PMBOK - Chapter 2 - 2.6 DELIVERY PERFORMANCE DOMAIN (2/2)

2.6.3 QUALITY 

Delivery is more than just scope and requirements. Scope and requirements focus on what needs to be delivered. Quality focuses on the performance levels that are required to be met. Quality requirements may be reflected in the completion criteria, definition of done, statement of work, or requirements documentation. 

Much of the costs associated with quality are born by the sponsoring organization and are reflected in policies, procedures, and work processes. For example, organizational policies that govern how work is performed and procedures that prescribe work processes are often part of the organization’s quality policy. The cost of overhead, training, and process audit are born by the organization, though they are employed by the project. Inherent in projects is balancing the quality needs of the processes and products with the costs associated with meeting those needs.

2.6.3.1 Cost of Quality 

The cost of quality (COQ) methodology is used to find the appropriate balance for investing in quality prevention and appraisal to avoid defect or product failures. This model identifies four categories of costs associated with quality: prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure. Prevention and appraisal costs are associated with the cost of compliance to quality requirements. Internal and external failure costs are associated with the cost of noncompliance. 

▶ Prevention. Prevention costs are incurred to keep defects and failures out of a product. Prevention costs avoid quality problems. They are associated with the design, implementation, and maintenance of the quality management system. They are planned and incurred before actual operation. Examples include: 

▹Product or service requirements, such as the establishment of specifications for incoming materials, processes, finished products, and services;

▹Quality planning, such as the creation of plans for quality, reliability, operations, production, and inspection; 

▹Quality assurance, such as the creation and maintenance of the quality system; and 

▹Training, such as the development, preparation, and maintenance of programs. 

▶ Appraisal. Appraisal costs are incurred to determine the degree of conformance to quality requirements. Appraisal costs are associated with measuring and monitoring activities related to quality. These costs may be associated with evaluation of purchased materials, processes, products, and services to ensure that they conform to specifications. They could include: 

▹ Verification, such as checking incoming material, process setup, and products against agreed specifications; 

▹ Quality audits, such as confirmation that the quality system is functioning correctly; and 

▹ Supplier rating, such as assessment and approval of suppliers of products and services.

To optimize delivered value, early inspection and review work focused on finding quality issues as soon as possible are good investments. Attempts to “test-quality-in” late in the development life cycle are likely to fail because discovering quality issues late in development is time- and cost-prohibitive due to high rates of scrap and rework, along with the ripple effect to downstream outputs and stakeholders.

2.6.3.2 Cost of Change 

The later a defect is found, the more expensive it is to correct. This is because design and development work have typically already occurred based on the flawed component. Also, activities are more costly to modify as the life cycle progresses since more stakeholders are impacted. This phenomenon is characterized by the cost of change curve (see Figure 2-22).

To counter the impacts of the cost of change curve, project teams design project processes to build in quality. This approach can include quality analysts working with designers and engineers to understand and determine how best to achieve quality during each step in the project life cycle. Being proactive about quality work helps avoid the high cost of change associated with fixing quality issues discovered later in the life cycle. It is quicker and more cost efficient to fix a design problem between two engineers than a component problem affecting hundreds of units or to recall a product impacting thousands of customers. 

2.6.4 SUBOPTIMAL OUTCOMES 

All projects attempt to deliver outcomes, though some may fail to do so or may produce suboptimal outcomes. The potential for suboptimal outcomes exists in every project. In the case of a fully experimental project, the organization is attempting to achieve a breakthrough, such as the creation of a completely new technology, for example. This requires deliberate investment in an uncertain outcome. Companies that produce new medicines or compounds may experience several failures before finding a successful formula. Some projects may fail to deliver outcomes because the market opportunity has passed or competitors were first to market with their offering. Effective project management can minimize negative outcomes, but such possibilities are part of the uncertainty of attempting to produce a unique deliverable. 

2.6.5 INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER PERFORMANCE DOMAINS 

The Delivery Performance Domain is the culmination of the work done in the Planning Performance Domain. The delivery cadence is based on the way work is structured in the Development Approach and Life Cycle Performance Domain. The Project Work Performance Domain enables the deliveries by establishing processes, managing physical resources, managing procurements, and so forth. Project team members perform the work in this performance domain for the relevant stakeholders. The nature of the work to create the deliveries will influence how the project team navigates uncertainty that impacts the project.

2.6.6 CHECKING RESULTS 

Table 2-8 identifies the outcomes on the left and ways of checking them on the right.

Table 2-8. Checking Outcomes—Delivery Performance Domain