The success of a project depends, in large part, on the efficiency of the management process. Many project management methods target specific issues faced when managing complex projects, such as inaccurate estimations of activity times, or the impact of human behavior. Six Sigma, on the other hand, focuses on improving the process of project management itself. This method was originally applied to manufacturing, and has since been used for a broad range of business processes.
Processes are a routine series of activities, such as those carried out to make coffee from coffee beans. Similarly, project management is a collection of processes that turn inputs into outputs. While Six Sigma is not the only process improvement method, it does excel in two areas: defining and tracking the quality of a process; and empowering all team members to take part in quality improvement.
Processes Within Processes
A process is a like a magic trick. A series of inputs — materials, efforts, knowledge — are fed into one end of a long black box. The magician — the project manager — closes the box and recites a few magic words. When sufficient time has passed, the magician opens the other end of the box, where a member of the audience — the customer — eagerly waits for the final product. This mysterious box is not so mysterious at all, though. Inside the box are simply processes that change inputs into the final product.
There are actually two sets of processes involved with a project. The first is the collection of activities that the project team undertakes in order to reach the final product. For example, a software development team uses standard processes for writing and checking software programs. These activities are defined by the project schedule. The other set of processes are the activities associated with the management of the project itself, such as those used in planning, executing, and monitoring the project. These processes are used regardless of the type of project.
Six Sigma Process Improvement
Processes are designed to create a product for a customer. Sometimes this customer is part of the same organization, but other times the customer is external. The effectiveness of a process can be measured by determining how well it meets the customerʼs needs. Part of the Six Sigma process is figuring out how to measure the effectiveness of a process — as defined by the customerʼs requirements.
Six Sigma attempts to identify and eliminate the root causes of problems that affect the quality of a process. Once the problems are identified, solutions can be found to correct — or minimize — the errors. Six Sigma emphasizes ongoing monitoring of a process, not just a one-time review. A series of indicators are used to determine if a process is meeting the customerʼs expectations. These indicators often have thresholds, a range in which the process should be operating. If the performance of the process goes outside the range, then some corrective action needs to be taken.
Five Steps of Six Sigma
As with project management, Six Sigma has a series of steps. These steps are actually processes made up by defined activities. Yes, Six Sigma is a process for improving processes. In theory, you could use Six Sigma to improve the process of Six Sigma itself. Six Sigma consists of five steps: DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.
During the Define step, a problem with the process is identified. Using this information, the objectives and scope of the improvement project are defined. In the Measure step, indicators are selected that will show whether the process is meeting the customerʼs requirements. Information collected during the Measure step is analyzed during the Analyze step. This is done to find the root causes of the problem. Solutions are then identified, tested, and implemented during the Improve step. Finally, a plan is created during the Control step to ensure that the improvements are maintained and monitored.
The Voice of the Customer
An essential feature of Six Sigma is its focus on the customer. Processes are not carried out to benefit just the employees, but the individual(s) who receive the final product of the process. If you go to a fast-food restaurant to buy a burrito, the processes used are designed to provide you with a good-tasting burrito in a timely fashion. In many cases, processes have multiple customers, such as the owners of the restaurant, the local health department, and the employees. During a Six Sigma project, these customers are prioritized.
Throughout the Six Sigma project, the requirements of the customer are kept at the forefront using many techniques. One of these is the Voice of the Customer (VOC). This represents the customerʼs requirements for the final product of a process — such as a tasty burrito in under five minutes. These requirements can be gathered through interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Once the customer input has been gathered, it can be converted into measurable components. For example, tasty can be defined as 7 out of 10 on a customer satisfaction survey for taste, texture, and enjoyment.
Six Sigma and Project Management
Projects fail: this is a common fact. One survey indicated that 46 percent of IT projects in 1994 were either over budget or behind schedule, and 28 percent of IT projects failed completely. Projects fail for a variety of reasons, but the root cause is always the project management process. As a process improvement method, Six Sigma can easily be applied to project management in order to improve the outcome, as defined by the customer. There are three key customer requirements for any project: the project should finish on time, stay under budget, and stay within scope.
The Six Sigma DMAIC process identifies the problems — and their root causes — of project management within an organization, and develops solutions to correct them. Solutions found using Six Sigma are based upon the conditions and problems of a specific process. The solutions are not generic, but grounded in reality. Once the best solution is identified, Six Sigma then ensures that improvements to the project management process are monitored so that they continue.
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Excerpted from a 21,000-word website on project management.
Photo by roger4336 (Some rights reserved)
