Chapter 10.4: Techniques for quality control Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is the main goal of quality control in projects?
To perform tasks from the quality plan and take corrective action to ensure deliverables meet required standards.
What does inspection and acceptance testing focus on?
Verifying that the final product or deliverables meet required specs.
Are all products tested equally during quality control?
Nope. Critical items are always tested; others (like minor/incidental ones) might be sampled or not tested at all.
What is sampling, and when is it used?
It’s testing only a few units instead of all — especially useful when tests are destructive or products are made in large batches.
Does testing during production count as quality control?
Not really. If it’s a mass-produced product, that’s production quality control, not project quality control.
Who should specify the testing and quality processes for a product?
The product designers — since they know which features matter and how to verify them.
Who created the basic tools of quality control?
Kaoru Ishikawa from Tokyo University in the 1980s.
What’s the main purpose of these tools?
To identify sources of defects and nonconformities in products and processes.
What is a run chart?
A graph that tracks performance results over time to reveal trends or anomalies.
What can a run chart show in project performance?
Whether things are improving or getting worse in cost or schedule.
What does a control chart help track?
Repetitive processes and potential process changes.
Why is it useful in production?
It helps detect deviations early and keeps the process within acceptable limits.
What is the 80/20 rule from Pareto’s law?
80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the causes.
How does the Pareto diagram help in quality control?
It helps identify the few root causes responsible for most problems, so effort can be focused there.
What’s another name for a cause-and-effect diagram?
Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram.
What does it do?
Visually maps out possible causes of a problem to understand how they connect to effects.
In what two ways can CE diagrams be used?
(1) Given a problem, find causes. (2) Given a cause, predict effects.
What is the purpose of checklists in QA/QC?
To prevent important steps or issues from being forgotten during inspections or reviews.
What’s a key problem with relying only on checklists?
People might follow them blindly and ignore unlisted but important items.
What’s a smart final item to put on a checklist?
“Now list all the other important things not already on this checklist.”
What two other tools are mentioned as useful for QA/QC?
Quality function deployment and technical performance measurement.
