GLOSSARY: These definitions apply to terminologies used in Section 1.0 Development Processes:
Accuracy: The closeness of a measurement to the accepted true value. The smaller the difference between the measurement and the true value, the more accurate the measurement.
Attribute Data: Data that may take on only discrete values; they need not be numeric. These kinds of data are counted, not measured, and generally require large sample sizes to be useful.
Bias (of measurement): A tendency or inclination of outlook that is a troublesome source of error in human sensing.
Checksheet: A form specially designed so that results can be readily interpreted from the form itself.
Continuous Improvement: The ongoing improvement of products, services, and processes through incremental and measurable enhancements.
Control: The set of activities employed to detect and correct variation in order to maintain or restore a desired state of conformance with quality goals.
Corrective Action: Measures taken to rectify conditions adverse to quality and, where necessary, to preclude repetition.
Critical Activity: Activity(ies) that significantly impact total process efficiency, effectiveness, quality, timeliness, productivity, or safety. At the management level, they impact management priorities, organizational goals, and external customer goals.
Customer: An entity that receives products, services, or deliverables. Customers may be either internal or external.
Data: Information or a set of facts presented in descriptive form. There are two basic kinds of data: measured (also known as variables data) and counted (also known as attribute data).
Data Collection System: A broadly defined term indicating that set of equipment, log books, data sheets, and personnel used to record and store the information required to generate the performance measurements of a process.
Data Sheet: A form designed to collect data in a simple tabular or column format. Specific bits of data-numbers, words, or marks-are entered in spaces on the sheet. Additional processing is typically required after the data are collected in order to construct the tool needed for analysis.
Defect: A nonconformance to the product quality goals; it leads to customer dissatisfaction.
DOE/NV Family: DOE/NV, DOE/NV Contractors, and users of DOE/NV facilities.
Effectiveness: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which the process output (work product) conforms to requirements.
Efficiency: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which the process produces the required output at minimum cost.
Feedback: Communication of quality performance to sources that can take appropriate action.
Feedback Loop: A systematic series of steps for maintaining conformance to quality goals by feeding back performance data for evaluation and corrective action. This is the basic mechanism for quality control.
Frequency: One of the components of a performance measurement that indicates how often the measurement is made.
Goal: A statement of attainment/achievement that is proposed to be accomplished or attained with an implication of sustained effort and energy.
Management Assessment: The determination of the appropriateness, thoroughness, and effectiveness of management processes.
Optimum: A planned result that meets the needs of customer and supplier alike, meets competition, and minimizes the customer's and supplier's combined costs.
Organization: Any program, facility, operation, or division.
Performance Measure: A generic term encompassing the quantitative basis by which objectives are established and performance is assessed and gauged. Performance measures include performance objectives and criteria (POCs), performance indicators, and any other means that evaluate the success in achieving a specified goal.
Performance Measurement Category: An organizationally dependent grouping of related performance measures that convey a characteristic of a process, such as cycle time.
Performance Measurement System: The organized means of defining, collecting, analyzing, reporting, and making decisions regarding all performance measures within a process.
Precision: The closeness of a group of repeated measurements, to their mean value. The smaller the difference between the group of repeat measurements and the mean value, the more precise the instrument. Precision is an indicator of the repeatability, or consistency, of the measurement.
Process: Any activity or group of activities that takes an input, adds value to it, and provides an output to a customer. The logical organization of people, materials, energy, equipment, and procedures into work activities designed to produce a specified end result (work product).
Productivity: The value added by the process divided by the value of the labor and capital consumed.
Quality: The degree to which a product or service meets customer requirements and expectations.
Raw Data: Data not processed or interpreted.
Safety: Measures the overall health of the organization and the working environment of its employees.
Self Assessment: The continuous process of comparing performance with desired objectives to identify opportunities for improvement. Assessments conducted by individuals, groups, or organizations relating to their own work.
Sensor: A specialized detecting device designed to recognize the presence and intensity of certain phenomena and to convert this sensed knowledge into information.
Timeliness: Measures whether a unit of work was done correctly and on time. Criteria must be established to define what constitutes timeliness for a given unit of work. The criterion is usually based on customer requirements.
Unit of Measure: A defined amount of some quality feature that permits evaluation of that feature in numbers.
Validation: A determination that an improvement action is functioning as designed and has eliminated the specific issue for which it was designed.
Variable Data: Data that may take on any value within some range. It provides a more detailed history of a business process. This involves collecting numeric values that quantify a measurement and therefore requires small samples.
Variance: In quality management terminology, any nonconformance to specification.
Verification: The determination that an improvement action has been implemented as designed.
Worker Controllable: A state in which the worker possesses: (1) the means of knowing what is the quality goal; (2) the means of knowing what is the actual quality performance; and (3) the means of changing performance in the event of nonconformance.