EFFECTIVENESS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE STRATEGIES IN PROJECT EXECUTION (A STUDY OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN OWERRI)

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 EARLY EFFORTS IN THE CONTROL OF QUALITY OF PRODUCTION

Early civil engineering projects were built from specifications, for example the four sides of the base of the great pyramid of Giza were required to be perpendicular to within 3.5 arc seconds. During the middle ages, guilds adopted responsibility for quality control of their members, setting and maintaining certain standards for guild membership. (Brown, 2004).

Royal governments purchasing material were interested in quality control as customers. For this reason, King John of England appointed William Wrotham to report about the construction and repair of ships. Prior to the extensive division of labour and mechanization resulting from the industrial revolution, it was possible for workers to control the quality of their own products. The industrial revolution led to a system in which large groups of people performing a similar type of work were grouped together under the supervisor or a foreman who was appointed to control the quality of work manufacture. (Rudoff, 2006).

2.1.2 WARTIME PRODUCTION

Around the time of World War I, manufacturing processes typically became more complex with larger numbers of workers being supervised. This period saw the widespread introduction of mass production and piecework, which created problems as workmen could now earn more money by the production of extra products, which in turn led to bad workmanship being passed on to the assembly lines. To counter bad workmanship, full time inspectors were

introduced into the factory to identify quarantine and ideally correct product quality failures. Quality control by inspection in the 1920s and 1930s led to the growth of quality inspection functions, separately organized from production and big enough to be headed by superintendents. (Mitroff, 2008).

The systematic approach to quality started in industrial manufacture during the 1930s, mostly in the USA, when some attention was given to the cost of scrap and rework. With the impact of mass production, which was required during the Second World War, it became necessary to introduce a more appropriate form of quality control which was identified as statistical quality control, SQC.

Some of the initial work for statistical quality control is credited to Walter A. Shewhart of Bell laboratory, starting with his famous onepage memorandum of 1924 (Edith, 2008).

Statistical quality control came about with the realization that quality cannot be fully inspected into an important batch of items. By extending the inspection phase and making inspection organizations more efficient, it provides inspectors with control tools such as sampling and control charts. Standard statistical techniques allow the producer to sample and test a certain proportion of the products for quality to achieve the desired level of confidence in the quality of the entire batch or production run (Bernstein, 2012).

2.1.3 POSTWAR

In the period following World War II, many countries’ manufacturing capabilities that had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt. The U.S sent General Douglas Macarthur to oversee the re-building of Japan. During this time, General Macarthur involved two key individuals in the development of modern quality concepts:

W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. Both individuals promoted the collaborative concepts of quality to Japanese, business and technical groups, and these groups utilized these concepts in the redevelopment of the Japanese economy (Venette, 2006).

Although there were many individuals trying to lead United States industries towards a more comprehensive approach to quality, the U.S continued to apply the quality control (QC) concepts of inspection and sampling to remove defective product from production lines, essentially ignoring advances in quality assurance for decades

(Rakowitz, 2010).

2.2 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

2.2.1 CONCEPT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality assurance (QA) refers to a programme for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met (Sholar 2010). It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the programme sponsor. Quality assurance cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely. Two key principles characterize quality assurance. These are “fit for purpose” and “right first time”. Fit for purpose implies that the product should be suitable for the intended purpose while right first time and always implies that mistakes should be eliminated. Quality assurance includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production, and management, production and inspection processes (Sholar, 2010).

It is important, to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general; it is not the same as expensive’ or high quality’. Even goods with low prices can be considered quality items if they meet a market need (Sholar, 2010).

2.2.2 QUALITY ASSURANCE VERSUS QUALITY CONTROL

Quality control emphasizes testing of products to uncover defects, and reporting to management who make the decision to allow or deny the release, whereas quality assurance attempts to improve and stabilize production and associated processes, to avoid or at least minimize issues that led to defects (Kenny, 2010). Quality assurance is more to do with the quality of the project and adherence to predefined set of norms and practices. These are termed standards, procedures, standard procedures, norms, standard practices or methodologies. It is at organization or project type level. It is broader in sense. Quality control is project specific. The main purpose of quality control lies in assuring a ‘good’ product going to customer.Quality control is more concerned with all types of testing to be done on the product to meet customer’s current and future requirements (Jaideep, 2009).

To prevent mistakes from arising, several quality assurance methodologies are used. However, quality assurance does not eliminate the need for quality control. Some product parameters are so critical that testing is still essential. Quality control activities are treated as one of the overall quality assurance processes, (Kenny

2010).

2.2.3 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PROJECT ASSESSMENT

The ultimate success of IDABC (Interoperable Delivery of European Government Services to Public Administration, Business and Citizens) projects is determined by the effectiveness of their results for the beneficiaries, namely administrations, citizens and enterprises. For this purpose, IDABC programme is defining, implementing and continuously updating an integrated quality programme, applicable both to the horizontal actions and measures and to the projects of common interest, (Donald, 2009).

2.2.4 QUALITY ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES

The quality assurance project includes four types of activities:

 Development of quality guideline and generic tools for the whole set of IDABC Projects Of Common Interest (PCIs) and Horizontal Action Measure (HAMs),

 Development of guidelines for cost benefit assessment of individual projects and horizontal measure.

 Evaluation of IDABC selected projects, including cost benefit analysis.

 The dissemination of the results throughout the IDABC community (Ward, 2009).

These activities aim to provide monitoring and advice during project implementation, as well as ex-post evaluations. The results are made available to the sectors/projects concerned and also to other administrative sectors. In this way, all participants in the IDABC programme are informed of the lessons learned and mistakes to be avoided.

Objectives of Quality Assurance Activities

The quality assurance activity aims to improve the manner in which project objectives and requirements are specified, and how individual projects are carried out, as well as the quality of the final project deliverables. It also evaluates key projects of common interest and horizontal actions and measures and the results of the IDABC programme as a whole. At the level of the individual projects, the results of these evaluations should lead to corrective actions

(Turnow, 2010).

How Does it Work

Quality assurance guidelines are meant to be an ongoing, centralized implementation activity aimed at facilitating a common understanding and agreement of key project issues such as the formulation of user requirements, the definition of project objectives, role and responsibilities, critical success factors, risk, constraints and organizational impact (Trewatha, 2009).

Framework contracts are established to provide quality control services to sectors and the central IDABC unit on a call-off basis. In this way, project managers have assistance in assessing the project quality plans and monitoring their execution, for measuring user satisfaction, determining the acceptance criteria for project deliverables and assessing deliverables against these criteria. Overall assessments of specific projects by means of cost-benefit analysis and end-user satisfaction measurement are also possible. (Trewatha, 2009).

ACHIEVEMENTS

Quality assurance guidelines have been developed. They consist in a self-evaluation tool in combination with short guides to the different phases of IDABC projects (preparatory, feasibility, development and validation, implementation). Each of these short guides refers to a number of templates and checklists that can be used in each phase, such as for the project management and quality plan, user requirements, system requirements and guidance on

metrics (Smith, 2010).

WHO BENEFITS

The first direct impact of the quality assurance will be the improvement of the quality of project deliverables of projects funded by IDABC both in terms of compliance with project specification and in terms of satisfaction of user expectations. Hence the IDABC will benefit.

By providing transparency and accountability with regard to the programme management, it is also possible to say that the beneficiaries are more than just those directly involved in the IDABC programme (Ward, 2009).

2.3 RELEVANT MODELS AND THEORIES

2.3.1 MODELS AND STANDARDS

1SO 17025 is an international standard that specifies the general requirements for the competence to carry out tests and or calibrations. There are 15 management requirements and 10 technical requirements. These requirements outline what a laboratory must do to become accredited.

Management system refers to these organizations structure for managing its processes or activities that transfer inputs of resources into a product or service which meets the organization’s objectives, such as satisfying the customer’s quality requirements, complying with regulation, or meeting environmental objectives (Edward, 2010). The CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is widely used to implement quality assurance in an organization. The CMMI maturity levels can be divided into 5 steps, which a company can achieve by performing specific activities within the organization.

During the 1980s, the concept of “company quality” with the focus on management and people came to the fore. It was that, if all departments approached quality with an open mind, success was possible if the management led the quality improvement process.

2.3.2 USING CONTRACTORS AND/OR CONSULTANTS

It has become customary to use consultants and contractors when introducing new quality practices and methods, particularly where the relevant skills and expertise are not available within the organization. In addition, when new initiatives and improvements are required to boost the current quality system, or perhaps improve upon current manufacturing systems, the use of temporary consultants becomes a viable solution when allocating valuable resources (Donald, 2009).

There are various types of consultants and contractors available in the market, most will have the skills needed to facilitate improvement activities such as Quality Management Systems (QMS), auditing and procedural documentation writing. More experienced consultants are likely to have knowledge of specialized quality improvement activities such as CMMI, six sigma Measurement

System Analysis (MSA), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Failure

Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP).

2.3.3 FAILURE TESTING

One of the aspects of quality assurance is failure testing. This is a valuable process performed on a whole consumer product. It is also known as stress testing. In mechanical terms, failure testing is the operation of a product until it fails, often under stresses such as increasing vibration, temperature, and humidity. This exposes many unanticipated weaknesses in a product, and the data are used to drive engineering and manufacturing process improvements. Often quite simple changes can dramatically improve product services, such as changing to mold-resistant paint or adding lock-washer placement to the training for new assembly personnel (Edward,

2009).

2.3.4 STATISTICAL CONTROL

Many organizations use statistical process control to bring the organization to six sigma levels of quality, in other words, so that the likelihood of an unexpected failure is confined to six standard deviations on the normal distribution.

This probability is less than four one-millionths. Items controlled often include clerical tasks such as order-entry as well as conventional manufacturing tasks (Bruno, 2009).

Traditional statistical process controls in manufacturing operations usually proceed by randomly sampling and testing a fraction of the output. Variances in critical tolerances are continuously tracked and where necessary corrected before bad parts are produced. Invariably, the quality of output is directly dependent upon that of the participating constituents, some of which are sustainably and effectively controlled while others are not. The fluid state spells lack of quality control, and the process(es) which are properly managed for quality such that quality is assured, pertain to Total Quality Management. The major problem which leads to a decrease in sales is that the specifications do not include the most important factors, “what the specifications have to state in order to satisfy the customer requirements?”

The major characteristics, ignored during the search to improve manufacture and overall business performance were reliability, maintainability, safety and strength (Coombs, 2009).

As the most important factor had been ignored, a few refinements had to be introduced. These include:

(i) Marketing had to carry out their work properly and define the customer’s specification.

(ii) Specifications had to be defined to conform to these requirements.

(iii) Conformance to specifications i.e. drawings, standards and relevant documents were introduced during manufacturing, planning and control.

(iv) Management had to confirm that all operators are equal to the work imposed on them and holidays, celebrations and dispute did not affect any of the quality levels.

(v) Inspections and tests were carried out, and all components and materials, bought in or otherwise, conformed to the specifications, and the measuring equipment was accurate.

This is the responsibility of the quality assurance /quality control department.

(vi) Any complaints received from the customers were satisfactorily dealt with in a timely manner.

(vii) Feedback from the user/customer is used to review designs.

(viii) Consistent data recording and assessment and documentation integrity.

(ix) Product and/or process change management and notification, (Brown 2009).

If the specification does not reflect the true quality requirements, the product’s quality cannot be guaranteed. For instance, the parameters for a pressure vessel should cover not only the material and dimensions but operating, environmental, safety, reliability and maintainability requirements. (Brown, 2009).

2.4. CONTRIBUTIONS BY OTHER AUTHORITIES

2.4.1 QUALITY ASSURANCE AS SUBSET OF PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

According to PMBOK (2005), project quality management processes include all the activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It implements the quality management system through the policy, procedures, and processes of quality planning, quality assurance and quality control, with continuous process improvement activities conducted throughout, as appropriate.

2.4.2 PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROCESSES The project quality management processes include quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. Figure 2.1 provides an overview of project quality management processes.

QUALITY PLANNING

Quality planning involves identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

This involves applying the planned, systematic quality activities to ensure that the project employs all processes needed to meet requirements.

QUALITY CONTROL

This involves monitoring specific project results to determine whether they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other knowledge areas as well. Each process can involve effort from one or more persons or groups of persons based on the needs of the project. Each process occurs at least once in every project and occurs in one or more project phases, if the project is divided into phases. Although the processes are presented here as discrete elements with well-defined interfaces, in practice they may overlap and interact in different ways (Roberts, 2009).

Project quality management must address the management of the project and the product of the project. While project quality management applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their product, product quality measures and techniques are specific to the particular type of product produced by the project. For example, quality management of software products entails different approaches and measures than nuclear power plants, while project quality management approaches apply to both. In either case, failure to meet quality requirements in either dimension can have serious negative consequences for any or all of the project stakeholders. For example:

• Meeting customer requirements by overworking the project team may produce negative consequences in the form of increase employee attrition, unfounded errors or rework.

• Meeting project schedule objectives by rushing planned quality inspections may produce negative consequences when errors go undetected.

Quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements” (PMBOK, 2005). Stated and implied needs are the inputs to developing project requirements. A critical element of quality management in the project context is to turn stakeholder needs, wants, and expectations into requirements through stakeholder analysis, performed during project scope management (Womack, 2008).

Quality and grade are not the same. Grade is a category assigned to products or services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics. Low quality is always a problem, low grade may not be. For example, a software product can be of high quality (No obvious defects, readable manual) and low grade (A limited number of features), or of low quality (Many defects, poorly organized user documentation) and high grade (Numerous features). The project manager and the project management team are responsible for determining and delivering the required levels of both quality and grade (James, 2009).

2.4.3 (B) QUALITY PLANNING: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

1. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

Quality planning must consider cost-benefits tradeoffs. The primary benefit of meeting quality requirements is less rework, which means higher productivity, lower costs, and increased stakeholder satisfaction. The primary cost of meeting quality requirements is the expense associated with project quality management activities (Stern, 2009).

2. BENCHMARKING

Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned project practices to those of other projects to generate ideas for improvement and to provide a basis by which to measure performance. Those other projects can be within the performing organization or outside of it, and can be within the same or in another application area (Robert, 2011).

3. DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS

Design of experiments (DOE) is a statistical method that helps identify which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production. It also plays a role in the optimization of products or processes. An example is where an organization can use design of experiments to reduce the sensitivity of product performance to sources of variation caused by environmental manufacturing differences. The most important aspect of this technique is that it provides a statistical framework for systematically changing all of the important factors, instead of changing the factors one at a time. The analysis of the experimental data should provide the optimal conditions for the product or process, highlighting the factors that influence the results, and revealing the presence of interactions and synergisms among the factors. For example, automotive designers use this technique to determine which combination of suspension and tyres will produce the most desirable ride characteristics at a reasonable cost (Lamberton, 2009).

4. COST OF QUALITY (COQ)

Quality costs are the total costs incurred by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, and failing to meet requirements (Rework). Failure costs are often categorized into internal and external. Failure costs are also called cost of poor quality (Janette, 2010).

5. ADDITIONAL QUALITY PLANNING TOOLS

Other quality planning tools are also often used to help better define the situation and help plan effective quality management activities. These include brainstorming, affinity diagrams, force field analysis, normal group techniques, matrix diagrams, flowcharts, and prioritization matrices (Eduardo, 2011).

2.4.3 (C) QUALITY PLANNING: OUTPUTS

1. QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN

The quality management plan describes how the project management team will implement the organization’s quality policy. The quality management plan is a component or a subsidiary plan of the project management plan (Richard, 2003).

The quality management plan provides input to the overall project management plan and must address quality control (QC), quality assurance (QA), and continuous process improvement for the project. The quality management plan may be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based on the requirements of the project. The quality management plan should include efforts at the front end of a project to ensure that the earlier decisions, for example on concepts, designs and tests, are correct. These efforts should be performed through an independent peer review and not include individuals that worked on the material being reviewed. The benefits of this review can include reduction of cost and schedule overruns caused by rework (Brown, 2004).

2. QUALITY METRICS.

A metric is an operational definition that describes, in very specific terms, what something is and how the quality control process measures it. A measurement is an actual value. For example, it is not enough to say that meeting the planned schedule dates is a measure of management quality. The project management team must also indicate whether every activity must start on time or only finish on time and whether individual activities will be measured or only certain deliverables, and if so, which ones. Quality metrics are used in the quality assurance and quality control processes. Some examples of quality metrics include defect density, failure rate, availability, reliability, and test coverage (Hansen, 2008).

3. QUALITY CHECKLISTS.

A checklist is a structured tool, usually component-specific, used to verify that a set of required steps has been performed. Checklists may be simple or complex. They are usually phrased as imperatives (“Do this!”) Or interrogatories (“have you done this?”) Many organizations have standardized checklists available to ensure consistency in frequently performed tasks. In some application areas, checklists are also available from professional associations or commercial service providers. Quality checklists are used in the quality control process (Fyodor, 2009).

4. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PLAN

The process improvement plan is also a subsidiary of the project management plan. The process improvement plan details the steps for analyzing processes that will facilitate the identification of waste and non-value added activity, thus increasing customer value such as:

• Process Boundaries: This describes the purpose, start and

end of processes, their inputs and outputs, data required, if any, and other owner and stakeholders of processes.

• Process Configuration: This is a flow chart of processes to

facilitate analysis with interfaces identified.

• Process Metrics: this maintains control over status of

processes.

• Target for Improved Performance: This guides the process improvement activities.

5. QUALITY BASELINE

The quality baseline records the quality objectives of the project. The quality baseline is the basis for measuring and reporting quality performance as part of the performance measurement baseline (Carol, 2008).

6. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN (UPDATES)

The project management plan will be updated through inclusion of a subsidiary quality management plan and process improvement plan. Requested changes (additions, modifications, deletions) to the project management plan and its subsidiary plans are processed by review and disposition through the integrated change control process (Suneel, 2011).

2.4.4 QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality assurance (QA) is the application of planned, systematic quality activities to ensure that the project will employ all processes needed to meet requirement.

A quality assurance department or similar organization, often oversees Quality assurance activities. Quality assurance support, regardless of the unit’s title, may be provided to the project team, the management of the performing organization, the customer or sponsor, as well as other stakeholders not actively involved in the work of project. Quality assurance also provides an umbrella for another important quality activity, continuous process improvement. Continuous process improvement provides an iterative means for improving the quality of all processes (Mei, 2009).

Continuous process improvement reduces waste and nonvalue-added activities, which allows processes to operate at increased levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Process improvement is distinguished by its identification and review of organization as well, from micro processes, such as the coding of modules within a software program, to macro-processes such as the opening of new markets (Kaplan, 2010).

2.4.5. (C) QUALITY CONTROL: OUTPUTS

1. QUALITY CONTROL MEASUREMENT

Quality control measurements represent the results of quality control activities that are fed back to quality assurance to reevaluate and analyze the quality standards and processes of the performing organization.

2. VALIDATED DEFECT REPAIR

The repaired items are re-inspected and will be either accepted or rejected before notification of the decision is provided. Rejected items may require further defect repair.

3. QUALITY BASELINE (UPDATES)

The quality baseline records the quality objective of the project. The quality baseline is the basis for measuring and reporting quality performance as part of the performance measurement baseline.

4. RECOMMENDED CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

Corrective actions involve actions taken as a result of a quality control measurement that indicates that the manufacturing or development process exceeds established parameters.

5. RECOMMENDED PREVENTIVE ACTIONS

Preventive action involves action taken to forestall a condition that may exceed established parameters in a manufacturing or development process, which may have been indicated through a quality control measurement.

6. REQUESTED CHANGES:

Requested changes are changes requested in order to expand or reduce project scope, to modify policies or procedures, to modify project cost or budget or to revise the project schedule. These are often identified while the project work is being performed. If the recommended corrective or preventive actions require a change to the project, a change request should be initiated in accordance with the defined integrated change control process.

7. RECOMMENDED DEFECT REPAIR

A defect is where a component does not meet its requirements or specifications, and needs to be repaired or replaced. Defects are identified and recommended for repair by the quality control department or similarly titled organization. The project team should make every reasonable effort to minimize the errors that cause the need for defect repair.

8. ORGANIZATION PROCESS ASSETS (UPDATES)

In the development of a project charter and subsequently project documentation, any and all the assets that are used can be drawn from organizational process assets. Organizational process assets also represent the organization’s learning and knowledge from previous projects, for example completed schedules, risk data and earned value data.

When checklists are used, the completed checklists should become part of the project’s records. The causes of variances, the reasoning behind the corrective action chosen, and other types of lessons learned from quality control should be documented so that they become part of the historical database for both this project and the performing organization.

9. VALIDATED DELIVERABLES

The goal of quality control is to determine the correctness of deliverables. The results of the execution of quality control processes are validated deliverables.

10. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN (UPDATES)

This involves updating the project management plan to reflect changes to the quality management plan that results from changes in performing the quality control process. Requested changes (additions, modifications or deletions) to the project management plan and its subsidiary plans are processed by review and disposition through the integrated change control process, (Lowry, 2012).