Summary

Establish and maintain the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance, which are traceable to business objectives.

Description

The organization’s quality and process performance objectives can be established for different levels in the organizational structure (e.g., business area, product line, function, project) as well as at different levels in the process hierarchy. When establishing quality and process performance objectives, consider the following:

  • Traceability to the organization’s business objectives
  • Past performance of the selected processes or subprocesses in context (e.g., on projects)
  • Multiple attributes of process performance (e.g., product quality, productivity, cycle time, response time)
  • Inherent variability or natural bounds of the selected processes or subprocesses


The organization’s quality and process performance objectives provide focus and direction to the process performance analysis and quantitative project management activities. However, it should be noted that achieving quality and process performance objectives that are significantly different from current process capability requires use of techniques found in Causal Analysis and Resolution and Organizational Performance Management.

Example Work Products



  1. Organization’s quality and process performance objectives


Subpractices



1. Review the organization’s business objectives related to quality and process performance.

 

Examples of business objectives include the following:
  • Deliver products within budget and on time
  • Improve product quality by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Improve productivity by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Maintain customer satisfaction ratings
  • Improve time-to-market for new product or service releases by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Reduce deferred product functionality by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Reduce the rate of product recalls by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Reduce customer total cost of ownership by a specified percent in a specified timeframe
  • Decrease the cost of maintaining legacy products by a specified percent in a specified timeframe



2. Define the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance.

Quality and process performance objectives can be established for process or subprocess measurements (e.g., effort, cycle time, defect removal effectiveness) as well as for product measurements (e.g., reliability, defect density) and service measurements (e.g., capacity, response times) as appropriate.

 

Examples of quality and process performance objectives include the following:
  • Achieve a specified defect escape rate, productivity, duration, capacity, or cost target
  • Improve the defect escape rate, productivity, duration, capacity, or cost performance by a specified percent of the process performance baseline in a specified timeframe
  • Improve service level agreement performance by a specified percent of the process performance baseline in a specified timeframe



3. Define the priorities of the organization’s objectives for quality and process performance.

4. Review, negotiate, and obtain commitment to the organization’s quality and process performance objectives and their priorities from relevant stakeholders.

5. Revise the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance as necessary.

 

Examples of when the organization’s quantitative objectives for quality and process performance may need to be revised include the following:
  • When the organization’s business objectives change
  • When the organization’s set of standard processes change
  • When actual quality and process performance differ significantly from objectives