Quantitative Project Management (QPM) Process Area in CMMi

The purpose of Quantitative Project Management (QPM) is to quantitatively manage the project’s defined process to achieve the project’s established quality and process-performance objectives. A Project Management process area at Maturity Level 4.
The Quantitative Project Management process area involves the following:
- Establishing and maintaining the project’s quality and process-performance objectives.
- Identifying suitable subprocesses that compose the project’s defined process based on historical stability and capability data found in process-performance baselines or models.
- Selecting the subprocesses of the project’s defined process to be statistically managed.
- Monitoring the project to determine whether the project’s objectives for quality and process performance are being satisfied, and identifying appropriate corrective action.
- Selecting the measures and analytic techniques to be used in statistically managing the selected subprocesses.
- Establishing and maintaining an understanding of the variation of the selected subprocesses using the selected measures and analytic techniques.
- Monitoring the performance of the selected subprocesses to determine whether they are capable of satisfying their quality and process-performance objectives, and identifying corrective action.
- Recording statistical and quality management data in the organization’s measurement repository.

Specific Goals and Practices

SG 1 Quantitatively Manage the Project

The project is quantitatively managed using quality and process-performance objectives.
- SP 1.1 Establish the Project's Objectives.
When establishing the project’s quality and process-performance objectives, it is often useful to think ahead about which processes from the organization’s set of standard processes will be included in the project’s defined process, and what the historical data indicates regarding their process performance.
- SP 1.2 Compose the Defined Processes.
Select the subprocesses that compose the project’s defined process based on historical stability and capability data. Subprocesses are identified from the process elements in the organization’s set of standard processes and the process artifacts in the organization’s process asset library.
- SP 1.3 Select the Subprocesses that will be statistically managed.
Selecting the subprocesses to be statistically managed is often a concurrent and iterative process of identifying applicable project and organization quality and process-performance objectives, selecting the subprocesses, and identifying the process and product attributes to measure and control.
- SP 1.4 Manage Project Performance.
A prerequisite for such a comparison is that the selected subprocesses of the project’s defined process are being statistically managed and their process capability is understood. The specific practices of specific goal 2 provide detail on statistically managing the selected subprocesses.

SG 2 Statistically Manage Subprocess Performance
The performance of selected subprocesses within the project's defined process is statistically managed. This specific goal describes an activity critical to achieving the Quantitatively Manage the Project specific goal of this process area.
- SP 2.1 Select Measures and Analytic Techniques.
Select the measures and analytic techniques to be used in statistically managing the selected subprocesses.
- SP 2.2 Apply Statistical Methods to Understand Variation.
Establish and maintain an understanding of the variation of the selected subprocesses using the selected measures and analytic techniques. Understanding variation is achieved, in part, by collecting and analyzing process and product measures so that special causes of variation can be identified and addressed to achieve predictable performance.
- SP 2.3 Monitor Performance of the Selected Subprocesses.
Monitor the performance of the selected subprocesses to determine their capability to satisfy their quality and process-performance objectives, and identify corrective action as necessary.
- SP 2.4 Record Statistical Management Data.
Record statistical and quality management data in the organization’s measurement repository.