Jaydip ChakrabartiConsultant, Supplier Management, B.Eng, PG in Supply Chain, PMP, SAP Certified| Bruce Power, Largest Nuclear Power generating company in North AmericaBrampton, Ontario, Canada
Hi all,
One of the PMP simulator exam question is as below :
You are part of a small quality assurance team that is responsible for doing quality testing before each project deliverable is released to customer. You job is to confirm that the project processes are conforming to the company's quality standards and to identify areas for process improvement. As part of your analysis, your team makes uses of flowcharts, matrix diagrams, audits and affinity diagram
What quality process is your team performing ?
A. Plan Quality Management B. Control Quality C. Perform Quality Analysis D. Manage Quality
Right answer is D. Can someone please explain why ? I thought B is the right answer. Saving Changes...
In this question, you are responsible for the overall processes, not merely the testing and analysis of the results itself.
Control quality would be evaluating the deliverables themselves, determining whether they meet your quality standards, and taking the appropriate action to either maintain quality, or improve it. That would make use of things like run charts and dot plots. There are people on your team doing that, but your specific role is working on the process definition, not the process execution itself.
Manage is more overarching term than control. B and C are what others are doing, but since your group is doing A, B, and C. D includes all of those. Saving Changes...
Hao WangTranslation Manager| China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign EngineerWuhan, China, Mainland
These are two concepts easily get us confused.
Firstly, manage quality belongs to the executing group, while control quality is in the monitoring and controlling group.
Control quality process usually focuses on more specific deliverables or activities, to monitor whether it meets some specific standards or requirements, then change requests are made and defects will be modified, while manage quality process emphasizes overall quality assurance.
Then please read the PMBOK, manage quality section (6th edition P288):
Manage Quality uses the data and results from the control quality process to reflect the overall quality status of the project to the stakeholders. This process is performed throughout the project.
Futhermore, please check the common tools and techniques of the manage quality knowledge area: flowcharts, matrix diagrams, and affinity diagram as mentioned in the question are common data representation tools your team is using, as well as quality audits.
Actually the question already tell you,you are in a quality assurance team(QA), rather than a quality control team(QC).
Another tricking question: after QC, one of the outputs can be verified diliverables, which become an input to the Validate Scope Process for formalized acceptance. they will ask you to distinguish quality control and validate scope... Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Great explanations by Keith and Hao Wang.
I would add another hint: You are part of a quality assurance team, and quality assurance is included in managing quality. See PMBoK page 289. Saving Changes...
In short, Control Quality focuses on the product, service or result produced by the project whereas Manage Quality focuses on the processes used to deliver those products, services or results.
(BTW, this question belongs in Certification Central) Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I totally agree with Kiron’s feedback. You are managing quality as you go so it is part of the Manage Quality Process. Saving Changes...
Al TaylorI.T. Contractor| IndependentWaterloo, Ontario, Canada
the answer is e) Other - that is a dumbass question
Seriously I think that question is a waste of time even the time of the people who created the exam Saving Changes...
Jaydip ChakrabartiConsultant, Supplier Management, B.Eng, PG in Supply Chain, PMP, SAP Certified| Bruce Power, Largest Nuclear Power generating company in North AmericaBrampton, Ontario, Canada
Conventionally, in Engineering and in manufacturing industry, after testing & inspecting, the word used to show the result is " conformance/non-conformance" to specs/materials/drawings, etc. From that perspective " Control Quality " can be the right answer as it is related to conformance.
On the other hand, the word " Compliance/Audit " is used while confirming that the test/inspection was done as per the company's policies/procedure. In that case Manage Quality can be right answer.
Wondering if the use of word " Compliance/Audit instead of conformance will make better sense to chose the right answer. Saving Changes...
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