Project Performance 4.1
Provide a Key Assignment Outline to the discussion area so that other students are able to review your plan. Attach your document to the main discussion post, and
include any notes that you feel are appropriate. The purpose of this assignment is to help improve the quality of the Key Assignment Draft that you will complete next
week.
MPM357 Project Performance and Quality Assurance
Project proposal
February 28, 2017
Contents
Project Outline 3
Description of the project 3
Organizational Readiness for Quality Management 4
Benefits of CMMI 5
The Six Sigma 5
Project Performance 7
References 9
Project Outline
Description of the project
The project will involve developing an integrated system based software for use in the education sector. In this case, the system will be used in universities and
colleges. The quality management plan will act as a guide to enhance the quality of the systems development process.
Also, the system to be produced will be designed to meet the desired quality standards and quality regarding systems development methodologies. The final product will
be an online system that meets all user needs and promotes user satisfaction while using the system.
In this case, users will be lecturers, students, finance section, employees, audit section, the top management, suppliers and external stakeholders. It will also be
used by suppliers and the human resource management to perform performance appraisals.
Some of the deliverables include:
The system will allow students to register for courses and admissions to the college.
It will also assist suppliers to track their activities using the suppliers’ portal.
The system will ensure that the employees can receive and fill appraisal forms to be filled by their supervisors.
It will also provide timely and real-time SMS service to inform all stakeholders of any event or issue in the university.
The system will also consist of a finance and accounting module to assist in automating all finance activities. It will also involve tracking the payment and
procurement process of products in the university.
Organizational Readiness for Quality Management
The university utilizes systems that are automated to handle tasks. However, the tasks are not fully independent. The university needs to integrate the system to
enhance its service delivery to all stakeholders. Therefore, there is a need to develop a quality system that handles most of the tasks.
The process of maintaining quality process will entail understanding and analyze each process in the systems development processes to ensure that the desired quality
deliverables are obtained.
Adherence to quality standards will also ensure that the users accept the product after its development (Davenport, 2013). The process of maintaining quality will also
entail documenting each task during the software development process. Also, the systems development process will involve using project metrics to ensure that quality
is maintained.
The university is ready to adopt the system due to its huge benefits. The organization has a quality assurance department that is crucial to ensuring that quality
product processes are maintained. Also, the university has a quality analyst to ensure conformance to the desired quality standards. These will be essential in the
monitoring and evaluation process.
Benefits of CMMI
The Capability Maturity Model is a model that is used to link between management and other organizational activities that are related to business goals. It provides
components for an effective process improvement. CMMI also enhances visibility to the lifecycle of software development processes (Heckman, Stech, Thomas, Schmoker &
Tsow, 2015). Also, it takes into consideration other best practices in systems development such as risk and supplier management.
However, CMMI can result in additional overhead costs. In some instances, the development process may be less agile.
The Six Sigma
The Six Sigma is a quality methodology that enhances business processes in an organization (Evans & Lindsay, 2014). These range from IT departments, human resources,
procurement and other administrative functions. Therefore, the quality methodology can be applied to activities that entail costs, time as well as the quality of
products to be developed. It is crucial to achieving reliable financial returns.
ISO 9001 Standards
These refer to standards that are used for planning, executing, monitoring as well as enhancing the performance of activities in a particular organization (Heras‐
Saizarbitoria & Boiral, 2013). It is a standard that is focused on the customer. Also, it applies a process-based approach. However, the quality metric does not
guarantee that the products developed are of the desired quality.
In this project, it is crucial to use the Capability Maturity Model due to its focus on product development. Also, the Six Stigma model can be used since it applies
structured metrics during its process development.
Project Performance
The table shows the quality dimensions and the specific deliverable for the university’s proposed system. It also shows the criterion used to measure all the outlined
quality dimensions (Garvin, 1987).
Quality Dimensions
Quality Dimension Description Criteria to measure Meets or exceeds
the criteria
Performance Project will provide efficiency in finance, accounting, academics, suppliers and employees’ transactions. Performance will be measured using
efficiency of completing tasks and whether it achieves the desired objective
Features The system will register students, handle supplier functions, perform appraisals, inform stakeholders via text messages The system should register
students effectively, manage supplier transactions and procurement transactions. It should also have working SMS module and send text messages to stakeholders such as
suppliers and students. It should also show employee performance in a particular period.
Reliability The system is not expected to experience downtime failures or other issues while it’s being used. The system should provide the desired results
on time without deviations. It should also have least time failures
Conform
Durability The system is expected to provide all services or functions for a long period. The durability is measured by the extent to which the system will
accomplish the desired tasks before it is deemed obsolete.
Serviceability The system should be fast, simple to maintain. Technical issues should also be easy to correct without causing system failures. The metric will be the
ease of repair and economic costs of repairing the system.
Aesthetics The system is expected to have an outlook that is attractive and friendly to the users. The system should have a minimalist interface that is simple to
use. All buttons and controls should be visible and friendly to users.
Perception Perceived quality means that the system should have a good reputation to the system. The perception can be enhanced by branding the system. The
system should have features that enhance user satisfaction and increase how users perceive the system.
References
Davenport, T. H. (2013). Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press.
Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (2014). An introduction to Six Sigma and process improvement. Cengage Learning.
Garvin, D. (1987). Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved 25 February 2017, from https://hbr.org/1987/11/competing-on-the-eight-dimensions-of-quality
Heckman, K. E., Stech, F. J., Thomas, R. K., Schmoker, B., & Tsow, A. W. (2015). Capability Maturity Model. In Cyber Denial, Deception and Counter Deception
(pp. 127- 157). Springer International Publishing.
Heras‐Saizarbitoria, I., & Boiral, O. (2013). ISO 9001 and ISO 14001: towards a research agenda on management system standards. International Journal of
Management Reviews, 15(1), 47-65.
