Project Management Project Quality Management 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'continuous improvement' (kaizen) in project quality management?
- Replacing the project team whenever quality drops
- Making small, ongoing incremental improvements to processes over time (Correct answer)
- Performing a single large quality overhaul at project close
- Outsourcing quality activities to a third-party vendor
Correct answer: Making small, ongoing incremental improvements to processes over time
Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous, incremental process improvement involving all team members on an ongoing basis.
Question 2: Which document formally authorizes the quality management approach, objectives, and responsibilities for a project?
- Project charter
- Quality management plan (Correct answer)
- Responsibility assignment matrix
- Stakeholder engagement plan
Correct answer: Quality management plan
The quality management plan describes how quality policies will be implemented, including roles, tools, and processes.
Question 3: A scatter diagram is used in quality management to:
- Track process performance over time
- Identify the relationship or correlation between two variables (Correct answer)
- Rank causes of defects by frequency
- Display the distribution of a single variable
Correct answer: Identify the relationship or correlation between two variables
Scatter diagrams plot pairs of data to visualize potential correlations between two variables, aiding root cause analysis.
Question 4: What is the purpose of a flowchart (process map) in quality management?
- To list all project risks in priority order
- To show the sequence of steps in a process and identify where quality problems may occur (Correct answer)
- To track defect rates against control limits
- To document team member quality responsibilities
Correct answer: To show the sequence of steps in a process and identify where quality problems may occur
Flowcharts map process steps visually, helping teams identify bottlenecks, redundancies, or points where errors commonly occur.
Question 5: Which quality concept refers to the total cost incurred when a product does NOT conform to requirements?
- Cost of conformance
- Cost of nonconformance (Correct answer)
- Cost of quality audit
- Cost of prevention
Correct answer: Cost of nonconformance
Cost of nonconformance includes internal failure costs (rework, scrap) and external failure costs (warranty, liability, lost business).
Question 6: During a quality audit, an independent team identifies that the project team is not following the approved testing procedures. What should happen next?
- Immediately shut down the project
- Document findings and recommend corrective actions through the change control process (Correct answer)
- Replace the project manager
- Approve the deliverables anyway if they look acceptable
Correct answer: Document findings and recommend corrective actions through the change control process
Audit findings should be documented and corrective actions recommended, then processed through integrated change control.
Question 7: What is 'benchmarking' as used in quality planning?
- Setting a baseline schedule for quality activities
- Comparing actual or planned practices to those of comparable projects to generate improvement ideas (Correct answer)
- Testing product performance under maximum load conditions
- Establishing the lowest acceptable quality threshold
Correct answer: Comparing actual or planned practices to those of comparable projects to generate improvement ideas
Benchmarking compares your project's quality practices and results against industry best practices or similar projects to identify improvements.
Project Management Project Quality Management 5
What is 'continuous improvement' (kaizen) in project quality management?