a result, reducing risk consequences will be the most effective mitigation strategy to use.

Once you know that you can do little to prevent a risk from occurring, you will want to develop as many options as possible to reduce the consequences of that risk if it does occur.

Developing options to prepare for uncontrollable elements such as weather or environmental disasters, increasing the probability of knowing that a risk is occurring, and formulating options to deal with the risk impact after it occurs are all examples of reducing risk consequences.

While reducing risk probability is seen as more of a preventative approach to mitigation, reducing risk consequences can be described as a backup approach.

Reducing risk consequences aims to minimize the impact of an identified project risk after its occurrence.

Proposed risk responses may be put in place before or after a risk's occurrence.

Mitigation is an important strategy in the risk response planning process. Project managers can protect many of their critical project objectives by reducing the probability or consequences of risks identified in the risk identification or risk analysis processes.

As a project manager, you can use mitigation to prevent or minimize the probability and consequences of threatening project risks. This will help you ensure that your project outcomes are completed as planned.

Four Ways to Transfer Risk

2009-01-05T09:45:00.002+07:00

As a project manager, it is important for you to understand that the act of sharing can play a valuable role in your project's risk response planning process. Sometimes, the most efficient and effective way of dealing with project risks is to share the responsibility for their response with others.

Transference is a risk response strategy that does just that. It shifts the responsibility of a risk, or part of a risk, to a third party. Transference does not eliminate a risk or its potential consequences. This risk response strategy simply gives another party responsibility for the management of that risk.

Although a project will encounter many different types of risks, transferring risk liability is usually most effective when dealing with financial risk exposure.

Transference often involves the payment of a risk premium to the party taking on the risk. For example, a company will pay a monthly premium to its insurance provider as payment for the provider taking on one or more of the project's risks.

During your project's risk response planning process, you may decide that transference is the most appropriate strategy to use in order to effectively respond to one of your identified project risks. Once you make this decision, you must choose the transference method that will best address that risk. There are four methods available for you to use when transferring the responsibility for an identified risk.

Insurance
Insurance is a transference method that shifts the responsibility of specified risks to an insurance company. Typically, insurance companies provide monetary coverage for losses that result from such things as legal liability, fire damage, theft, or vandalism.

One of the most common methods of transferring risk and its potential consequences is to purchase insurance. As a project manager, you can share the responsibility of some of your project's identified risks by having an insurance company provide financial coverage for potential risk losses. During your project's risk response planning process, you should set aside risks that can be insured and transfer the responsibility for those risks to your company's insurance provider.

Some of the most common insurable project risks are:
- Direct Property Damage - to project equipment, project materials or a contractors' property.
- Indirect Losses - such as equipment replacement and business interruption.
- Legal Liability - such as public employee bodily injury, design errors, public property damage, and the failure of a product to perform as specified.
- Personnel Issues - such as employee replacement costs.
For project managers to transfer a project risk through the method of insurance, two conditions must be met. The first condition is that the potential risk loss must be due to chance. Insurance companies do not want to provide monetary coverage for risks that result from human error or poor project planning.

The second condition that must be met in order for a risk to be eligible for insurance is that the potential risk loss must be measurable. This means that the risk loss must have an assigned monetary value. A project risk cannot be insured if the potential loss is expected to be personal or emotional.
Performance bonds
Performance bonds shift the financial responsibility for poor performance back to the contractor. These bonds are usually issued by a financial institution, such as a bank, and force contractors to pay out a specified sum of money if their performance is unacceptable.

Project managers obtain performance bonds to guarantee the satisfactory completion of contracted work. These bonds provide monetary compensation to a company if its contractor fails to achieve the proposed project work.
Warranties
Warranties are written guarantees that purchased project equipment will be of good quality. This transference method shifts the cost and responsibility for repair or replacement of defective parts to the manufacturer.
Contracts
A contract is a binding and legally enforceable agreement between two or more persons or parties. During risk response planning, project managers can use contracts to help eliminate or minimize the impact of identified project risks.

In most cases, contracts are established between an organization and its contractors at the onset of a project. These contracts contain numerous details and clearly outline the contractor's responsibilities throughout the project. This transference method helps shift the potential cost and consequences of incomplete, tardy, or unsatisfactory work back to the contractor. A contract also protects the contractor, ensuring the company meets its obligations as well. This helps reduce the overall risk impact on the project.

Another benefit of a contract is that you may not have sufficient expert resources within your company to perform all of the various project activities in an efficient and effective manner. Contracting some of your project work out to someone with superior knowledge and expertise in a particular area can reduce the risk of poor performance or unsatisfactory project design.

It is important to keep the four transference methods in mind when formulating responses to your project's identified risks. If your project requires a contractor, it is good to obtain a performance bond to ensure that expected performance levels are maintained. In addition, if your project materials are purchased from an external source, it is wise to have a warranty in place to protect your company against material defect risks.

If you decide to respond to some of your identified risks by purchasing insurance, you will be able to protect your company from costly, unexpected, and unpredictable risks, such as legal liability and personnel injuries. If you choose to establish a contract at the onset of your project, you will reduce the risk of project plan deviations and miscommunication. You must carefully consider each transference method and determine which one will be most effective in minimizing the impact of an identified project risk.

Insurance, performance bonds, warranties, and contracts are the four primary methods for transference. During the risk response planning process, project managers can use transference to help them reduce the impact of potential risks to project objectives and overall project outcomes.

As a project manager, you should examine all of your project's identified risks and set aside those that will benefit from transference. This will minimize your project's overall risk impact and promote a successful project completion.

Avoiding a Project's Most Threatening Risks

2008-12-13T15:49:00.001+07:00

Have you ever deviated from your regular driving route because excessive traffic or road construction may have put you at risk of being late for an important appointment?

In everyday life, people often modify their personal plans or schedules in order to avoid the unwanted consequences of potential risks. In the same way, project managers are often forced to change or modify their project plans in order to eliminate threatening project risks.

As a project manager, you will encounter various risks throughout your project's development. Although you can never prevent every project risk, you should make every attempt to eliminate as many as possible.

One risk response strategy that you can use to help you achieve a successful project completion is avoidance. Avoidance involves changing your project plan to eliminate an identified risk or the condition that causes the risk. This risk response strategy also involves protecting your project objectives from the impact of identified risks.

As a project manager, you can often respond to some risks that arise early in the life cycle of a project by clarifying requirements, obtaining information, improving communication or acquiring expertise. However, there are other types of project risks that you will need to avoid in order to promote a successful project completion. These types of risks include those that have a high probability of negatively impacting project objectives and those that have the ability to cause complete project failure.

Avoidance is one strategy that you can use to help you deal with these types of risks. Such things as reducing scope to avoid high-risk activities, adding resources or time, adopting a familiar approach instead of an innovative one or avoiding an unfamiliar contractor are all ways in which you can eliminate threatening project risks.

The first type of risk that you should avoid during the life cycle of your projects is unacceptable risks. These types of risks have a high probability of occurrence and an extreme or very high level of potential impact.

You should also avoid uncontrollable risks. These risks cannot be absorbed by the project's available resources or existing contingency reserves. They are also risks that do not have mitigation or transference strategies available.

The last type of risk that you should avoid throughout your project's development is potentially harmful risks. These risks are especially threatening to project success because they have the potential to harm a project's personnel.

As a project manager, there are three key questions that you can ask in order to determine if an identified project risk should be avoided. If you can answer "yes" to even one of these questions, the risk that you are examining should be flagged for avoidance. The three questions include:

Is the level of risk unacceptable?
Are the means for controlling the risk unfeasible?
Is there a potential for harm?

As a project manager, how do you determine whether the level of an identified risk is unacceptable to your project and its outcomes? One of the best ways to answer this question is to examine the prioritized list of quantified risks that resulted from your project's quantitative risk analysis process.

This list indicates which risks pose the greatest threat or present the greatest opportunity to your project objectives and overall outcomes. This prioritized list of quantified risks also includes a measure of potential risk impact.

You should examine your project's prioritized list of quantified risks and set aside those risks that have an extreme or very high level of potential impact. Once this is done, you should make every effort to modify your current project plan in order to avoid these types of risks. Typically, project managers classify risks with an extreme or very high level of potential impact as unacceptable because of the possible danger they pose to the success of overall project outcomes.

Another element to consider when trying to determine whether the level of an identified project risk is unacceptable is the risk thresholds for the project. Risk thresholds, which are established in a project's risk management plan, indicate the level of risk that is acceptable to individual project stakeholders. If you have identified a project risk that has the potential to greatly exceed one or more of the established risk thresholds for your project, this is a risk to avoid because it threatens the successful completion of your project.

Another question to consider when trying to determine if an identified project risk should be avoided is: are the means for controlling the risk unfeasible? All projects are subject to such things as cost and time constraints. As a result, some project risks may be too expensive to control.

In addition, most projects are allotted a limited amount of contingency reserves. These reserves are the amount of money or time needed to reduce the impact of cost and schedule overruns on critical project objectives and outcomes.

If you find that the means for controlling one of your identified risks is not feasible and cannot be absorbed by your project's available contingency reserves, this is a risk that you should avoid. A careful examination of such things as your project budget, schedule, and personnel and material resources will help you decide whether your project has the means to reduce or eliminate the risk's potential impact or whether it would be more beneficial to avoid the risk altogether.

The third and final question that project managers can ask in order to determine whether an identified project risk should be avoided is: Is there a potential for harm? In most cases, a risk is considered harmful if it involves the presence of dangerous materials or conditions at the project site.

Project managers must be able to identify any risks that have the potential to harm their project team members or stakeholders. These risks may include such things as faulty machinery or unsafe working conditions.

More examples of harmful project risks are listed below. As a project manager, you should immediately flag these types of risks for avoidance. These risks include:

tasks that involve handling, storage or disposal of hazardous materials
major construction work in locations vulnerable to seismic activity
other potentially damaging natural events.

It is important to remember that unforeseen risks will continue to arise as a project progresses. As a project manager, it is your responsibility to analyze these unexpected risks, as well as all identified project risks, in order to determine if they should be avoided. Once this decision is made, you can then modify your project plan to avoid the selected risks. This will help you ensure that your project remains on a progressive track and heads toward a successful completion.

Avoidance is sometimes the best response. As a project manager, you can use avoidance to eliminate some of your project's most threatening risks and their potential impact. This risk response strategy is a key contributor to overall project success.

Common Causes of Project Risk

2008-12-10T13:40:00.001+07:00

Marina is a project manager for Outback Retailers. Her current project involves the development of a new type of high-speed racing bike. She has learned that there are several identified risks that have the potential to negatively impact her project objectives.

As a result, Marina is trying to develop risk responses that will eliminate or reduce the impact of these identified risks. Do you think it is possible for Marina to address two or more of her project risks with the same response?

Yes! By addressing more than one project risk with the same response, Marina will be able to deal with risk threats and risk opportunities more quickly, which will maximize the likelihood of a successful project completion.

Every project will encounter numerous risks. Many of these risks will be driven by a common risk cause. A common risk cause is an event or situation that produces more than one project risk.

As a project manager, you can identify common risk causes during the risk identification and risk analysis processes. It is important to take advantage of these opportunities whenever and wherever possible.

It is important to remember that every project is unique. Therefore, you cannot expect to identify the same common risk causes in every project that you manage. However, there are some causes that may occur more frequently than others. These common risk causes include:

unavailability of resources
inadequate quality standards
lack of communication
inadequate tools or technology

One common risk cause that may threaten the successful completion of your project is unavailability of resources. These resources may be people or materials. During the life cycle of your project, many risks may arise if you do not have sufficient personnel or supplies available to complete the project as planned. Such things as excessive cost and schedule overruns are only two of the risks that you may encounter if your project is threatened by a lack of available workers or materials.

Another common risk cause is inadequate quality standards. Identifying this common risk cause early in the course of a project is especially valuable because this risk cause has the potential to create several project risks that can adversely affect the promised consumer deliverable.

As a project manager, it is important to remember that if quality standards are not properly set or are not specific enough, your project will either fall below the expected standard or aim for a standard not required by the client.

Marina, from Outback Retailers, is beginning the risk response planning process for her current project. After studying the results from her project's other risk management processes, she finds that some of the quality procedures that concern the new product are not clearly detailed. In addition, phase three may be short by two people due to a recent staff reduction. Marina hopes that the identification of these two common risk causes up front will help make her risk response planning process more efficient.

A lack of communication is another example of a common risk cause. In daily life, whether at home or at the office, people often suffer the unpleasant consequences of not giving or receiving adequate or accurate information. This is especially true in project management. If clear and open lines of communication are not firmly established, a project may be put in serious jeopardy. Such things as change requests and project plan modifications may not be properly carried out if there is a break in communication.

Inadequate tools or technology is a common risk cause that can severely impact the outcome of a project. It is difficult to develop a product efficiently or according to its established standards if you do not have the adequate tools or technology to complete the product as specified in the project plan.

It is also possible that a project may suffer a complete failure if critical tools are not readily at hand when needed. This common risk cause may also result in project deliverables not meeting widely accepted industry standards.

As a project manager, it is important to remember that some of your project risks may be driven by a common risk cause. As a result, the identification of these common risk causes is a valuable input to risk response planning because it may allow you to address more than one project risk with a single response. This will help eliminate the creation of redundant risk responses and make your risk response planning process more efficient.

Risk Owners and Risk Thresholds

2008-12-07T15:47:00.001+07:00

Author H. Stanley Judd once said, "A good plan is like a road map; it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there."

As a project manager, you need to have an effective risk management plan in place before beginning risk response planning. A risk management plan can act as a guide to help you identify, analyze, and respond to various project risks and their potential consequences. This plan, which is created during the risk identification and planning process, details how the risk management processes will be structured and performed. It ensures that risks are properly managed throughout a project's life cycle.

The risk management plan has two important components that will be used in risk response planning: 1. a list of risk owners; and 2. risk thresholds.

A list of risk owners
One risk management plan component that will be used as an input to risk response planning is a list of risk owners. Risk owners include those project stakeholders who are responsible for the development, implementation, and execution of one or more risk responses. This risk management plan component is essential as a risk response planning input because it helps to ensure that everyone involved in the risk response planning process has clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

Typically, project managers are responsible for assigning the various risk owners within a project. These risk owners may be chosen from within the project team or from available subject matter experts. During risk response planning, risk owners may decide to develop risk responses as a group or divide the responses among the team members, based on their expertise.

Risk thresholds
Another component of the risk management plan that can act as an important input to risk response planning is risk thresholds. Risk thresholds are the levels of risk that are acceptable to individual project stakeholders, such as the project team members, customers or sponsors.

It is important to remember that project owners, customers, and sponsors may all have different risk thresholds for a given project, depending on their individual needs and interests.

The acceptable risk threshold for each project stakeholder forms the target against which the project team will measure the effectiveness of the risk response plan execution.

Liam, from Northern Pulp & Paper, is studying his company's established risk threshold for his current project. He wants to know how the risk threshold will influence his risk response planning process. Liam finds that the company will not tolerate a total project cost overrun of more than $5,000. He realizes that such things as purchasing additional materials or increasing staff may not be viable risk response options when handling identified project risks. Liam will keep this in mind as he progresses through the risk response planning process.

Equipped with a clear and accurate understanding of these two components, you will be able to ensure that potential project risks are dealt with effectively and in a timely manner.

Creating a List of Potential Risk Responses

2008-12-03T20:06:00.002+07:00

How do you deal with risks throughout the life cycle of your projects? How do you formulate appropriate and effective responses to identified project risks?

During the risk identification process, project managers identify any risks that have the potential to negatively impact project objectives and overall project outcomes. These risks are then subjected to a qualitative and a quantitative risk analysis in order to produce a list of prioritized risks that can be dealt with in the risk response planning process.

When project managers, stakeholders, and subject matter experts are involved in identifying project risks, they often formulate a tentative list of potential responses to address these risks. These potential responses are strategies that are designed to enhance risk opportunities and reduce risk threats to project objectives. Although any action may be classified as a response, this list of potential responses created during risk identification is always specific to the project needs and the characteristics of the identified risk.

Specific details concerning the accuracy or effectiveness of these potential responses are not necessary during risk identification since that is the focus of the risk response planning process.

As a result of a project's risk identification process, you will have a list of potential responses that you can either accept, modify, reject, or add to during risk response planning.

It is important to remember that the list of potential responses created during risk identification is not a comprehensive or exhaustive list. It is simply a list of proposed suggestions that can be used to help address those risks that can have a negative impact on the success of a project. As a project manager, you will take this list of potential responses into consideration when deciding on an appropriate and effective risk response for identified and quantified project risks.

These potential responses are only suggested methods of dealing with these types of risks. Selecting the most effective and accurate response will occur later in the risk response planning process.

The following are some examples of common project risks and corresponding potential responses.

Common Project Risks
overly optimistic schedules
lack of adherence to quality procedures
unclear or vague project goals
inappropriate vendor or technology selection
budget cuts

Potential Responses
Review and monitor schedules at regular intervals.
Implement a quality management program.
Ensure that each goal is well-researched and realistic.
Perform a decision tree analysis for each major decision.
Reallocate project resources.

As a project manager, it is important to remember that your project's list of potential responses, developed during risk identification, is a valuable input to the risk response planning process. This list will help you develop specific actions that you can use to minimize or prevent threatening risks from occurring, as well as to maximize potential opportunities.

Identifying Risks that Require an Immediate Risk Response

2008-12-01T17:00:00.001+07:00

Bruce, a project manager for Precision Technologies, performed a qualitative and a quantitative risk analysis on his last project. He found these analyses very useful because they helped him identify project risks that had the potential to adversely affect his project's success.

As a project manager, you will find that the outputs from other risk management processes can be extremely useful when performing risk response planning. Two such processes include qualitative risk analysis and quantitative risk analysis. Both of these processes attempt to assess and analyze the probability and impact of potential project risks. As a result, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis outputs can serve as effective inputs to a project's risk response planning process.

A qualitative risk analysis attempts to assess the impact and likelihood of identified project risks. It also prioritizes risks according to their potential effect on project objectives and overall project outcomes. A quantitative risk analysis aims to numerically analyze the probability of each risk and its consequences on project objectives, as well as the extent of overall project risk.

As a result of both a qualitative and a quantitative risk analysis, you will receive a list of risks, together with a measure of their potential impact, that will need to be addressed in the risk response planning process.

The qualitative and quantitative risk analysis outputs that may be useful as inputs to risk response planning include:

list of prioritized risks
risk ranking of the project
prioritized list of quantified risks
probabilistic analysis of the project
probability of achieving project objectives
qualitative and quantitative risk analysis trend results

One qualitative risk analysis output that acts as a valuable input to risk response planning is a list of prioritized risks. During the qualitative risk analysis process, risks are prioritized using a number of criteria. Risks may be assigned a rank of high, medium or low, depending on their potential severity of impact. Risks may also be grouped by those that require an immediate response and those that can be handled at a later date. Prioritized risks usually include risks that affect project cost, schedule, scope, and quality.

As a project manager, you can use this list of prioritized risks during risk response planning to help you decide which risks require your immediate attention. This list will also help you formulate responses for those risks that have the potential to negatively impact critical project objectives.

Another qualitative risk analysis output that you can use as an effective input to risk response planning is a risk ranking of the project. This ranking will indicate the overall risk position of a project relative to other projects by comparing the risk scores.

A risk ranking can also be used to assign resources to projects with different risk rankings, make a benefit-cost analysis decision about the project, or support a recommendation for project initiation, continuation or cancellation.

A risk ranking will help you decide which projects have the greatest needs and which projects will produce the greatest overall benefit. This will allow you to plan effectively for those projects that require immediate risk responses.

As a project manager, you can also use quantitative risk analysis outputs when preparing for risk response planning. These outputs can help you identify sensitive risk areas and formulate potential responses to threatening project risks.

A prioritized list of quantified risks will detail which risks pose the greatest threat or present the greatest opportunity to your project, together with a measure of their impact. This will help you identify risks that require an immediate risk response.

A probabilistic analysis of the project will forecast potential project costs and completion dates. This analysis will help you determine the type of risk response that is required to address threatening cost and scheduling risks.

An estimate of the probability of achieving project objectives under the current plan will indicate whether the project is progressing as planned, or whether it requires immediate risk response action in order to be completed successfully.

The last qualitative and quantitative risk analysis output that is useful as a risk response planning input is qualitative and quantitative risk analysis trend results. Trends can be defined as patterns of results that track in a particular direction. Once you've performed multiple risk analyses on your project, a trend of results may become apparent. This trend of results will indicate the level of urgency and the importance of the risk response.

As a project manager, you can use qualitative and quantitative risk analysis trend results to help you focus on those areas that would benefit from an immediate risk response the most.

Qualitative and quantitative risk analysis outputs will help you identify risks that require an immediate risk response so that you can reduce or eliminate their impact on project objectives and increase your project's chance of success.

What Are the Outputs of Risk Identification?

2008-11-29T10:44:00.002+07:00

The risk identification process provides you with important information you need to make your projects successful. The outputs from risk identification are: risks, triggers, and inputs to other processes.

Risks
One of the outputs from risk identification is a list of potential project risks. A risk is an uncertain event or condition that could have a positive or negative effect on a project objective.

Examples of positive influencing risks are:

proposal for graphics to be developed in-house
proposal for quality assurance reviews to be done in-house
cost savings of creating the training on the web and not on CD-ROM
change in innovative advancements in technology
industry standards improving quality for the insurance certification program

Examples of negative influencing risks are:

conflicting software between client and developer
scope changes requested by client
intellectual property issues with client
content negotiations with client
unrealistic performance goals imposed

Whether a risk is positive or negative, it can force the project's objectives to go unfulfilled.

Triggers
Triggers are symptoms or warning signs that indicate that a risk has occurred or is about to occur. Triggers can be identified using the tools and techniques of risk identification. Consider the following examples.

Ben, a project manager at a pharmaceutical company, is developing a prototype for a new chemotherapy drug. One project trigger is a failure to meet immediate milestones for the approval stages. This will cause a delay in the schedule.

Elaine, a project manager of a multimedia company, has to create a website for a bank. A trigger develops when the client asks for many more services on the site than originally planned. These scope changes signal a poorly defined scope plan.

Kathy, a project manager of an international marketing company, is on a marketing project with a group of not-for-profit disaster relief organizations. The trigger she sees is inexperienced staff which is causing delays and poor quality.

Being aware of triggers will help you deal with risks before they cause major damage to your project.

Inputs to other processes
The third output from risk identification is inputs to other processes. In the process of identifying risks, you may also identify the need for further action in another area. The action needed and supporting documentation become inputs for another process.

Communication plan - It may be necessary to revisit the communication plan if project stakeholders request a change in the way information is given to them.

Schedule - It may be necessary to revisit the schedule and build in some contingency due to changes. There may be technical risk where some new technology is being used or where equipment is not arriving on time.

Resource plan - It may be necessary to revisit the resource plan if there's a risk that several key people may leave due to illness or to other project priorities.

Work breakdown structure (WBS) - It may have been necessary to add information to the WBS if it did not have sufficient detail to allow adequate identification of risks.

The outputs of risk identification are risks, triggers, and inputs to other processes. When you are familiar with these outputs, you increase your chances of successfully achieving your project goals.

Diagramming the Causes of Project Risks

2008-11-19T19:11:00.001+07:00

Drop a stone into a pond, and ripples will spread out from the point of impact. This is a cause-and-effect relationship. The rippling effect is caused by the impact of the stone. Remove the cause, and there is no effect.

As a project manager, it is to your advantage to identify the cause of a risk. When you know the cause, you can manage the effect—or risk—appropriately.

One way to view causes and risks is through a flowchart. Flowcharts focus on the cause of the risk instead of on the risk itself. With a contingency plan, you can limit or eliminate a risk's impact on a project's outcome.

The design of a cause-and-effect diagram, which is also called a fishbone or Ishikawa flowchart, is ideal for identifying and showing the possible causes of project risks. It is a diagram that clearly shows the relationship between a risk's cause and its effect.

There is a reason behind every risk—something has to cause a risk to occur. Accurately categorizing the causes for a particular risk will help you to build an effective cause-and-effect diagram.

Risks typically fall into one of six categories:

Methods - These risks involve a company procedure or a way of performing a particular task. For example, a company's security policies may not be stringent enough.
Materials - These risks involve the supplies a company uses to complete a project. For example, the computers used in a project may not have adequate memory capacity.
Environment - These risks involve activities that occur in the immediate physical surroundings. For example, poor weather conditions during a construction project may delay deadlines.
People - These risks refer to actions taken by the employees involved in a given project. For example, inadequately trained staff may be a project risk.
Information - These risks involve knowledge of a specific event or situation during a project. It can also refer to a lack of documentation or incorrect data. For example, a client's request is not recorded properly in the product specification.
Machinery - These risks involve machinery that can be a source of risk in manufacturing. For example, an outdated barker in a paper manufacturing company can be a risk.

These are three steps for constructing a cause-and-effect diagram:

Identify the risk.
Identify the causes.
Build the diagram.

In identifying the risk, you place a concise statement of the problem or effect in a box at the end of a horizontal line.

Once you have identified a risk, you can identify its causes in a brainstorming session. Discussions of this sort typically focus on risks inherent in methods, materials, people, information, machines, and environment.

To build the diagram, you organize the causes of risk into the diagram layout. Each branch represents cause types such as materials, machines, and people.

What are some of the advantages of using a cause-and-effect diagram during the risk identification process? A cause-and-effect diagram acts as a visual display so problems can be seen more clearly. The diagram also helps break large problems down into manageable parts.

Cause-and-effect diagrams are an important part of project planning. In addition to helping you identify risks, these diagrams reveal the causes behind risk so you can manage the risk more effectively.

Identifying Risk in an Interview

2008-11-18T15:27:00.002+07:00

As a project manager, you want your project to be completed on time and within budget. For this to happen, you need to know what risks have the potential to adversely affect your project and threaten overall project success.

Among the various information-gathering techniques useful in identifying potential project risks is the interview. To learn about project risks, you can interview experienced project managers, subject matter experts, senior project team members and knowledgeable project stakeholders.

Using interviews to identify project risks is a 3-step process.

Step 1: Select the interviewee.
The first step is to select the right person to interview. There are three characteristics that you should look for when selecting an interviewee.
One characteristic that your potential interviewee should possess is a high degree of skill in, or knowledge of, a certain subject. Experts with a high level of skill or knowledge will be able to identify specific project risks, such as financial or technical risks.

Another characteristic that your potential interviewee should have is experience and training on similar projects. Experts with relevant experience can help you identify risks that are common of the type of project you are managing.

The third characteristic that your potential interviewee should possess is the ability to think objectively and critically. Experts who think critically and objectively can help identify risks that others involved in the project may overlook.

Step 2: Prepare the interviewee.
The second step in the interviewing process is to prepare the interviewee for questioning. At this stage, you should tell the interviewee what the project goals are, how long the project is expected to last, and what the constraints facing the project are.
Each selected interviewee will also need specific information that can be found in the project definition, scope documentation, and in the project's high-level WBS.

For example, a project manager informs several interviewees that the project under examination involves the development of a new kind of pain reliever. This project is expected to be delivered within one year of the start date and have less than a four-percent probability of harmful side effects. In addition, the project is faced with a limited amount of contingency reserves and may encounter budget problems if any of the critical path phases are delayed.

By briefing the interviewees on this type of project information, the project manager has adequately prepared the interviewees for the questioning process. They will now have sufficient knowledge of the project to identify potential risks that may negatively affect the project in question.

Step 3: Direct the interview.
The third step of the interviewing technique is to direct the interview. As a project manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your interview stays on track. You must use the experience and knowledge of your expert, combined with all relevant project information, to identify as many project risks as possible.
There are three key questions that will help you focus and direct the interview. They are:

1. What could go wrong during this project?
By asking your expert what could go wrong during the project, you will be able to identify risks that may affect your project. Imagining a worst-case scenario will increase your chances of identifying risks that have the potential to negatively impact your project.

2. Where have similar projects failed?
By questioning where similar projects have failed in the past, you will be able to identify risks that may be common or typical of all projects of this nature. Your expert may be able to use previous experience to provide you with insight about project areas that are sensitive to certain risks.

3. What are the consequences making unresearched assumptions?
By asking your expert the consequences of incorrect project assumptions, you will be able to identify risks that may arise due to inadequate or poorly researched project information. Asking "what if's" is a good way to pinpoint risks that may otherwise go unnoticed.

There are three essential steps that should be followed when using the interviewing technique to identify risk. Project managers should select the right interviewee, prepare the interviewee, and direct the interview.

As a project manager, you can use the interviewing technique to gather vital information about potential project risks. This technique will also help make your project's risk identification process easier and more accurate.

Identifying Risks by Reviewing Documents

2008-11-17T13:05:00.002+07:00

Ling, a project manager (PM) with Simple Software Solutions, feels extremely overwhelmed. She is new to the realm of project management. Her first project with this company is the Key-entry project. This project entails the development of privacy software solutions for a large Internet company.

Ling wonders how she can possibly identify all the risks for this project. A good place for Ling to start is the documentation review.

Every project plan and list of project assumptions will contain risks. Documentation reviews identify the inherent risks in the project plan and assumptions. In order to perform a documentation review, you and your team members should carry out a structured review of project plans and assumptions, files from previous projects, and other available information.

There are three steps that need to be addressed in order to perform effective documentation reviews.

Step 1: Identify the project documents needed.
When you are ready to begin the documentation review for your project, the first step is to gather the necessary documents.

The documents you gather for the review are critical to identifying project risks. You should examine documents available from the current project, plus documents from similar past projects. Some of the most helpful documents are the:

Post-project reviews from similar, past projects - Post-project reviews from similar past projects are documents contained in project files that summarize what went as expected during a project and what didn't go according to plan.
Lessons learned from similar past projects or any other documents from similar past projects that will be helpful - Lessons-learned documents refer to the learning gained from performing a project. They may be identified at any point in a project and are often considered as project documentation.
Other documentation for the current project that will be helpful - Other documentation includes the inputs to the project's risk management plan, such as project charters, the company's risk management policies, defined roles and responsibilities, stakeholder risk tolerances, the company's risk management plan template, and the WBS.

Step 2: Choose how the review will be structured.
Next, you need to decide how the review will be structured. The structure of the review is contingent upon two factors: 1. the size of the project; and 2. the areas of the project being targeted.

Documentation reviews for projects of more than five phases should occur at the management level and are conducted for each phase and subphase. These reviews will be continuous throughout the project and will involve various participants in each phase. Reviews for projects with fewer phases should occur at the team member level for each phase of the project.

PMs must also decide the areas that are being targeted for risk identification. This is project specific and depends on the types of project and risks that may occur.

If a project involves developing new technology, the PM may target the design and marketing risks.

If a project uses a lot of external suppliers, the PM may target the supplier management risks.

If the project involves construction, the PM may target industrial safety risks.

If the project involves construction, the PM may target industrial safety risks.

Step 3: Identify the reviewers for each part of the review.
When selecting the team members for the documentation review, you should ask yourself "Who are the people who have the necessary experience and knowledge for this area of the project and who will bring the most value to a discussion about potential risks?" Generally, the reviewers will be the project team members, subject matter experts (SMEs), team members from similar projects, and other stakeholders, like sponsors. The documentation type, for example, project level, also plays a role in deciding who should be part of the review team.

Ling is ready to begin the documentation review for the Key-entry project. First, Ling gathers files from two similar privacy software development projects that Simple Solutions has recently completed. Then she decides how the documentation review will be structured. She examines the project plan and assumptions for the Key-entry project. She decides this project is rather large.

Finally, Ling identifies the reviewers for each part of the review. She selected Jake because of his extensive experience, Tanya because of her expertise in the field, and Rachel because she is the lead project team member. They have a discussion and successfully identify risks for this project.

Knowing how to perform effective documentation reviews is an important skill. Performing an effective documentation review is a good way to begin the risk identification process.

Resources to Help You Avoid Past Mistakes

2008-11-15T14:34:00.002+07:00

Somebody once said, "Every time history repeats itself the price goes up." If companies are aware of past experiences, they can save themselves from the expense of repeating mistakes.

One way to avoid past mistakes is to pay attention to historical information when developing your risk plans. Two sources of historical information are especially helpful in meeting this objective: past project files and published information.

Past project files
There are three types of project files that you can use to examine historical data: previous project documentation; the lessons-learned report; and the risk response plan.

You can find previous project documentation in the form of outputs from other planning processes. However, you should limit your search to documentation generated from similar projects.

Another good resource for identifying risks and avoiding past mistakes is the lessons-learned report. This document includes lessons learned from past projects, a description of the problems encountered along with the solutions to these problems.

The risk response plan file contains information on the processes put in place to monitor, review, and update the project risk. An examination of these risks will show that some risks are greater at specific stages of the project.

Published information
Other valuable sources of historical information are available in the form of published information. Published information which may give insights into past mistakes includes:

Commercial databases - Commercial databases are sources that you can access to obtain professionally compiled information. A common example of historical information that commercial databases can provide you with is statistics.
Academic studies - Academic studies may focus on risk factors of projects similar to the one you are managing. A great deal of time and research often goes into academic studies. You can benefit greatly from exploring this information source when developing your risk plan.
Benchmarking report - Benchmarking involves an examination of your competitors' business practices or products. A benchmark report could give you insight into how other companies carried out similar projects and handled risks.

When researching the possible risks for a project, you can use historical information, gathered internally or externally, to avoid past mistakes.

Past projects completed within your company can provide a gold mine of lessons learned. But you can also look outside the company at how other companies and organizations have dealt with similar projects and their associated risks.

Historical information can provide you with important insights into the risks for the projects you are currently managing. If you have researched pertinent historical information, you will be able to deal with project risks more effectively.

Categorizing Project Risks

2008-11-12T15:28:00.001+07:00

It sometimes seems that the opportunities for something to go wrong are endless! One way for you to make sense of these endless possibilities is to organize them into easy-to-understand categories.

One of the inputs to risk identification is risk categories. Risk categories should be well defined. They should also reflect common sources of risk for the industry or application area. The industry could be anything from construction to software development. The application area is the customer. There are numerous types of customers depending on who the company is selling the project to. The customers could range from government agencies to an independent real estate developer.

Project risks fall into one of four categories:

technical, quality, and performance risks
project management risks
organizational risks
external risks

The first category consists of three factors: technical, quality, and performance risks. Throughout the project, project managers should think about whether or not any part of the project relies on new, unproven or complex technology, unrealistic performance goals, or changes to the industry standards or the technology used.

Technical - Tabitha is in charge of a grocery store development project in Montana. She identifies the new software being developed for the cash registers and security systems as a definite risk. This software has never been used, and a few malfunctions have already had to be addressed.
Quality - Tabitha reviews the initial blueprints and examines the three-tiered parking garage that will make parking easier for customers. She quickly realizes, however, that the costs of building such a parking garage are not practical and that they will be too costly for this project.
Performance - Tabitha realizes that it is important to estimate the store completion date as accurately as possible to please the client. A risk that could seriously affect this date is unrealistic performance goals of the construction workers hired for the project. Tabitha takes note of this risk.

The next risk category is project management risks. Some examples of project management risks are:

poor allocation of time and resources
inadequate quality of the project plan
poor use of project management disciplines.

Meril is a project manager in charge of a grain hybrid research project for Flax Technologies. He has a staff of 23 people that assist him with the various tasks involved with this project. Meril struggled a bit with the last project assigned to him. This was, in large part, because many of the project's identified risks became reality. This time, he is very careful to avoid losing valuable time and resources because of a lack of a comprehensive project plan. He also develops a clear and well-organized schedule outlining duties and deadlines.

Meril monitors the costs of this project very closely and catches discrepancies early. He takes a proactive approach and it pays off. The grain hybrid research project is completed under budget and ahead of schedule.

Another type of risk category is organizational risks. Examples of organizational risks are: cost, time, and scope objectives that are inconsistent, projects that are improperly prioritized, funding that is inadequate or interrupted, or resources that are inadequate or unavailable. Organizational risks are most often controllable. Dealing with organizational risks effectively can increase your organization's overall success exponentially.

In 2001, Quarry Properties had to complete a large redevelopment project in Asia. A project manager saw that the money allocated for this project and the completion date looked unrealistic in the project plan. The plan was modified and the risks were minimized.

Lavender Pharmaceuticals had three important projects underway last year. The project managers in charge of each project were aware of which project was most important to complete first. Resources were reallocated when prudent.

Dahl Insurance developed a new flood insurance program last year. When Pete, the project manager, examined the budget for this project, he noticed that funds were cut off half-way through completion. Funding allocation was reevaluated.

Travel Temptations wanted to develop a European cruise travel package exclusive to Temptations' customers. It was quickly discovered that the company couldn't find a cruise ship company for a partner. Therefore, the project was put on hold.

Another risk category is external risks. External risks are changes that are outside the control of the company and are therefore unpredictable. Some examples of external risks are:

a changing legal or regulatory environment
labor issues
weather risks
changing customer priorities.

Jeff, a PM at Flax Technologies, is in charge of the urban grain storage project taking place in Hong Kong. The project entails the development and maintenance of grain storage facilities in Hong Kong that will allow local customers easier access to the grain. Jeff makes careful note of the potential external risks.

Jeff realizes he must comply with Hong Kong's labor regulations. He also needs to work with Hong Kong construction bylaws and update procedures when needed.

Jeff knows that there is a monsoon season in Hong Kong that could pose great risks to construction. He organizes building dates to avoid this external risk.

There are some risks that are considered force majeure. A force majeure is an unexpected or uncontrollable external force. Earthquakes, floods, and severe civil unrest are examples of force majeure. These risks generally require disaster recovery rather than risk management.

Why categorize risks? A project may be subjected to many risks, both big and small. Understanding the different types of risks can help you stay organized. There are some risks that are more controllable than others. If you can stay ahead of the controllable risks, you will have the time and energy to deal with uncontrollable risks.

Categorizing risks can help you make sense of the vast array of risks that are part of any project. If you know the risk categories, you will be better equipped to manage your projects' risks.

Outputs of Risk Management Planning

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Do you know where to begin when it's time to identify your projects' risks? You should review the outputs of other project management processes before risk identification begins. The other project management processes are the risk management plan and other planning outputs.

The risk management plan
One of the planning outputs that you should review before identifying risks is the risk management plan. You should review the risk management plan because this is the document that describes how risk management activities for the project will be performed. It describes how risk identification, qualitative and quantitative analysis, response planning, monitoring, and control will be structured and performed during the project life cycle.

Lulu, a project manager at Beacon Corporation, develops a risk management plan for the Smart-Mart department store development project. The Smart-Mart risk management plan describes how Lulu and her team will approach an examination of the risks involved with this development and how they might address these risks. Lulu makes certain that the plan is comprehensive because she knows that it will serve as a guideline for risk management throughout the project's life cycle.

In the risk management plan, Lulu doesn't focus on the responses that will be taken for specific risks on the Smart-Mart project. Instead, it is a holistic overview of the risk management approaches that Lulu and her team will use for the Smart-Mart project.

Other planning outputs
There are eight categories of other planning outputs.

project charter - The project charter is a document issued by senior management that formally authorizes the project. It provides you with the authority to apply organizational resources toward project activities.
work breakdown structure (WBS) - The WBS is a grouping of the project elements that organizes and defines the total work scope of the project, based on deliverables.
product description - The product description is a list of the features and functions of the product.
schedule and cost estimates - Schedule and cost estimates are estimates of likely dates and costs involved with your project.
resource plan - The resource plan is a description of the people, equipment, and materials needed to perform project activities.
procurement plan - The procurement plan is the information about what needs to be purchased and when it needs to be purchased in order to carry out your project successfully.
assumptions lists - An assumptions list contains the factors that are considered givens for your project.
constraint lists - A constraint list contains the restrictions that will affect when your project activities can be scheduled.

After Lulu reviews the risk management plan, she examines the other planning outputs she should review as inputs to risk identification for the Smart-Mart project. First, she reads the Smart-Mart project charter. She thoroughly examines the human resources and the budget that have been allocated for this project because these two variables will have a significant impact on the way she manages the project. She also examines the WBS to see who should be doing what and the dates when each step should be completed.

Lulu notes the description of the Smart-Mart development. She wants to present the client with the exact building and layout requested. The schedule and cost estimates are clearly outlined on a graph that Lulu posts on a wall in her office and on a wall of the management trailer on the construction site.

Lulu examines the resource plan to see which Beacon employees should be placed in management positions for this project and to place accurate requests for building materials and supplies.

Lulu also reviews the procurement plan for Smart-Mart. This plan outlines what building and software materials will need to be purchased by specific dates. This will help Lulu place the orders on time and keep development moving at an acceptable rate.

The constraints list shows Lulu that lumber and concrete availability will affect when building activities can occur.

The fact that unionized construction workers receive a certain salary rate is a component of the assumptions list that Lulu examines.

The following list shows the name of each of the other planning outputs followed by the form they took in Lulu's project.

Project charter - human resources and budget
WBS - roles, responsibilities, and completion dates
Product description - building and layout
Schedule and cost estimates - available graph
Resource plan - management positions and building materials
Procurement plan - purchase materials
Assumptions list - employee salaries
Constraint lists - material availability

When Lulu reviews the project's other planning outputs, she familiarizes herself with all aspects of the project—such as scope, schedule, costs, and requirements—so that she can identify any areas that could be potential risks. Like Lulu, you will want to review the risk management plan and other planning outputs before you begin to identify risks. This process will make you more competent at risk identification.

Developing a Risk Management Plan

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What do you think would happen if someone tried to carry out a complex commercial development project without using blueprints? The project would probably not run very smoothly. If you have a good blueprint, you will increase the chances of success for your project.

To ensure that all the people involved in your project meet their objectives, some type of blueprint for development is essential. A planning meeting is where a good blueprint will be developed to handle any risks that might occur during your project.

During the planning meeting, specific decisions have to be made to ensure you develop an optimum risk management plan for your project. It is the role of the PM to facilitate the meeting to ensure that an effective plan is developed.

The risk management plan that you develop at your meeting will describe how risk identification, qualitative and quantitative analyses, response planning, and monitoring and control will be structured and performed during your project's life cycle.

Methodology defines the approaches, tools, and data sources that might be used to perform risk management on your project.

Roles and responsibilities define the lead, support, and risk management team membership for each type of action in the risk management plan.

Budgeting establishes a budget for risk management for the project.

Timing defines how often the risk management process will be performed throughout the project life cycle.

Scoring and interpretation outlines the scoring systems you are going to use to rate risks. It includes thresholds that refer to the criteria for risks that will be acted upon.

Reporting formats describe the content and the presentation style of the risk response plan. Tracking documents how all facets of risk activities will be recorded for the benefit of the current project, future needs, and lessons learned.

Once you have assembled your risk management planning team, you will have to distribute the appropriate project inputs to each team member. It is your responsibility to guide the team toward making the necessary decisions to create an effective risk management plan. It is your job to ask them the questions that will help them make these decisions. Some questions you should ask are:

What methods will be used to assess risks?
What are the risk management roles and responsibilities?
How much will managing this risk cost?
How often will risk management processes be performed?
What thresholds will be set to determine further risk analysis and response?
What reporting methods and tools will be used to report and document risk status and processes?

You not only need to ask questions, you also need to understand what type of answers you are looking for to create a risk management plan. Identifying the methodology to use to perform risk management depends on the project stage, the amount of information available, and the flexibility of the risk management plan. The method you choose should suit your company's usual approach to risk management.

Risks can be analyzed qualitatively or quantitatively. Qualitative methods classify risks into categories such as high, medium, or low. Quantitative methods assign numeric values based on the probability and consequence of risks. You should use the same method to analyze each risk because you have to be able to compare the results and prioritize the risks.

Based on the structure of your project and how your organization usually handles risk, your team members will assign risk management roles and responsibilities to qualified team members.

The team will decide who is needed to lead and support the risk management processes. For example, someone will be assigned to track changes as a result of risk.

The risk management team will determine the duties for each role. For example, the risk tracker will have to document how risk processes will be audited.

The team must also look at budget information when creating a risk management plan. Based on the decisions that you make, you will have to assess how much the management of the risk will cost for the project. If the cost is too high, you may have to revisit your decisions and reduce expenditures in certain risk management areas. For example, you may opt to reduce the frequency of audits in order to lower costs.

The team will decide how often to perform risk management processes. Timing will be based on the stakeholder risk tolerances and the critical elements in the project's WBS that require more stringent risk management. Stakeholder risk tolerances should be adhered to provided stakeholders understand the cost involved in risk management. If stakeholders want more frequent audits, the team should comply with their requests. Similarly, projects with more critical elements will require more frequent risk analyses.

A schedule describing how often risk management will be performed should be developed early enough to affect decisions and should be revisited throughout the project. For example, during a critical phase, it is likely that there will be more risk analyses.

The fifth question your team needs to answer when creating a risk management plan is what thresholds will be set to determine further risk analysis and response? Thresholds are defined limits for cost, schedule, and scope variance. To determine thresholds, the team should decide the degree of change that the project can sustain in order to address risks and then set limits based on that degree. If the team is unable to do this, this risk will require a response.

The final question involved in creating your risk management plan deals with the reports and tools used to report risk status and track risk management processes for the project. The reporting format outlines how the results of risk management will be documented, analyzed, and communicated. The tracking method documents how the risk processes will be audited. You must determine these methods before you can act on your risk management plan. This documentation serves as a record of the project's risk activities.

It is important to make the right decisions when developing your risk management plan. This will ensure that your plan is effective and will serve as a good blueprint for your project's risk management.

What Are the Inputs to Risk Management Planning?

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In his famous book, "Poor Richard's Almanac," Benjamin Franklin wrote, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." What might this mean in the context of risk management planning?

Prevention seems like a common sense idea, but achieving it does require some thought. Remember that projects are often long and complex and that they involve large amounts of money and other resources. Therefore, it's important to plan your risk management approach so that an "ounce" of risk prevention is in place.

You will use several different types of information and documents as inputs when planning for the management of your project's risks. The inputs used in risk management planning are the:

project charter and work breakdown structure (WBS)
organization's risk management policies
defined roles and responsibilities
template for the organization's risk management plan
stakeholder risk tolerances.

The project charter and the WBS are key documents you use when planning risk management activities. Some of these activities are budgeting, scoring and interpretation, and tracking.
The project charter is a document that formally authorizes a project. It includes the business need that the project is undertaken to address.

The WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of project components that organizes and defines the total scope of the project.

When it comes to an organization's risk management policies, every organization is different. Some organizations have predefined approaches to risk analysis and response that need to be tailored to match individual projects that are carried out by the organization. It is your responsibility to know whether or not your organization has these predefined approaches. If it does, you need to make sure that you tailor and apply the predefined approaches to risk analysis and response to the project you are managing.

Another input to effective risk management planning is the defined roles and responsibilities. These include the predefined roles, responsibilities, and authority levels of the people that will influence project planning.

Templates for the organization's risk management plan are used as a format for creating the risk management plan. Many organizations have developed templates that are also known as pro-forma standards. Project team members adapt the template to their current project. Companies continuously improve the template based on its application and usefulness to the project.

The final input to risk management planning is stakeholder risk tolerances. Different organizations and different individuals have varying tolerances for risk. These tolerances may be expressed in policy statements or in actions.

The starting point of any risk management planning process must include inputs. Without them, the effect of your risk management planning would be like trying to take medicine from an empty bottle: no inputs, no positive benefits. Understanding the inputs used in planning risk management activities is basic to a sound project management approach at any level of expertise.

Identifying a Project's Supporting Details

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Supporting details are another important aspect of organizational planning. Supporting details vary by application area and project size but typically include items such as organizational structure, job descriptions, and training needs.

Organizational structure
One aspect of compiling supporting details is to understand the limits imposed on you by the company's organizational structure. You may, for example, need to plan more time for executive approval if it is required for all project decisions. These are elements you typically can't change. When it comes to structure-imposed limits, your best strategy is to focus on what you can do within the confines of the organizational structure.

Job descriptions
Job descriptions are another aspect of supporting details. They help your project run smoothly by telling team members what is expected of them. Effective job descriptions eliminate potential conflicts over job duties, roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures. The best job descriptions provide details about competencies, responsibilities, knowledge, authority, and the physical job environment.

Training needs
Another aspect of supporting details is recognizing the training needs of your team members. Sometimes your job descriptions outline competencies your team members don't currently have. In this case, you need a plan outlining your team's training needs. Training ensures your team has the most up-to-date skills and is constantly ready for new challenges.

Supporting details are the final ties that bring a project together. Using this output from organizational planning allows you to move ahead with your project, secure in the knowledge that you have laid your plans carefully. Now you only have to follow through with those plans.

Methods for Charting Project Relationships

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An organization chart shows you, in an instant, all the relationships within a company. It allows you to clearly see the layout of people and departments for an entire organization.

An organization chart is any graphic manifestation of project reporting relationships. It gives you the big picture of how your project fits into the overall activity of the organization. It shows the relationships:

between resources of the project management system
of formal authority between groups and individuals.

Organization charts can be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed. The place of individuals within boxes on the organization chart shows broad working relationships. The connecting lines between boxes indicate formal chains of command and lines of communication between individuals.

Organization charts vary dramatically from one organization to another. They do, however, have some basic elements in common. For example:

All members of the project are identified, including stakeholders.
Data can be formal, informal, detailed, or general.
Direct relationships between people are shown with a solid line.
A dotted line indicates an indirect relationship, or a relationship that has not been clearly defined.

Organization charts offer project managers several important benefits. For starters, they show you the overall framework of the organization and indicate where project members fit into the organization. They also reveal the basic relationships between project team members, and they explain formal lines of authority (reporting relationships).

There are also drawbacks to using a traditional organization chart. For example, a traditional organization chart:

doesn't show the nature and limits of the activities required to attain project objectives
doesn't show the reciprocal relationships between people, which often occur within a project
may not accurately reflect the structure throughout the project because it is often out of date very quickly
may confuse people, as the pyramidal structure may portray a false sense of status and prestige.

Charts vary because organizations and projects vary. There are specific organization charts that give you added information. These charts help you as you plan. One such plan is an Organizational Breakdown Structure Chart (OBS)

An OBS identifies the roles and responsibilities of the individual as well as those of the collective project unit. And OBS is a concise description of the organizational interfaces. It illustrates:

who the project participants are, the extent of their involvement, and their authority
when decisions should be made or activities performed
who has authority when team members share common work
work packages or tasks necessary for project success.

And OBS is time consuming to prepare, but gives you more valuable information than a standard organizational chart.

A standard organization chart or Organizational Breakdown Structure Chart provides you with concise information concerning responsibility relationships within an organization. Both types of charts provide a useful tool of reference for everyone involved in the project.

What Does a Staffing Management Plan Include?

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Jumping into your project without a staffing management plan is like jumping from a plane without a parachute. It might be the fastest way to your destination, but it clearly is not the safest or smartest decision.

The people you select to work on your project will either contribute to its success or its demise. To ensure the success of your project, you will want to identify your staffing requirements and come up with a staffing management plan.

A staffing management plan is an output of the organizational planning process. This kind of plan includes your basic staffing requirements and provides details about how people will be brought on board and released from the project.

staffing requirements
Staffing requirements describe the team members you need to carry out the tasks your project requires. Objective and subjective criteria are used to match the team members to various positions that need to be filled.

Objective criteria outline the technical competencies needed from a potential team member to successfully fulfill a project task. Subjective criteria deal with the needed personality traits to successfully fulfill a project task.

information about how people are brought on to the project
Planning for your team members before they even come on board will help you to take better advantage of their expertise. Bringing people onto a project can be chaotic. New team members have many questions about their project tasks, roles, and responsibilities. You can help make this transition as smooth as possible by anticipating team members' questions.

Job descriptions, training, project information, and reward programs, and a closing meeting are just some of the items to include in this part of your plan.

Job descriptions - When team members know the parameters of their position, they can focus on exactly what they are there to accomplish. Job descriptions eliminate confusion and provide direction.
Training - You want your team members to work as efficiently as possible. For this to happen, your team members require proper training. Training takes time up front, but saves you time in the long run.
Project information - Project information allows team members to see where their tasks fit into the big picture. The more fully informed team members are, the more focused their tasks will be.
Reward programs - Reward programs work as productivity incentives for your team members. This creates good morale, as team members feel they are recognized for a job well done.
Closing meeting - A closing meeting, reviews both the positive and negative elements of a finished project. It allows you and your team members to make better plans for the next project, as well as capitalize on the strengths demonstrated in the finished project.

Information about how people are released from the project
Creating a plan to move people off projects is also beneficial. This type of planning provides direction, focus, and smooth transitions.

Your staffing management plan should include a plan for re-assigning your team members as soon as the project is completed. Your team members should know when and where their next assignment begins.

Properly releasing staff reduces costs by reducing or eliminating the tendency to make work to fill the time between this assignment and another. It also improves morale by reducing or eliminating uncertainty about future employment opportunities.

Completing a staffing management plan before jumping into your project will save you time and trouble later in the project. The plan you develop will help you to see how to put to the best use the skills, expertise, and talents of each and every team member. And this will allow you to execute the project sure and steady with fewer surprises.

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

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Do you cringe at the thought of responsibility? Many people do. Having something fall on your shoulders may seem daunting. However, it is also through responsibility that a certain amount of freedom is gained.

Freedom through responsibility? It's true. Responsibility gives you the freedom to use your skills, talents, and intellect. Most people thrive on responsibility and blossom when they believe they have handled their responsibilities well.

Successful projects have clearly defined project roles (who does what) and responsibilities (who decides what). Most roles and responsibilities are assigned to stakeholders who are actively involved in the work of the project. These can include the project manager, other members of the project management team, and the individual contributors. Roles and responsibilities may vary over time.

Project managers bear the majority of the responsibility for the success of the project. It is their job to ensure that a project comes in on time and on budget. To succeed in this capacity, project managers must delegate roles and responsibilities to their team members. And the tool they use to do this is called a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM).

A RAM links project roles and responsibilities to the project scope definition. A RAM can be developed at various levels. Generally, they fall into two categories: low-level RAM and high-level RAM.

A low-level RAM delegates roles and responsibilities for specific activities to particular individuals within your team.

The more phases you have for your project, the more complex your matrix is going to be. A high-level RAM is very complex and shows many phases of a project. It may define which group or unit is responsible for each element of the work breakdown structure.

Responsibility is an essential component of project success. A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) shows where you and your team members' responsibilities lie.

Assigning responsibilities reaps huge benefits. Your team feels it has control and authority for specific tasks. Progress happens when team members focus on their own responsibilities.

Analyzing Stakeholder Interests

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Stakeholder analysis is the process of discovering who has a stake in your project and identifying their interests. To perform stakeholder analysis, you must identify the stakeholders, their roles and primary interests in the project. Then you must analyze the relationships between stakeholders, looking to capitalize on similarities and resolving differences.

Step 1: Identify the stakeholders.
Stakeholders can be internal or external. Internal stakeholders are the people directly involved in the functioning of your project. They include project managers, performing organizations, and project team members. External stakeholders are outside your organization. External stakeholders for your project may include sponsors, customers, suppliers, financial backers, special interest groups, the media and the public.

Step 2: Identify their roles.
You can enhance the usefulness of your list of stakeholders by determining the role each stakeholder plays in your project. Stakeholders may manage the project, provide financial or human resources, or provide supplies. Viewing stakeholders within the context of their roles is necessary to accomplish the rest of your stakeholder analysis.

Step 3: Identify their primary interests.
Once you know the roles of stakeholders, you can discover the interests they have. The interests of your stakeholders are the outcome of the roles they play in your project. The logical conclusion of what stakeholders do for your project is what they want from your project. It is important for you to know what they want from your project.

Step 4: Analyze the relationships between stakeholders.
Evaluating conflicting project desires is part of the fourth step of a stakeholder analysis. Once you have listed the stakeholders, their roles and interests, you can analyze the relationship between all the diverse interests in your project.

To properly analyze your stakeholders, you need to ask yourself:

How will each group respond to project decisions?
What effect will their reactions have?
How will their interaction with each other affect the project?

LUXX Corporation, an appliance manufacturer, is creating a new toaster for the market. Jodi is in charge of the project. She must determine how to prioritize the four departments' wishes, while demonstrating that she has taken everyone's requests into consideration. Jodi has identified the stakeholders and their competing interests in this project.

The research and development department wants more time to come up with the best toaster possible. It also wants to use its capabilities to the fullest by providing as many features as possible.

The marketing department wants to make this toaster attractive to the general public. This means promoting as many features as possible and having an early market release date, while keeping the price to a minimum.

The accounting department wants to keep costs low while charging the public as much as possible. It also wants this toaster to be on the market as soon as possible. Driving these desires is the interest in the margin of profit.

The quality assurance department wants a trouble-free toaster. The quality assurance department wants well-designed features, that work well, and plenty of time to complete proper testing procedures.

As you can see, many of these wishes conflict with one another.

The steps involved in stakeholder analysis are designed to reveal the conflicting interests among stakeholders so that these differences may be managed. Ultimately, stakeholder analysis helps you to gain the support of all your stakeholders and ensures that everyone involved in a project is directed toward the same project goals.

Structuring Organizations for Better Project Management

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If you change the molecular structure of an organism, you change the way that organism functions. Every element of change brings about a subsequent change of function. Like an organism, your organization can and should be structured to enable you to better respond to project requirements.

Changing the structure of an organization is a relatively new phenomenon. Historically, an organization was structured along a pyramid model. This traditional form of organizational structure, called a "functional" structure, leaves the authority and decision-making in the hands of a select few. However, as the pyramid widens and the number of people increases, the effectiveness of those in authority decreases.

Most businesses now tend to focus on individual projects. If your company focuses on projects but uses a functional structure, your projects will be forced to wait in line for decisions that need to be made.

Functional structures reduce project efficiencies because:
decisions take too much time to go through the hierarchy
decisions are made by people not familiar with the project

those involved in the project become frustrated by those assuming all of the responsibility.
Fortunately, organizational structures have changed to meet the new challenges of business. Two different structures that have evolved are the matrix and projectized structures.

Matrix structures - Matrix structures are divided into two categories: weak and strong. The weak matrix structure provides relatively little authority for the project manager, while the strong matrix provides almost complete authority for the project manager.

A weak matrix structure allows a project to exist apart from the main organization. It retains its own structure but still relies on the organization for some of the decision making.

A strong matrix has its own structure apart from the main organization. The decision-making ability is quite strong within this structure, but it is still answerable to the larger organization.

Projectized structures - The projectized structure is similar to the strong matrix structure. While the strong matrix allows very strong decision-making abilities for the project manager, the projectized structure allows for complete decision making on the part of those involved in the project. For both of these structures, the organization plays an auxiliary role to the project. This change in project authority and responsibility allows for projects to run more smoothly. This in turn, brings a faster turnaround time.

How do you decide which structure is right for your project? Complexity, duration, and outside influence on your project are the three factors which determine the type of structure your project should have.

You need a strong matrix or projectized structure if your project:

is extremely complex
is long in duration
involves many different organizations.

The effectiveness of these structures is dependent on senior management. Matrix and projectized structures can only succeed if the larger organization lets go of control. Authority and independence are needed for these new structures to have validity. The benefits of these structures must be clear to the larger organization for them to relinquish power over individual projects.

Changing from functional structures to new structures calls for a change in both the main organization and the project team. Senior management must learn to give up control, just as the project team needs to learn to take it on. All of this change requires new competencies within the project team. Each team must be able to handle all of the functions usually accomplished by the larger company.

A project team must learn to equip itself before it gains independence. To function, the team must ensure that it is able to:

communicate
sell ideas
negotiate
problem solve
resolve conflicts across functional boundaries.

Requiring these competencies of a project team is a huge departure from the past. More is expected from individual members of a team, and more responsibility is placed upon them. This creates dynamic and skilled people. It also creates some new challenges for the project team.
Human beings are incredibly adept at adjusting to new situations and new demands. This adjustment does, however, take time. The same is true of new organizational structures and the new processes they create. The new challenges faced by project teams require an adjustment period and a clear understanding of how the roles have changed.

The four areas that provide the most challenge within the project team are ownership, commitment, authority, and process orientation. Some of these challenges for the project team are due to the limitations of the larger organization, while others rest within the project team itself.

Responsibility for a project calls for ownership of that project. When companies move toward a new structure, they must make the transition of assigning a process owner. They need a manager with responsibility over the process from beginning to end.

The challenge of commitment is found within the project team itself. This is particularly an issue if the project involves contract workers. The project manager must ensure that employees realize their unique role in the success of a project.

Formal statements from the project champion or customer are necessary. These state who has the authority and responsibility for the project and should be distributed to stakeholders, resource managers, and especially the contracted team members.

New structures require new processes. Turning from functional to process-oriented structures requires new work habits, skill sets, meeting formats, reporting structures, problem resolution methods, and other tools to make a project truly effective.

The changing face of business has required dramatic changes in how organizations structure themselves. These changes have brought about a greater sense of responsibility within project teams and the acquisition of competencies formerly only found within the larger organization. Acquiring new competency requirements also presents new challenges for organizations. Meeting these challenges, however, enables a company to be more efficient, to save time, and to gain expertise.

Incorporating Policies, Procedures, and Regulations

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Safety nets ensure that the work environment is secure. Human resource practices work as a safety net to ensure that the employment practices you use in forming a project team are above board.

You can ensure that the integrity of your project is beyond reproach by following the policies and guidelines set by your company, your industry, and the government.

Organizations have a variety of policies, procedures, and regulations that help the project management team with various aspects of organizational planning. These human resource practices give guidance on planning team benefits, incorporating company initiatives, and following government stipulations.

The sources of influence which govern employment practices can be divided into internal sources and external sources. Internal sources are policies set forth by the organization. External sources are decisions made outside of the company which affect company policy. Together, these internal and external sources make up the policies, procedures, and regulations governing your project.

Company policies - include information addressing issues like vacation time, maternity leave, sick leave, and medical benefits.
Regulations - deal with safety standards, minimum wage laws, and hiring discrimination.
Procedures - vary from company to company. Your company chooses procedures based on what works best in its industry and what has proven to provide a sense of continuity and balance.

Corporate policies and procedures are at the discretion of individual companies. These are based on what each company deems fair and what it finds produces the most productive and loyal employees. On the other hand, the laws set forth by government are unwavering standards which must be met by each and every company. While project managers should abide by the human resource practices of the organizations in which they work, the laws set by government are binding and aren't optional.

The government has placed regulations upon different industries for the benefit of the public, as well as for those who work in these industries. The regulations differ for each industry, and you should become aware of how they affect your project.

Complying with company policies, regulations, and procedures will help to ensure project success. As you build and develop your project team, remember to:

follow organizational procedures when assigning new jobs
ensure the same level of project information gets to all team members
provide similar training for all team members
ensure senior management approves any guarantee made to an employee about future roles or positions
inform team members why they were selected.

Company policies, regulations, and procedures are the safety nets that guide you to make sound decisions when it comes to planning the human resource aspect of your project. When you follow your company's human resource practices you stand a better chance of keeping your team members happy, the government satisfied, and your organization running smoothly.

Using Templates from Past Projects

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Who was your role model when you were a child? Do you remember someone you used to emulate? Did you want to be like them? Did you try to copy that person's behavior to get the same results?

Templates for organizational planning work the same way. You can model your project according to similar successful projects from the past.

Using the successful elements of a former project will save you both time and money.

Although the details of each project are unique, the basic components are often similar. This helps you in your planning. For example, you can use the role and responsibility definitions, or reporting relationships, of a similar project to expedite the organizational planning process.

Peter, the project manager for a large insurance company, is preparing a responsibility chart for his team members. How does he decide how to do this? One effective method is to see how responsibility has been distributed in the past. Peter can do this by using the responsibility charts of other successful departments in his organization, or he can copy those of another successful company. Either way he chooses, he is using a past template to ensure the success of his project.

You can disassemble past templates and reassemble the plans you need for your own project. Possible plans you can use for your own project include:

organizational structure
Work Breakdown Structure
company policies and practices

IRT is a successful IT consulting company. One of the services it offers is a Software Development Life Cycle Methodology. Within that methodology are predefined roles and responsibilities and organization charts. Before starting a project, the team members at IRT use their company's model as a starting point. By doing this, they are using templates of organizational structure and work breakdown structure. The team modifies its own template to suit its clients' needs, while building upon past success.

As a project manager, you will want to use templates to guide your organizational planning. Building on the success of others is a sure way of steering you toward your desired goal.

Identifying Project Constraints

2008-10-06T13:53:00.001+07:00

Everyone has constraints on decision-making and action. During project organizational planning, there are many constraints to consider. Some of the most common constraints on decision-making are the organizational structure, collective bargaining agreements, the preferences of the project management team, and expected staff assignments.

Organizational structure
Organizational structure can be a constraint. The level of authority given to a project manager is largely dependent on the organizational structure, which may be functional, matrix, or fully projectized.

Functional structure - In a functional structure, personnel are grouped hierarchically by speciality.
Matrix structure - In a matrix structure, project managers share responsibility with functional managers.
Fully projectized structure - In a fully projectized structure, project managers have total authority.

Collective bargaining agreements
Collective bargaining agreements are another potential constraint. Written agreements with unions or other employee groups ensure that you don't ask anything of your team that goes beyond what the union has agreed is appropriate. For example, a union may require that certain employees be hired, or it may set boundaries concerning work done by members of the union. Union contracts may also limit work hours and travel and time away from an employee's designated job.

The preferences of the project management team
Team preferences may also be a constraint. A team may be used to functioning independently, and individual team members may resist the changes brought about by interdepartmental interaction.

Expected staff assignments
Expected staff assignments are constraints placed on you and your team from the larger organization. When someone above you expects you to use certain people on your team, you then have the constraint of a pre-selected team. A pre-selected team limits a project manager in a variety of ways. Expected staff assignments can hinder a project when tasks are assigned based on criteria other than competency, the required competencies of the project team are changed, and the chemistry of the project team is altered.

It may seem logical that competency should be the overriding factor in team selection. Unfortunately, organizations themselves are under the constraint of staff availability. There may be redundant employees who have not yet been reassigned to a new full-time position. Projects end at different times. If one ends just as yours is beginning, your project is a convenient new placement for these employees.

Overcoming project constraints resulting from organizational structure, collective bargaining agreements, team preferences, and expected staff assignments is possible when you learn to view constraints as a challenge. When you understand the constraints placed on you, you can plan your strategy to take advantage of the human and material resources at your disposal.

Identifying Your Project Staffing Needs

2008-10-04T14:51:00.001+07:00

People make or break a project. That's why, as a project manager, it is important to carefully plan your project staffing needs. You need to choose people with the right competencies and personalities if you want your project team to work well together and to be capable of getting the job done.

Selecting the right people for your project begins with a staffing requirement plan. Staffing requirements are created using the project's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Skills Inventory Matrix.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The first step in determining your staffing requirements is to choose people with the right competencies. The WBS details the competencies you need to complete your project. A WBS is the organization of a project into a group of deliverables that defines the project scope.

Project managers complete all phases of the WBS. These phases are:

identifying the major work assignments for the project
breaking down each work assignment into tasks
matching competencies to tasks.

When it comes to matching competencies to tasks, you need to consider both objective and subjective criteria. Objective criteria may include: technical ability, level of proficiency, project management skills, and previous experience as a leader.
Subjective criteria may include: social skills, opinions of fellow project managers, and opinions of co-workers.

Skills Inventory Matrix
After using the WBS, objective and subjective criteria to select the members of your team, you need to assign tasks based on team member competencies. A Skills Inventory Matrix is ideal for this purpose.

A Skills Inventory Matrix allows you to see all the competencies within the project team. The matrix can be created using a simple table. In the first column on the left, list each team member. In the columns to the right, list the competencies required to complete the project. If an employee has a particular competency, place a checkmark in the table cell corresponding to their name and the competency.

A WBS and a Skills Inventory Matrix help you to determine your staffing needs. These inputs ensure that you know which competencies and people you need, as well as what the time frames are for your project.

To ensure the timely completion of your project, you need to match people to competencies and competencies to tasks. A project manager is more likely to have success when all of these staffing requirements are in place.

Managing Communication Interfaces

2008-10-02T14:25:00.002+07:00

One of the most important aspects of project planning is communication. As a project manager, you must define needed interactions between project teams and project support groups as part of the project planning process. To do this, you need to understand where communication occurs. Areas of communication, called interfaces, generally fall into one of three categories: organizational, technical, and interpersonal.

Organizational interfaces
An organizational interface is a communication interface among organizational units. Communication between organizational units is affected by the:

Individuals that make up organizational units - Good communication between individuals is essential to project success. Miscommunications and disagreements between individuals can cause delays in your project.
Overall unit goals - When units within an organization have similar goals, everyone can work together to meet those goals. When the goals of organizational units conflict with one another, each unit's effort works against the others.
Different managerial styles within each unit - Difference in managerial styles from department to department can cause confusion, frustration, and miscommunications.
Decisions made outside the immediate organization - Decisions made by governments, interest groups, and competitors can influence your project and must be communicated.

Technical interfaces
Technical interfaces are the formal and informal reporting relationships among different technical disciplines.

Technical interfaces occur within and between project phases. They can occur in products, facilities, and hardware, in other words, in anything that is non-people related.

The technical interface falls into two categories: physical and performance. The physical interface is between interconnecting parts of the system. The performance interface is between various functional or product subsystems. These categories contain both good interfaces and problems with interfaces.

For example, MercuryRising has an excellent technical support team that is familiar with the hardware and software within the various departments. Quick response time to computer problems ensures little disruption time on projects and makes meeting deadlines easier.

The office supplier for MercuryRising has software to let them know what and how much of a product is being used daily. This tells them exactly when and how much to deliver. Such precision aids project delivery.

Project managers can help to ensure project success by managing technical interfaces.

Interpersonal interfaces
The interpersonal interface deals with formal and informal reporting relationships among different individuals working on a project.

Differences in personality, skill level, and communication style can create issues as a project team begins to work together. Typically, as the number of people involved in a project increases, so does the potential for problems with communication. A project may involve:

different organizations
organizational departments (Accounting, R&D)
groups (special interest)
subgroups
individuals

To enable effective communication at the interpersonal interface, you must carefully plan your project reporting relationships and keep the communication lines open to accommodate everyone involved.

For your project to succeed, you must remove barriers to communication through interface management—a constant juggling of communication issues.

A good project plan outlines individual, technical and organizational responsibilities and authority. It enables you to simultaneously manage the three interfaces and maintain the flow of communication.

If you effectively use the inputs to organizational planning, you can avoid most conflicts. Your projects will run more smoothly, and your project will have the best chance for success.

Maintaining Documents and Records

2008-09-25T15:30:00.002+07:00

Every key step or change in the project or quality control change needs to be documented so that the reason for any changes can be traced at a future date. The documentation serves as authorization for action and evidence that the change did occur.

Project or process documentation begins with the original concept plan. It then evolves into activity-based documentation in which there are a variety of possible documentation types.

Checklists - can be developed to ensure that documentation flows properly and that certain documents are retained for archival purposes. There should be a checklist for every major activity that needs to be completed before another can begin.
Control sheets - record the flow of key documentation and changes. Data on decisions, changes, and who made them, are recorded.
Sign-off sheets - are documents which verify that a particular stage to a project has been completed to the quality goals. Sign-off sheets record specific information about which activity has met the standard and when.
Approval forms - verify that permission was given to advance to the next stage in a tightly controlled project. They are somewhat similar to sign-off sheets.
Reviews - examine a process or stage of a project to ensure it has met the particular goals set out in the original plan or to other quality standards. Most reviews recommend changes of some sort.
Testing reports - are carried out by specialists such as laboratory technicians, programmers, and quality testers. Their language is quite technical, however the use of non-statistical and statistical techniques can aid understanding. Test reports can express if a change, or no change, is required.
Logbooks - record the movement of documentation and when certain activities occur. This ensures an orderly flow and if a problem arises, it can be examined to see when and even what was responsible. Logbooks in manufacturing often contain the data required for analysis.
Acceptance reports - indicate whether a project or product was done satisfactorily. If not acceptable, suggestions can be offered. It is similar to a sign off sheet, but with more detail.

In addition to these activity-based documents, various standards organizations may require you to maintain records verifying conformance to industry standards. These records may be in the form of:

inspection reports
test data
qualification reports
validation reports
survey and audit reports
material review reports
calibration data
quality-related cost reports.

Depending on the project, you may also need to save instructive documents such as:

drawings
specifications
inspection procedures
test routines
work instructions
control sheets
the quality manual
operational procedures/checklists
quality system procedures.

All records and documentation need to be clear, legible, dated (including revisions), identified, accessible, and stored to prevent deterioration or loss. These can be in the form of images, hard copy, CD-ROM, and electronic files. The quality management plan for the project or company should specify how long documents need to be kept and how they should be disposed of once out-dated.

The control of documentation depends on the process or project undertaken. Long duration projects may require documents and records to be archived at set intervals. Short duration projects may allow subordinates to retain documents until the end of the project and then they are stored. For most projects there should be some sort of post project review. The idea is that the record keeping can provide specific information to see if the various procedures work well. This is a function of quality assurance.

Documentation is often relegated to minor status in a project. Many people think once the key work is done, that there will be time later to catch up on the paperwork. However, in a proper project, documentation is designed into the process to ensure an orderly flow, without unnecessary paperwork. The preservation of data, decisions made, and the general plan and outline of the project are key to ensuring quality.

Making Process Adjustments and Quality Improvements

2008-09-21T16:46:00.001+07:00

Have you ever encountered a situation where something has gone wrong and you wondered what could have been done to prevent it? Process adjustments and quality improvements can address this issue.

Process adjustments
Process adjustments may be corrective or preventive. Corrective adjustments are taken after a problem has already been discovered. Preventive adjustments are taken beforehand to prevent problems from happening.

Some of the most common process adjustments are: rework, redesign, change of equipment, change of personnel, and change of process. To prevent problems from occurring, each process is analyzed to determine where things could go wrong. Preventive steps or processes are then planned into the various activities.

In extreme cases, a process problem may demand rework. Rework requires that the production lot or phase of a project be redone. Obviously, rework should be avoided if possible. However, rework can be planned out conceptually by having inspections, testing, and measuring at logical points in the project or process. This minimizes rework, restricting its use to occasions of absolute necessity.

Another possibility is that a process needs to be redesigned. Projects often have an experimental or trial phase that tests the functioning of an item. This process needs to be planned so that the time exists for redesign, and redesign work is minimized, especially at later stages.

The problem may be the equipment. It could be worn out, outdated or unable to perform to the new designs or specifications demanded of it. Equipment upgrades can be planned into the project or process at various stages. This ensures that the machinery does not wear out and that it will meet future specifications.

Sometimes the problem is with a worker or supervisor. Many employees become bored with their jobs. A worker, supervisor or inspector may not be working as hard as they should be. Perhaps not enough training has been given to employees who need it. Personality conflicts may also be an issue.

Frequent rotation of workers may be desired. Properly scheduling breaks, work hours, vacation, and an understandable promotion system can make a work force more energetic. Refresher training reminds workers of quality issues.

On occasion the process itself may be flawed. Due to employee inexperience, a one-time modification of the process may be required. Plant layouts may need to be updated, efficiency studies undertaken, or adoption of higher forms of technology may be necessary. Annual audits help managers to identify the need for efficiency studies, increased automation, or changes to the process requiring more or less inspection, or testing as appropriate.

Quality Improvements
Quality improvement can occur in two manners. The first and most desirable way is through planned inspections, or audits, of a project or product process. The changes are enacted through a change request. The change request is based upon a well-reasoned and thought out analysis. Unplanned improvement can also occur through corrective action. Too much rework can result in an audit which then decides if a process or procedure needs changing. A change request initiates the improvement.

Both of these methods can address short- and long-term problems to a project or a production process. Consistent and constant attention to quality control is required to remind everyone that quality control can happen at any time.

No one person is solely responsible for quality control. All employees are responsible for identifying potential problems. It should not just be left to the inspectors or quality assurance department to ensure a process is being performed correctly. Interaction is necessary between all the stakeholders in a process or project. This involves the workers, managers, inspectors, engineers, and even the client. No one person can make a change without consideration of all possibilities.

One way to ensure smooth communications between all the stakeholders is to hold frequent meetings of all levels of personnel. This is termed a Quality Circle. Meetings are held frequently where concerns are brought up, ideas discussed, and new methods introduced. The idea is that everyone becomes aware of the others' positions and responsibilities on each issue. Quality improvement ideas are often discussed.

Workers can suggest changes to a process, calibration, or material. They see and do the process on a daily basis. Their suggestions are often preventive in nature. They are also the first line of defense in defect identification.

Managers are responsible for ensuring that the right activities occur at the right time. They can coordinate training, ensure workers and inspectors are doing their jobs, and coordinate with the engineers and clients about problems or changes.

Quality assurance and control is the function of the inspectors. Changes in procedures or processes can be initiated by them or discussion on new methods needed when a problem is identified. Whenever possible, they should act preventively.

Engineers or designers are often asked to study the technical aspects of a problem. They can also suggest the need for a change in process or design based upon new concepts, methods, or technology.

Ultimately, the manager is responsible for change. However, each employee is responsible for understanding the changes and for implementing them. They must also ensure that feedback is accurately conveyed. A progressive attitude by all is required.

Problem identification and resolution takes time. A group may need to meet several times to adjust the process and develop quality improvement ideas. Regardless, process adjustment and quality improvement must be thought of as a continuous process. There is always room for improvement, and prevention is always cheaper than correction.

Deciding Whether to Accept or Reject Project Work

2008-09-19T17:21:00.001+07:00

Have you ever done a project inspection only to find the result failed to meet its specifications? If so, you may have been forced to make a decision whether to accept or reject the result, whether it was a final product or some intermittent stage.

Acceptance decisions can occur at several levels of management. At the lowest, a worker or inspector sees a fault, and brings it to the attention of a supervisor. The fault could be in the material, the process, or the output. The supervisor or project manager must then decide if the product or project can proceed.

There are four types of acceptance decisions:

Go/No go - A product in an intermediate or final stage is inspected to determine if it can go to the next stage of processing. Go/No go acceptance is useful if a particular stage has a high rate of failure, or the next stage is an expensive step.
Conforms/Does not conform - Conforms/Does not conform acceptance means that an item meets either a single or a variety of specifications. It can fail even if it passes all but one criterion. This category of acceptance frequently uses specification ranges determined in part through statistical analysis.
Yes/No - Yes/No acceptance checks to see if project work meets certain criteria or checkpoints. Yes/No acceptance uses checklists to document that procedures and quality specifications have been met. The items on a Yes/No checklist may include: proper assembly, documentation, marking or packing.
Pass/Fail - Pass/Fail acceptance often occurs at the final stage in a process or project. Specifications are used as a basis for determining if the project or item meets a variety of minimal expectations.

If a product or project is acceptable at a given stage, it continues to the next stage. If it is unacceptable, it can be reworked or scrapped.

A project or product may be found unacceptable if standards or goals have not been met. Standards refer to quality issues outlined in government, association, industry, or company policies or project specifications. Failure to achieve those quality standards are grounds for immediate action.

Goals refer to a product or project not quite meeting the expectation as originally envisioned. For example, a product or project may meet less exacting commercial standards but not military standards. A more limited goal may have to be accepted or the project may have to be redesigned.

In any product or project, the acceptability is dependent on whether the customer finds that the results meet their needs. Failure to meet the customer's needs means redesign and rework or face the loss of the contract.

Shortcomings in quality may be acceptable if the price is too high for what was envisioned originally. Product or project redefinition may be required if the high standard is impossible. Project abandonment may also be considered.

It takes time to resolve a problem in a project or product. A less-than-perfect product may be acceptable in order to capture market share, or meet other deadlines. High quality products may receive more time to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Unacceptable work can be made acceptable through rework. Rework is the necessary work to bring a product or project back within specifications or standards. Rework is known as a compliance activity. The cost and time taken to do rework can cost more than doing it right the first time.

Therefore, rework should be considered a short-term solution. It is cheaper to carry out prevention techniques such as training, inspection of inputs, and frequent inspections of the process.

Rework can consist of remilling a machined part, repainting, reassembly, or replacement of a part or subassembly. In each case, only the work required to give the item or project a passing grade is completed.

Quality control may not always catch everything. However, once a fault is discovered, quality decisions need to be made on how widespread the problem is and the seriousness of the problem. If the product is produced as runs or lots it is easier to determine how widespread the problem is through sampling. Rework time, replacement and overtime costs, and loss of reputation if consumers reject the product, are all considerations facing management when encountering a quality problem.

Acceptance decisions are the key to quality control. Inspections and quality control analysis give the necessary information to make a logical decision by management. Rework should only occur if it is possible and cost and time effective.

An Introduction to Trend Analysis

2008-09-17T13:20:00.001+07:00

In project management, it is useful to discern trends in the quality data to determine if the project is progressing according to quality expectations. Trend analysis is a technique that tells project managers whether quality goals are being achieved according to the quality management plan.

Trend analysis is a mathematical technique using statistical methods that provide an equation that best fits data in a scatter diagram. Scatter diagrams are simple X and Y axis diagrams with an independent variable, such as time, as the X axis, and the dependent variable as the Y axis. Trend analysis determines the best or most appropriate equation and measures the fit of the equation to the data. Trend analysis is also known as "curve fitting."

Fitting a curve is often done by the least squares method, a mathematical method in which the distance between the data points and a possible line is minimized over its length. This gives the most statistically accurate representation. These lines are often called "regression lines."

Trend analysis is a useful tool for cost and schedule performance, and quality control. The utility of the trend analysis is that it gives a clear and understandable indication of change caused by every incremental change of the independent variable. One of the more useful functions of trend analysis is predicting, or forecasting.

The different lines mean a variety of different things could have occurred in a process. Line and curve shapes indicate whether a process is behaving according to the quality control norms.

Lines of positive correlation - Lines of positive correlation indicate the desired value y is increasing. This is good if improvement is sought, but bad if the line continues past a specified value.
Lines of negative correlation - Negative correlation indicates y is decreasing. This is good if the tolerance of a process is coming closer to a desired value, but bad if that same value is exceeded.
No correlation - A diagram with no correlation means the data is inconsistent. The process is out of control, and immediate steps are necessary to bring the process under control.
No slope lines - A line with no slope means there is no change. This is indicative of a stable process.
Curvilinear line - Curvilinear lines indicate a cyclical process or a process decreasing or increasing at a non-uniform rate. Cyclical patterns indicate a possible worn out process. A curvilinear line indicates a complex relationship with the independent variable.

Of all the different lines, curved lines are the most difficult to make conclusions from because of their shape. Other statistical analysis must be used to determine at which point the objective value has been met or exceeded.

Trend analysis allows project managers and teams to predict a pattern and come up with a formula that accurately reflects a data set. As long as the appropriate quantity of data have been selected, accurate predictions can be made of a process. Trend analysis is also useful for determining at which point a quality concern may become an issue based on historic data. Trend analysis is often useful when used in conjunction with other tools and techniques.

Using Control Charts to Identify Product Process Problems

2008-09-14T15:37:00.001+07:00

Project managers use control charts to spot production process problems before they spin out of control. On a control chart, production data is plotted and analyzed for specific trends. Control charts are used more as a preventive measure rather than for detection or rejection of quality problems. This is extremely useful since it is cheaper to prevent mistakes than to correct them.

Control charts compare quality, cost, and time issues to an established norm. They indicate permissible behavior so that aberrations are easy to identify. Analysis of control charts determines whether a process is stable or whether corrective action needs to be taken.

Control charts can also help determine sources of variation. Variation is the range the observations fall around the process mean or average. Variation is different for every product or process since each has different characteristics.

Common cause variation - is random variation common to any process. This type of variation requires management decisions to change the basic processes. Common cause variation is caused by chance and requires no corrections.
Special cause variation - happens at the operational, or production, level. This variation is indicated by exceeding a control limit or a persistent trend towards the limit. Special causes exist when the variation in a process exceeds allowable standards. Corrective action is then required.

Variation is also categorized by time.

Short-term variation - can be caused by changes in suppliers or workers' performance.
Long-term variation - occurs in cases of tool wear, environmental changes, or increased administrative control.

There are two types of control charts classified by the type of data they collect. Variable control charts are used with continuous data in which all numerical values are possible. Variable charts are useful when measurements from a process are variable such as diameters, electrical output, or chemical concentrations.

Attribute control charts are used with discrete data, or when data can only have a certain value, or range, such as "1" for "yes" and "2" for "no" in a conformance test. Attribute charts analyze data such as conforming/non-conforming, pass/fail, go/no go, or yes/no measurements.

The use of these various charts depends on what type of quality measurement is desired. The most common type is the X bar chart, or process average chart.

Limits on a control chart are often called the three-sigma limit because most companies operate within the 3 sigma limit. In a normal distribution, 99.73 percent of the measurements lie within X bar ± 3s, or within the UCL and LCL. Some companies now employ a six-sigma limit in their quality control. This allows only 2 defects per billion. This exactness in quality is so expensive that it is only possible over very large production runs.

The high figure indicates a high degree of variation because more of the observations fall away from the average. Therefore, the taller the curve shape, or the bell curve, the lower the standard deviation will be.

Control charts can be interpreted in many ways depending on their patterns and line shifts. Experience is the greatest aid to understanding a chart. Control charts tell when to look for trouble but not where the cause lies. Control charts also indicate when to leave a process alone. Variation can be unnecessarily introduced by an operator trying to fine-tune a machine to near perfection, when the control chart indicates the operator could leave the process alone. Charts are interpreted by runs, trends, periodicity, and hugging.

Quality control inspectors also use the Rule of Seven to determine if a process is out of control. If seven or more consecutive observations are found to be on one side of the mean, then it is out of control. The reason it is said to be out of control is that there is only a 1.56 percent statistical chance of random variation that the run of seven would fall on one side of the mean.

One of the most useful quality control tasks is ensuring a process is in control, by identifying the existence of a problem. Control charts are a valuable tool in determining whether or not a project or process is in control. To be able to read control charts, you need to be familiar with the different control chart types and their components, and the various methods of interpretation.

An Introduction to Pareto Diagrams

2008-09-12T13:15:00.001+07:00

Do you need a simple chart to convey the idea that quality corrective action is required? Pareto diagrams offer an effective, illustrative, and analytical tool for identifying quality problems.

A Pareto diagram is a modified histogram performance report. It receives its information from work results such as data figures, repair data, maintenance figures, or scrap rates.

Instead of grouping results by intervals as in histograms, Pareto diagrams lump similar quality defects together in order to identify the most common errors for corrective action. This is based upon the 80/20 rule where 80 percent of the defects are caused by 20 percent of the problems. Pareto diagrams are useful for measuring machine output and time reliant processes. There are three uses and types of Pareto diagrams.

Basic Pareto analysis - A basic Pareto analysis identifies the key contributors to the quality problem as a single diagram, with a percentage line showing each category as a portion of the cumulative total. The basic Pareto diagram identifies the most common problems.
Comparative Pareto analysis - A comparative Pareto analysis looks at a problem as a "before and after" comparison, using two Pareto diagrams. These diagrams show the change in the number of problems identified for each problem category.
Weighted Pareto analysis - Weighted Pareto analysis gives significance to unapparent factors such as cost, time, or criticality.

Once a Pareto diagram is constructed, the key defect areas become obvious, so you can reduce these defects to a more acceptable level. Then, after implementing corrective action, a new Pareto diagram may be constructed as a comparison to show that the key defects were greatly reduced.

Pareto diagrams are an extremely useful tool in quality decision making. The diagrams make it clear what quality changes need to be made and whether the remedy was effective. Keep in mind that Pareto diagrams do not identify causes, only problems, so other analytical methods may be required to gain further insight into the problem.

Constructing Cause-and-effect Diagrams

2008-09-10T14:14:00.001+07:00

Have you ever had a quality problem that couldn't be quantified through the use of statistics? The relationship between a problem's effect and its cause is sometimes obscure. To solve the problem, you may need to examine the entire process, identifying all the potential problem sources before you can determine the root cause. When visually displayed, this problem-identification process is called cause-and-effect diagramming.

Cause-and-effect diagrams are also known as "wishbone" or "fish" diagrams because of their shape. A cause-and-effect diagram has a central "back bone" with "ribs" branching off. The process used to create the diagram is known as flowcharting.

Cause-and-effect analysis is frequently completed by a team since specialists in many areas or departments may be required to provide input into their part of the process. During a project meeting or conference, the project team will construct the diagram, starting with the problem and working backward to the beginning of the project or process.

In cause-and-effect diagramming, there are three possible methods for identifying causes:

the random method
the systematic method
the process analysis method

The random method, during which team members randomly cite problems and probable causes, is a somewhat haphazard approach and may not identify all problem categories. However, it is useful as a general trouble-shooting technique and can help get the group in problem-solving mode.
The other two methods, systematic and process analysis, are more structured and rational in the identification of causes. These are used mostly by engineers and technicians.

The systematic method focuses analysis on one category at a time. Each category is examined in descending order of importance after the primary one is addressed.

The process analysis method looks at a production process identifying each sequential step, and the categories and causes for each step, one at a time.

When the cause-and-effect diagram has been constructed, the team or project manager can then suggest changes to the potential problem-causing areas. A series of experiments or additional statistical analysis may be necessary to determine the primary or root cause of a given problem.

The next step is to decide what corrective action is necessary. In the process of identifying the problem, the team suggests the desired outcome. By turning the diagram around, you can determine what impact the desired outcome will have on each of the listed categories and causes. In some cases you may find corrective action is required in one or all of the categories.

A machine in a process may require finer adjustment or even replacement if worn out. A newer machine may offer a leap in technology that may eliminate present quality control problems through greater automation or internal computer control processes.

The production or process method may require fine tuning, involving additional substeps before completion of a task. The layout of a process may also need reorganizing. Duties and responsibilities may need increased emphasis.

Stricter inspection and handling of raw materials may be necessary to ensure that they are of high standard. Improved selection of raw materials may also be required.

Changes to the measurement process may be necessary, such as more accurate measurements, increased frequency of inspection, and introduction of new statistical methods for analysis.

Perhaps current personnel are inadequately trained in both their job and in quality control. Upgrading job skills may be necessary. It is also possible that declining quality is due to poor work habits or boredom with the job.

Once the root cause of the problem has been identified and the effects of the desired outcome on other areas of the project have been studied, appropriate corrective action is taken. At this point, change requests are processed and safeguards set in place to prevent future recurrences.

Even when a problem has multiple sources, you will find cause-and-effect diagrams are invaluable in pinpointing them all. Flowcharting with cause-and-effect diagrams is an effective way to conceptualize causes to a problem in a project or process. Once flowcharted, the problem can be further analyzed using other analytical tools. Ultimately, corrective action and protective safeguards are applied to solve the problem and prevent future recurrences.

Statistical Sampling Methods for Project Quality Control

2008-09-08T15:45:00.001+07:00

Statistical sampling is a way of identifying the quality of a service or product when it is impractical or too expensive to examine each item. Effective sampling is based on statistical probability theory which identifies the probability of error for a sample size. Using standard deviation and variance calculations, control charts can be constructed, which accurately predict the likelihood of a sample being representative of a population or lot size.

To be accurate, the sample size must be "representative" and "valid." Representative means that enough good and bad items must be included in the sample, so that it portrays the lot it is drawn from accurately. Validity is the measure, whereby the method of testing and the attributes measured are a true indication of what needs to be measured.

Key issues for ensuring accuracy are the proper determination of the sample size and the rejection level acceptable within the sample. Sampling methods include acceptance sample, attributes sampling, special attributes sampling, and variable sampling.

acceptance sampling
Acceptance sampling tests selected items against an agreed upon list of necessary criteria. The inspection can be conducted in a variety of ways including electronic, stress testing, sample destruction, reaction testing, and temperature testing.

It is more convenient to conduct acceptance sampling with lots in a production run. This reduces overall costs by making the sample sizes smaller and more manageable. If a quality problem is discovered, it is easier to track down the lot. It is also cheaper to rework or throw out the lot. Lots are often naturally created by factors such as shift changes, raw material lot sizes, handling or packaging sizes, or shipment sizes. Random selection within the lot is also important to ensure sample validity.

attributes sampling
After the acceptance sampling method has been chosen, attributes sampling defines what exactly will be measured for quality control. This is often based upon past sample failure experience or customer feedback. The quality inspector merely checks the individual sample against the quality criteria. The attribute is measured by a simple "yes" or "no" that the item is acceptable. This method is often used in inspecting for size, color, finishing, marking, and packing. Data is recorded on a simple checklist sheet.

The use of attributes sampling has some advantages and disadvantages. Attributes testing is simpler and less expensive than inspection by variables. Recordkeeping is simplified by having one quality level for a group of like attributes. However, attributes sampling also requires a large sample size to determine the acceptability of the parent lot, which makes the process time consuming and expensive.

special attributes sampling
Statisticians have various sampling methods that simplify the inspection process, reduce time and cost, yet still ensure accuracy in the inspection process. These methods are referred to as "special attributes sampling" and include continuous sampling, chain sampling, and skip-lot sampling.

With continuous sampling, inspection occurs throughout production, like on an assembly line. This method is often used when storage facilities are inadequate or it is difficult to accumulate large lots for inspection.

Chain sampling occurs when a product is produced as a lot for inclusion into another product. It is tested throughout the manufacturing process. This method is useful when sample sizes are small, and there is good quality history.

Skip-lot sampling reduces inspection costs by inspecting certain lots. This increases the quality risk, therefore a history of high quality is a key consideration. This type of sampling is used after the maturation of a process.

variable sampling
Variables sampling collects data on possible variable items. When the error rate exceeds a combined level for several of the variables, the lot is rejected. The sample is rated on a scale against such criteria as time, distance, weight, strength, or purity.

Instead of being tested as "acceptable" or "unacceptable," the sample is compared against historic values to determine problems. Variable sampling is used when the quality characteristic is measurable or quantifiable.

Variables sampling allows a quality control team to accomplish more in its inspection and analysis process. Causal links can be explored as well, helping to determine the root problem in a product, process, or sub-process.

The advantages include more data to compare to quality conformance criteria. It also requires smaller sample sizes, reducing cost while ensuring high quality.

The disadvantages are that the quality inspectors need more training and that more sophisticated analysis is required to determine quality conformance.

Acceptance and attributes testing can be tested separately or together. An item can be tested for one or several attributes and whether it achieves the desired specifications. Variables sampling is a more complex process requiring considerable thought in not only what is measured, but how it will be analyzed.

Any of the above sampling techniques can use special attributes testing to reduce the time spent sampling. In practice, many companies use all four sampling techniques together to ensure the highest possible quality control.

No matter what kind of sampling plan you choose, all require a sample of a particular size to ensure confidence in the results. The sample must be cost effective to conduct and accurate according to probability and acceptance theory. Sample sizes can be determined from the operating characteristic curve. The curve represents the historic results for a particular process and operating conditions. The curves change shape depending on the size of the sample. Formulas can be used to represent the diagram.

A major tire manufacturing company installed a new tire molding machine. A trial production run tested if the tires made with the new machinery were as strong as the old ones. In a production run of 10,000 tires, only one failed in a sample installation test of 100 tires. To confirm the accuracy of the test, two more test lots were produced with the same results. Since the old process experienced 1.5 failures per 100, this machine represented an improvement and the sample size continued to be valid.

Sampling techniques help ensure quality while controlling inspection costs. It is key that the proper kind of sampling is carried out to obtain the desired results. This ensures the sample will be accurate and valid. The proper determination of the sample size is also important. Representative is the other key consideration. Proper sampling techniques ensure other analysis methods are reliable indications of reality.

How Inspections Aid in Project Quality Control

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Most companies receive complaints about their products or services at some time. Since this is a common event, you should learn more about how inspections can help you produce superior goods and provide better services.

Inspection forms the backbone of quality control. Without inspection, identification of problems is impossible. This can have severe ramifications for the client-producer relationship. All projects or processes can be inspected using subjective or objective criteria for weaknesses in conformance to standards. Remember, the role of inspection is to ensure results meet specifications.

Quality control is based on a plan and work results. The work results come from the mandated inspection process. Inspection activities consist of measuring, examining and testing to ensure conformance.

Measuring - Most products or projects require acceptance inspection against specific physical requirements, such as dimensions. Processes often have ongoing measurements of critical criteria such as pressures. The goal is to ensure machines are calibrated properly.
Examining - Most products or projects require examinations to determine acceptability to a set standard or criteria. This can involve measuring or examination of more subjective criteria, such as appearance.
Testing - Inspection testing requires that the project or product be tested to ensure conformance. This can be done at the end, at different stages or as a continual activity. Testing is often necessary to check that a new technology, process or method will meet quality expectations.

In the production of a computer, various measurements, tests and examinations are made. Measurements are made on individual parts and subcomponents, such as the thickness of circuit board circuitry. Tests can then be run on these parts or subcomponents to ensure they work. Lastly, examinations can be made to ensure subcomponents and the final product were assembled correctly.
The quality management plan should indicate what control system is needed for inspection, measuring, or testing. The plan should give information on:

what test equipment is to be used
the method of test equipment calibration
the method of recording test equipment calibration status
the documentation of calibration information to determine when equipment is out of calibration

Inspections are not random affairs. The quality management plan helps determine when inspections should occur. Inspections occur at the moment at which it is most appropriate to ensure achievement of quality goals. This is a balance between just enough quality and the high cost of continuous inspection of all aspects of a project or a product.
Inspections after a single activity are the most rigorous of inspection processes. This method ensures each step in a process is compared to the desired goal. This is most often used in highly regulated industries that require tight tolerances, such as electronics.

Inspections at each stage ensure that a project or product is conforming to the specifications before more work is done. This prevents work being done on a flawed item, eliminating rework and waste. This is often seen in the construction and metal-working industries.

Most projects or products require a final inspection before shipment or acceptance by the customer or client. This ensures that all other inspections were successful. Some simplistic products or projects may not require inspection until completion.

The quality management plan is key to developing an effective inspection or testing regime. The plan needs to indicate relevant inspections or tests needed for a project to proceed to the next level, or be ready for client acceptance. The plan can give the following information regarding inspections and testing:

how suppliers verify subcontractor products
where each inspection/test is in the process
what characteristics, criteria, and techniques are required
where the client needs to verify the product
where regulatory verification is necessary
where third party testing, verification, validation, or certification is needed

During the production of a book, whether it be a novel or a textbook, various inspections and tests occur. The objective is to produce a written work that is free of factual and grammatical errors, formatted properly, illustrated correctly, logically laid out, and has a sense of coherent style.
After the author has written each chapter, style, logic, coherence, and general grammar and spelling are checked. After each chapter is submitted to the publisher, an editor checks for style, logic, coherence, and general grammar and spelling. Once the complete manuscript is finished, a variety of people look at it. The editor again examines for style, content and logic. A proofreader comments on grammar, punctuation and spelling.

After the content has been approved, the printing occurs. Author's proofs are then checked by the author, the editor, and copy proofreaders for any last minute errors in layout and formatting, including illustrations, before the final print run.

Inspections are also called "reviews," "product reviews," "audits" and "walk-throughs." It depends on the industry, the type of process or project and the purpose of the particular inspection. These terms can have quite narrow and specific meanings.

For example, an audit can mean different things. In a firm, an accounting audit inspects the books to ensure proper procedures and bookkeeping techniques were employed. A personal income tax audit accepts or rejects entries on your taxes based on income tax laws. A quality audit does not seek to inspect any product, but rather inspects the process of quality control to ensure the methods, measurements and people are being effectively used.

Inspection is a key component of the quality control process. Acceptance and rejection of poor quality work relies on inspections. Inspection results also provide the data used in statistical analysis methods.

Using Work Results for Project Quality Control

2008-09-04T16:08:00.001+07:00

Have you ever had a quality plan, but wondered how the plan provided quality control information that could be used for analysis? The quality plan has reporting procedures and feedback that provide this information. This information is called work results. The two most common work results are performance reports and change requests. Each will be examined in turn.

Performance reports
Performance reports provide data that can be turned into various visual charts for analysis. Three of the most useful activities that performance reports measure are:

schedule adherence
cost adherence
quality standards adherence.

In performance reporting, the simpler the visual projection of the data, the better. This makes it easier to understand the requirement for action. Four of the most common performance reports are: Gantt charts, S-Curves, histograms, and tables.
In histograms, data is shown as a vertical bar graph. This illustrates major problem categories. It forms the basis for control charts and Pareto diagrams.

Tables are often used to convey more complex data in its raw data form. Tables can convey observational data.

Performance reports can have a direct impact on quality management. Simple visual images can easily emphasize the need for immediate change. They can also indicate the project plan is working well.

A project manager for a microchip project submitted a weekly performance report after a difficult week. The visual report showed that most of the department's problems were coding errors. This indicated that changes were needed to prevent errors from reaching the final product. The project manager will have to look into this problem in more detail.

Change requests
Almost every process or project encounters some difficulty that requires a change in the conditions of the project such as time, cost, or quality objectives. Project managers may request additional time or money to ensure the project meets its original definition and expectations for quality.

Change requests, another form of work results, ask for the alteration to the project's objectives or quality. This can occur if the product is urgently required or additional expenses for quality will not result in increased profits or sales.

Change requests can also require alterations to quality methodology. Changes in the handling of data used to measure the project, the measurement process and techniques of data collection, or the evaluation of data, can be requested.

The handling of data may change in its method of collection, depth of detail, or type of data. For example, a company introducing new machinery may need to develop new measurements to reflect the change in machinery or technology.

Changes to the process or techniques of data collection are meant to ensure reliability, consistency, standardization, review, timeliness and rapid access to data. For example, a company may adopt an advanced database to aid inputting and calculations.

Change requests can also require new methods of analysis and improvements to the quality of data. For example, a manufacturing company using new equipment may want more precise data and more sophisticated analysis.

The value of the work results in the form of performance reports and change requests lies in their identification of a potential problem. The data these results provide points the way for more in-depth analytical treatment.

What Makes a Quality Management Plan Effective?

2008-09-01T20:05:00.001+07:00

Have you ever had a problem that required implementing quality control methods, but you didn't know where to start? Proper project development requires a quality management plan to ensure that time and cost objectives and standards are met.

Depending on the needs of the project, a quality management plan can be formal or informal, detailed or broad. The best plans address the three aspects of quality—quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement—and feature operational definitions as well as any procedures and standards.

Quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement
To provide direction and focus for project plan development, your plan should include details about quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement measures.

Quality Control - monitors products for conformance to the quality standards and identifies ways to eliminate substandard work or failures. It requires detailed instructions based on the operational definitions, or measurements, for the project.
Quality Assurance - audits the organizational structures, responsibilities, procedures and processes of a project to ensure that the quality plan is providing effective feedback.
Quality Improvement - is the outcome of the quality assurance and quality control processes. A design experiment may be required to determine if there are new operating norms or if the new procedures will work. It may prevent re-occurrences of quality issues.

Operational definitions
Next, your plan must define what needs to be measured. Before the plan can be fully developed, the following operational definitions need to be identified:

What quality aspects will be measured?
How will each quality aspect be measured?
When will each quality aspect be measured?

Defining what needs to be measured can be the hardest part of the operational definition process. The governing rule should be to measure anything that can be variable in nature, whether the item to be measured is a human, a machine, a product, a procedure or process, or the environment.

Most final products require some sort of measurement to ensure conformance to subjective and objective standards. Subjective standards are difficult to measure. How exactly do you measure the aesthetic appeal of flowers? Objective standards require detailed measurements including destruction testing.

Forms can be developed to record objective and subjective measurements. Objective standards include strength, time, cost and measurement criteria. These need explicit data requiring detailed inspection processes and forms. Subjective standards, such as aesthetic standards, are most often measured using checklists with comment sections.

Determining how often to measure quality is another aspect of the operational definition process. Some of the most obvious times to test quality are:

upon delivery of raw materials - This determines if the supplier is meeting your standards. Items should also be inspected after prolonged storage, especially if they are environmentally or corrosion sensitive. Not every item needs to be inspected. Sampling techniques can be used.
at end of major stages in a process - It is often cost effective to inspect at the end of a sub- process to ensure substandard material does not progress further. This prevents wasted time, materials, and expensive rework procedures.
upon changes in operating conditions - An appropriate time to measure is after changes to procedures, processes, machinery settings and human operators. This can take place at different intervals: every few minutes, hourly, each shift, weekly, monthly, or yearly. The time sensitivity of the process determines the frequency.
upon completion of job lots - Many products are often produced in lots, partly as a function of the inputs process, but also as a function of testing and tracking of outputs. It is cheaper to throw out a small lot than an entire day's production run.

Ultimately, deciding when and how often to measure quality is a cost versus quality issue. Every item or stage of a project could be inspected, but the inspection costs may outweigh the final value.

Procedures and standards
The final component of a sound quality management plan involves procedures and checklists. Quality processes and standards should become routine and may be taught and enforced through procedures in the form of checklists.

Checklists confirm whether quality control standards have been followed. They can be instructive by outlining what needs to be done by saying, "Do Y." Process checklists also ensure certain tasks have been done by asking, "Has X been completed?" In some processes or projects, inspection checklists can gather data on the number of times tasks have or have not been performed adequately.

Checklists ensure that process steps are not overlooked or forgotten. They also ensure that the product does not advance to the next process before necessary tasks are done. This prevents costly rework if changes are required.

In some cases, companies perform work to certain external standards as expressed in governmental or association regulations or guidelines. If this is the case with your project, you can develop checklists which include standards.

Project quality is only as good as the quality management plan. To ensure project quality, the plan must be well thought out and rehearsed. Project quality can be ensured by a complete understanding of: quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement; operational definitions; and checklists and standards.

Implementing Quality Improvement Efforts

2008-08-27T15:03:00.001+07:00

Sometimes organizations become lost when they implement quality improvement efforts. Applying solutions to quality problems requires a clear and direct route. In most cases, realizing quality improvements involves setting up change requests and taking corrective action.

Change requests are documented records of changes that happen to improve the quality of a project. Change requests can occur in many ways. They can be:

oral or written
direct or indirect
externally or internally initiated
legally directed or optional.

Realizing quality improvements also can involve taking corrective action. This process requires aligning the expected project performances with the project plan. This will help ensure that the project is meeting the requirements of the stakeholders.
Corrective action occurs when rework is required during a project. However, it does more than just fix a problem. It also can help you discover the root cause of the problem and prevent reoccurrence.

To handle change requests and corrective action, you must follow certain procedures. Most quality improvements for project management are implemented according to procedures for integrated change control.

This process coordinates changes across entire projects. There are three main characteristics for integrated change control.

1. Influence the factors that generate change to guarantee that changes are valuable.
Not all changes are valuable. During brainstorming sessions, plan quality improvement efforts that focus on factors that generate change.

2. Establish that a change has taken place.
Keeping an accurate paper trail of all changes helps managers establish that change has taken place. In addition, managers should reexamine their processes to ensure that any changes are maintained.

3. Handle the changes when and as they occur.
Learn to manage quality improvement changes as they occur. Managers should understand that possible schedule changes also will influence the cost, risk, quality, and staffing areas of a project.

Remember, quality improvement doesn't just happen. It includes taking corrective action and preparing change requests that are managed according to integrated change control. These procedures can help make quality a reality for your project.

The Evolution of Project Quality

2008-08-25T17:25:00.003+07:00

The view of quality has changed dramatically over the past 100 years. Do you know how companies managed the quality of their products and services that long ago?

Project quality has evolved over time, from sorting good items from bad items, to strategic quality management. Quality was once the responsibility of the Quality Inspector. Now it's everyone's responsibility. Details about the quality time line are provided below.

Prior to World War I, companies stressed the importance of inspections. Problems were identified, not prevented. In the 1950s, inspections were still emphasized. However, quality control emerged as statistical and mathematical techniques.
From the 1950s to the late 1960s, quality assurance was developed for project management. Companies took steps to prevent problems from occurring, instead of reacting to problems once they were detected.
Presently, management teams emphasize strategic quality management. Quality is characterized by the customer's demands and requires the commitment of an entire organization. All levels of an organization must be accountable for the products and services it offers. Quality is a weapon that is used against competitors.

Today, quality begins during the initiation of a project, and must be planned, assured, and controlled within that project. The driving force behind higher levels of quality comes from the demands of customers. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a present-day management system that responds to these demands.
TQM has contributed significantly to the movement toward improved quality. It is a customer-oriented system that can also reduce internal bottlenecks and operating costs. This system boosts organizational morale and increases product quality at the same time.

Quality has reached present-day levels as a result of the contributions of experts in the field of project management. In particular, two influential contributors to the quality movement are W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran.

W. Edwards Deming believed that 85 percent of quality problems required changing the processes within a company. He thought the roots of quality problems should be identified and eliminated. To help organizations identify the roots of quality problems, he developed the Deming's Cycle for Improvement.

Deming believed that problem solving should be logical and systematic. Deming's Cycle for Improvement, which involves the four steps described below, enables organizations to locate and eliminate the source of a problem, rather than simply eliminating the symptoms of a problem.

Plan. The first step involves identifying the problem and establishing priorities. During this step a quality improvement team is formed, and the problem is defined and analyzed. Possible causes for the problem are determined, as well as possible solutions.
Do. During the "do" stage, a solution to the problem is selected and implemented.
Study. The study stage involves evaluating the solution.
Act. Finally, the last stage ensures that the new procedure and controls are maintained. Project teams ensure that continuous improvement occurs.

Joseph M. Juran believed that quality for manufacturers meant adhering to specifications, and quality for customers depended on "fitness for use," which involves five characteristics: quality of design, quality of conformance, safety, use by the customer, and availability.
Juran also discussed the cost of quality and the legal implications of quality. He examined the various grades of quality for products and services. Juran developed 10 steps for quality improvement that can be applied to project management. The 10 steps are:

promote the need for improvement
establish goals for improvement
organize a plan to attain the goals
provide training
perform projects to solve problems
give an account of the progress that is made
provide recognition
communicate results
keep score
make improvement part of the process.

The way organizations and customers view quality has changed over time. Today, it is understood that problem solving is an important aspect of quality improvement.

The Costs of Project Quality

2008-08-23T13:00:00.001+07:00

According to Leon M. Cautillo, "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after low pricing is forgotten!" Therefore, it is important for project managers to understand the cost of quality and the types of costs associated with it.

The cost of quality refers to the total cost of all the processes that are involved in producing a quality product or service. This includes costs that ensure all specified requirements are met, as well as the costs of nonconformance to those requirements. There are three types of costs associated with quality.

1. Prevention
Prevention costs are those costs associated with planning and implementing the project so that it is error-free. Prevention costs are an investment in quality, as they help the project manager ensure that the project is done right the first time. This helps reduce project rework or revisions.

It is cost-effective to find and fix product defects before they reach the customer. When planning, 70 percent of the total cost of quality should be focused on prevention. For example, you can include the costs of staff training, process studies, and vendor surveys in your prevention costs, since all of these can help you ensure project quality.

2. Appraisal
Appraisal costs are the second type of quality cost. These costs are associated with evaluating the working processes and the product to determine how well they will meet customer needs. Ideally, appraisal costs should make up approximately 15 percent of the total cost of quality.

There are many types of appraisal costs, including inspection and testing, maintenance of test equipment, and various types of design reviews, which are described below.

Internal design reviews. These reviews are carried out within the company by its own employees. They check to make sure that processes and products meet the specified quality requirements.
External design reviews. These reviews are performed by people outside the company. The findings are reported to company officials.
Walk-through design reviews. These design reviews check the quality of the products coming off the line. The findings of these spot checks are used to correct quality problems.
Expense design reviews. These reviews compare the project budget with the actual costs and are important for future project budgeting.

3. Failure
The last type of cost associated with quality assurance is failure costs. These are incurred when a product does not meet customer requirements. Failure costs can be internal or external.

Internal failure costs are the costs incurred to correct product defects before they reach the customer.
External failure costs are the costs incurred to correct product defects that were not detected before reaching the customer.

In an ideal situation, internal failure costs should make up 10 percent of the total cost of quality, while external failure costs should make up only five percent.

There are many factors that contribute to the preparation and delivery of a quality product. When planning for the cost of quality, remember to include all the types of quality costs—prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure. Keep in mind that it is cost-effective to find and fix any defects in a product before it reaches the hands of the consumer.

Performing Quality Audits

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Quality audits are controlled reviews of quality management activities for a project. They are useful for establishing any inconsistencies between actual performances and preferred standards. You can use them to examine a small portion of a process or look at a complete organization. As a general rule, there are four forms of quality audits.

Product audit. Product audits reexamine a finished product. This process is usually performed before the purchaser accepts the finished product. These inspections involve verifying that physical attributes conform with standards.
Process audit. Process audits generally take a short period of time to perform, as they examine only a selected portion of the total process. They verify that processes, operators, and equipment conform to distinct requirements. They prove that a process is being used.
System audit. System audits examine the overall organization. When they are completed internally, they examine the management practices within a company. This type of audit evaluates a system to prove that a company is following it properly.
Vendor survey. Vendor surveys are often part of an external system audit. They involve looking at a vendor's management of quality efforts in relation to the expected contractual requirements.

Quality audits verify conformance to specifications and procedures. They provide necessary information about performance, products, and areas for improvement. They also help companies to survive, help companies conform to regulations, and help counteract the actions of others.

Quality is a vital factor for surviving in a competitive market. Companies that provide products or services more efficiently will usually win business over their competitors. It is imperative that you know how well, or how poorly, your company is performing. Quality audits offer this much-needed information.

Another reason to perform quality audits is to implement and maintain the regulations that are necessary for you to operate a business. Many of these regulations are in the form of licenses or certifications for meeting quality standards and maintenance of preferred supplier status with customers.

Quality audits also are helpful for counteracting the organizations that are looking for your mistakes. Audits show that you are monitoring your company's performance. The purpose of a quality audit is to discover problems when they are relatively small. When outside organizations can see that you have a sound quality system, they are more likely to leave your company alone.

When should audits be scheduled? Most times, they are part of a contract agreement with a customer or initiated from government regulations. Sometimes quality audits are scheduled and other times they are performed randomly. When audits are scheduled, they should be at times when activities can actually be observed, rather than times when only the documentation on those activities can be examined.

It's important that audits be unbiased and objective. The audit team can consist of members of the quality assurance department, the management team, or outside organizations. Audits should never be carried out by the performer of the audited activity.

Audit teams should be comprised of two to six individuals. The ideal quality audit team is comprised of members of all departments within an organization.

Audit teams should be polite and professional. They should ensure projects meet their quality requirements and follow quality procedures and policies. An effective audit team will perform the audit process in four sequential phases, which are described below.

Preparation. In the preparation phase, the audit team is selected. Auditors define the purpose and scope of the audit and pinpoint the performance standards and resources. They contact the auditee and develop checklists. They also become familiar with the control systems.
Performance. In the performance phase, the auditors meet with the auditee. They gather and analyze information by conducting interviews and examining records. They verify the control system in this phase.
Reporting. In the reporting phase of an audit, an exit meeting is held with the auditee. Also, the formal audit report, containing the conclusions of the audit, is written at this time.
Closure. The closure phase is sometimes referred to as corrective action. This phase is characterized by actions resulting from the audit observations. Follow-up actions are monitored and evaluated at this time.

Remember, scheduling quality audits can help you learn important information about your organization. It will also help your company stand the test of time.

Design of Experiments and Quality Assurance

2008-08-18T13:41:00.001+07:00

Why would a project quality team design an experiment? Design of experiments is an analytical technique for project quality assurance that helps project managers determine which variables have the most effect on an outcome. It can help you determine the capability of a material, process, or product.

Your project can be improved with experiments that test new ideas and possibilities. Designed experiments are helpful in solving chronic quality problems. Properly designed experiments can:

reduce rework
improve productivity
increase customer satisfaction
prevent problems
reduce the need for extra inspections.

Companies strive for efficiency in most areas. After all, companies that have efficient processes while still maintaining a high level of quality are usually the companies that are best-in-their-class.

Design of experiments is a more efficient and less disruptive experimentation process than most trial method experiments. It requires extra thought and planning. However, it is worth the time and effort put into it.

This technique for quality assurance is beneficial for many company types and is most often used for projects that produce a product. Companies and their project managers usually choose to use this technique for the following reasons.

It requires smaller sample sizes to receive the same accuracy of results.
It determines interactions between process variables.
It tests more variables at one time, making this process more efficient.

Design of experiments is a quality assurance technique that verifies how materials, products, or processes affect your project. It is useful for solving chronic quality problems because it tests new ideas and possibilities.

Benefit/Cost Analysis and Quality Assurance

2008-08-16T16:40:00.001+07:00

When are the added costs of a project worth the expense? Weighing the benefits against the costs is something every project manager must do.

When it comes to quality assurance, performing a benefit/cost analysis can help with major decision-making issues of a project. You can use this quality assurance technique when assessing the procedures your company uses, so you can develop the level of products and services customers demand.

A benefit/cost analysis entails estimating the benefits and costs of meeting quality requirements, and then assessing the available project options. The main reasons for using benefit/cost analysis to determine project quality requirements are that this technique can result in:

less rework
higher productivity
lower overall project costs
improved customer satisfaction.

When using a benefit/cost analysis to help with decision making, you should keep in mind that it's really as simple as this—the benefits should outweigh the costs. The calculated difference of subtracting the costs from the benefits should be a positive number. The procedure for analyzing benefits and costs for quality assurance are listed below.

Analyze the plan, decision, or process by examining its activities and events.
Calculate or estimate the benefits and costs related to each element.
Subtract the costs from the benefits.

Benefit/cost analysis is a valuable tool that can help you determine if benefits outweigh costs. Ultimately, it can help you make important decisions relating to project quality assurance.

Flowcharting for Project Quality Assurance

2008-08-14T15:38:00.001+07:00

It's usually beneficial to approach project problems in new ways. One effective technique you can use when addressing problems related to project quality assurance is flowcharting. You can use this method of problem solving to visually map the process or problem in question.

Flowcharts graphically represent processes and activities. They can help you identify the source of specific problems, which will enable you to find solutions. In addition, they can make communication about problems easier, help you discipline your thinking, and show how different elements fit together.

You can use two types of flowcharts for quality assurance purposes—the cause-and-effect diagram, and the process flowchart. Details about these two types of flowcharts are provided below.

1. Cause-and-effect diagrams
For every quality-related effect or problem in a project, a cause must be identified. Cause-and-effect diagrams can help you establish a cause, whether it is a problem or a desirable result an organization has found and wants to reproduce. These diagrams are also called fish-bone diagrams, because they resemble a fishbone with branches slanting off a main "spine."

When causes are established, they are categorized according to type. Cause types can include such things as materials, machines, people, and information. They are represented with a branch on the fishbone diagram. All subcauses connect to these branches.

Cause-and-effect diagrams are useful in brainstorming sessions because they act as visual displays for dividing large problems into manageable parts. Listed below are the four steps for constructing a cause-and-effect diagram.

Identify the problem or effect. To identify the problem or effect, place a concise statement of the problem in a box at the end of a horizontal line.
Identify the causes. Next, in a brainstorming session, identify any causes for the problem. Focus discussions on one cause at a time. Possible subcauses are identified at this time as well.
Build the diagram. In the third step, build the diagram. To do this, organize the causes and subcauses into the diagram layout. Each branch should represent a cause-type, such as materials, machines, and information. Connect subcauses to these branches.
Analyze the diagram. Finally, analyze the diagram. Identify the logical solutions by considering whether each solution is achievable.

2. Process flowcharts
Flowcharts also indicate what is done throughout a process, from one step to another. On these process flowcharts, information about a process is placed inside or beside an appropriate symbol.

With some training, anyone on a quality improvement team can draw a process flowchart. However, everyone should clearly understand the meaning of each symbol used on the flowchart, including the symbols for Operation (a rectangle), Movement/Transportation (an arrow), Decision Point (a diamond), Inspection (a large circle), Paper Documents and Delay (both specialized rectangular symbols), Boundary (an oval), and Connector (a small circle).

To create a process flowchart, you draw a picture of the process. With some training and practice, flowcharting can be a straightforward process. Follow the steps listed below to complete this task.

Define the process steps. First, you should identify the steps in a process by holding a brainstorming session and letting everyone on the team provide input.
Sort the steps in order. Next, identify what is done at each step and then sort the steps in order.
Place the steps in the appropriate symbols. The third step involves placing each step in the appropriate symbol. Use standard symbols to sketch the flowchart.
Evaluate the steps. Finally, reevaluate the steps. This will ensure that the process is complete, efficient, and free of problems. Be sure to review the actual process and then make any necessary revisions to the flowchart.

Flowcharts are effective tools for enhancing the quality assurance of a project, as they graphically represent processes and activities. They can help you identify the cause of a problem or effect, and identify problems in a process.

Benchmarking for Project Quality Assurance

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Why would one company want to investigate another company? The main reason for investigating another company is to gather information to use in developing your company's goals and effective processes. This investigation is called a benchmarking process (BMP).

Performing a BMP can help you know your company better and understand your competition. Benchmarking compares the performance of one company against another that is best-in-its-class. This involves a thorough examination and understanding of processes, products, or performances.

The BMP also provides information about where a company stands when compared to standards that are set by customers, companies, certification organizations, and industry associations.

The BMP will indicate the areas of strength within a company and uncover opportunities for improvement. First, the BMP examines a company's own processes. This will reveal which ones are the best. In addition, examining the processes of another company can help you identify the areas in your own company that need improvement.

Performing a BMP will identify your competitive position. Although there are costs involved with this process, the benefits of performing a BMP will far outweigh the costs or efforts involved. There are four common types of benchmarking assessments you can perform.

Internal. This is usually the first BMP to take place for most companies. For this BMP, a company examines it own organization to find the best practices. It's an easy BMP to carry out, as security issues do not exist.
Competitive. This BMP type is also called reverse engineering. It involves studying the services, products, and processes of a company's competitors. One way to perform this type of BMP is to buy and analyze the competitor's product.
World-class operations. To perform this type of BMP, a company examines an organization in an industry related to its own. This technique can reveal innovative processes not currently used by the company.
Activity-type. This type of benchmarking examines a specific process activity in an industry different from its own. You can use this BMP type to study many activities, such as recruiting and invoicing.

Customer satisfaction is a top project goal. Performing a BMP can support a company's desire to improve and change, and ultimately improve the level of satisfaction of its customers. There are six separate stages for every BMP. These six stages are described below.

Process design (planning). In the first stage, you should decide which quality process will be benchmarked. Then determine the measurements that will be used to perform the BMP.
Internal data collection. The second stage involves learning your company's own practices and performances. This can be done using such techniques as system and process flowcharts, and cause-and-effect diagrams.
External data collection. In the third stage, select a competitor that is best-in-its-class, and collect data about that company. For world-class or activity-type benchmarking, use a company in a different industry.
Data analysis. Next, compare the information you've gathered with the information you've learned about your company's own practices and performances.
Process upgrading. Based on the information you've learned about your competitor, identify which ideas will be adopted for your own processes and decide how to implement them.
Periodic reassessment. Finally, monitor the effectiveness of the new ideas and make plans to re-benchmark them after a specific interval of time.

Benchmarking is like an investigation. Organizations perform BMPs to set goals and develop effective processes. There are four types of benchmarking assessments a company can perform: internal, competitive, world-class operations, and activity-type. In doing each type, there are six steps to follow. Knowing these steps will help you identify and improve your company's competitive position.

Results of Quality Control Measurements

2008-08-10T15:34:00.001+07:00

Results of quality control measurements are inputs to project quality assurance. These results are the testing and measurement records of quality control, and include acceptance decisions, rework, and process adjustments.

From a quality assurance perspective, you can use the results of quality control measurements for comparison and analysis purposes. Specifically, you can compare the results found with the expected results of the product or process, pinpoint exactly where non-conformities took place, and examine the reasons for non-conformities. Details about these important inputs to project quality assurance are provided below.

1. Acceptance decisions
How many work-related decisions do you make in one day? The number is likely to be much higher than you realize. Throughout the duration of a project, the number of quality issues that require a decision may seem endless.

One type of quality assurance decision is an acceptance decision. This results from an inspection of a process stage, or a final product or service. The acceptance decision is simply this—the item will either be accepted or rejected.

2. Rework
When an item or process is rejected as the result of an acceptance decision, it may require rework. The purpose of rework is to make non-conforming or defective items or processes meet requirements or specifications. Companies try to minimize the need for rework, as it causes projects to miss deadlines and budgets.

3. Process adjustments
Immediate corrective or preventative action should take place when rework is required as the result of an acceptance decision. This course of action is called a process adjustment.

The changes that are made as a result of a process adjustment will help prevent the defect from occurring in the future. More details about process adjustments are provided below.

Find the source of the problem. Process adjustments involve more than fixing non-conformities. They include discovering the source of the problem itself.
Take corrective action. Process adjustments may be small adjustments, or major undertakings, depending on the nature of the problem.

The results of quality control measurements are acceptance decisions, rework, and process adjustments. These quality assurance inputs are an important part of discovering the reasons behind non-conforming projects or processes.

Developing a Quality Management Plan

2008-08-05T14:33:00.001+07:00

Implementing effective quality management for your project takes a great deal of organization. Developing a quality management plan and applying it to a project will help ensure that effective quality management has taken place.

A quality management plan is a document that details the quality practices and activities of a product or service. It is a part of an organization's quality system and should include the responsibilities, procedures, processes, organizational structure, and resources required to implement effective quality management.

Created by the project manager and the project team members, it should describe how a quality policy will be carried out and detail the project objectives by breaking down the project activities into lower-level activities. It should also identify specific quality actions.

Quality management plans can take on many forms. They can be formal, informal, detailed, or general, depending on the needs of each particular project. They can also be represented in many ways visually. For example, a plan can be displayed as a tree-like diagram.

A new plan should be developed, or old plans should be changed to reflect the different activities of each unique project. A quality management plan does not stand completely alone—it becomes a part of the overall project plan.

Project quality can be described as meeting or exceeding customer requirements. This means customers should have input into the quality of the project. Remember, the bottom line to any project is satisfying the customers. Without them, there are no future projects.

Effective quality management plans play an important role in this process of satisfying customers. The characteristics of good quality management plans are as follows.

They should identify customers.
They should prove that goals and objectives are being met.
They should affect the design of a process that meets the ever-changing needs of customers.
They should enable the company to bring in suppliers early in the process.

It is the responsibility of the project manager to make certain that the project's quality actions are thoroughly documented. This process will enable the company to prove that it has the right processes in place to meet the needs of its customers.

Sustaining a quality system and creating a quality management plan requires a great deal of effort, planning, and organization. The following is a list of the high-level steps in the process of creating a quality management plan.

1. State all measurable features of the project's product.

2. Identify how the product will be produced and its quality measured against specifications.

3. Determine how the project approach will be measured.

4. Conduct a quality risk assessment and develop non-conformance procedures.

5. State the method for quality reporting and monitoring.

6. Outline the formal acceptance criteria and document the project's final product.

In summary, quality management plans are documents that describe the quality practices, resources, and sequence of activities related to a specific service or product. They act as a guide for satisfying the customers' needs.

Operational Definitions and Project Quality

2008-08-03T16:31:00.002+07:00

Individuals working on a project should have an eye for detail, as it is an important aspect of quality. What kind of quality details do you keep in mind throughout a project?

Operational definitions focus on many kinds of details. Perhaps these include details you have also considered. Operational definitions describe what something is and how it is measured by the quality control process.

Operational definitions, sometimes referred to as metrics, are used to measure quality. They are quality assurance inputs that project management teams used to indicate the specifics about the quality of their projects.

For example, to define the testing process of a new pharmaceutical drug, the operational definition must describe the drug's composition, the type of study conducted, the variables tested, and the subjects used.

Defining how something is measured can be challenging, as there are many details to consider. To simplify this process, an operational definition answers the following three questions.

1. What is measured?
For example, A.L. Textiles manufactures a wide variety of textile products for industry and commerce. To be sure each material conforms to its intended purpose, the operational definition details the makeup of the textile and indicates how it is measured for quality.

2. How is it measured?
A.L. Textiles measures the durability of the medical uniform style AJ347. The product is 65 percent polyester and 35 percent cotton. It's available in adult sizes, small to extra large, and comes in colors white, gray/blue, and green.

3. When is it measured?
The durability of uniform style AJ347 is measured after initial manufacturing by washing the garment 300 times. The condition of the garment is recorded on a check sheet. In addition, the durability of the uniform is measured after any necessary product rework.

Remember, operational definitions are used to measure quality. They indicate the specifics about the quality of a project's product or service. In particular, they describe what something is, describe how it is measured, and describe when it is measured.

The Project Quality Management Plan

2008-07-26T13:10:00.001+07:00

A quality management plan, which is an output of the project quality planning process, is a document that describes how a quality policy will be implemented. Quality improvement, quality control, and quality assurance are addressed in quality management plans. These plans usually are created by project management teams and project managers and are integrated into the overall project plan.

A quality plan acts as a road map to meeting customers' needs by breaking down the project objectives into lower-level activities. This process should identify specific quality actions.

Quality management plans are drawn up for specific products, individual projects, or highly complicated tasks. A new plan should be developed or changed to reflect the different activities of each project.

In contract situations, a quality plan is sometimes used by the supplier to show the customer how the project will meet quality requirements. In many cases, it's helpful to have the customer's input into the quality management plan.

Quality management plans take on different forms. They can be formal, informal, detailed, or general, depending on the needs of each particular project.

Quality plans ensure the proper documentation for a project is complete. They prove that quality goals are being met. An effective quality plan can also:

identify all internal or external customers
respond to the ever-changing needs of customers
bring in the suppliers early in the project
cause the process to be designed in a way that produces features that meet customer requirements.

Quality management plans and other aspects of quality planning require attention to detail. When defining quality, the term can mean different things to different people. Attention to detail helps ensure everyone's requirements for quality are met.