DQM Core Units
Quality Improvement Projects cheat sheet
Every chapter's key points, formulas and definitions on one page, for the last week before the exam. Each heading links to the chapter that explains it.
Choosing an improvement project
- An improvement project starts from understanding how a process currently works, its inputs, outputs and sequence, and where its performance data shows it falling short.
- A project carries four types of risk: financial (budget overrun or the expected return not delivered), strategic (the organisation's actual objectives not advanced), project (schedule slippage, resource shortfalls, scope creep) and performance (the improved process not performing as intended).
- Risks are weighed against the opportunity before the project is committed to, so it is chosen with its eyes open rather than on optimism alone.
- Improvement opportunities come from recurring audit non-conformities, processes out of statistical control on control charts, customer complaints and satisfaction trends, and Pareto analysis of the most frequent or costly quality issues.
Key terms
- Financial risk
- The project overruns its budget or fails to deliver the expected return.
- Strategic risk
- The project, even if delivered, fails to advance the organisation's actual objectives.
- Project risk
- Risks to the project's own delivery, schedule slippage, resource shortfalls, scope creep.
- Performance risk
- The improved process fails to perform as intended once implemented.
The rest of the sheet covers
- Improvement tools
- The improvement plan
- Carrying out the improvement
- Exam technique and revision
- Glossary