Project Management & Six Sigma

What is the ultimate purpose of a project? Think about it for a minute. Why does some business leader, some organization, want you to work on a project? It’s simple really. Your efforts on any project you are managing should result in some kind of improvement for the business: reduced costs, increased sales, better productivity, less errors, reduced cycle time. The list goes on and on. You and your teams are doing a lot of work so an important aspect of the business gets better. Yet, so often, teams fail to realize improvement is their purpose. They get lost in the minutia and documentation of project management: scope documents, meeting minutes, action item lists, jeopardy logs, and meeting due dates. Or worse, teams often boast of tremendous improvement through such flimsy analysis that they risk losing total credibility with their clients, thus jeopardizing the hard work of the team. People simply miss the big picture: add value. The point is, if you, as a project manager, cannot effectively relate how what your team is doing results in some kind of business improvement, well, you are not doing a complete job as a project manager. More importantly, you could easily be viewed as not adding value to the organization. Is the perception of not adding value a risk you are willing to take in this time of uncertainty?

Let’s face it; project managers have a tough job. They have to manage people who don’t report to them while convincing multiple organizations to do things which are most likely different than what they are currently doing. Translation: resistance. To make matters worse, if things go as planned, well, someone else usually takes the credit. And if things don’t go as planned, you can bet it will be the fault of the project manager. But hey, that’s the nature of the game, right? So, what can a project manager do to more effectively manage projects which result in verifiable improvement? Easy. Incorporate the Six Sigma methodology into every project.

Six Sigma refers to a methodology that provides a powerful means to define and realize strategic objectives. It is a management strategy that incorporates statistical and systems thinking to improve decision-making. The tools of Six Sigma can, and should, be used by project managers. Essentially, the basic concept behind Six Sigma is that managing the process, not the results, will lead to improvement. At the core of Six Sigma is the utilization of the five improvement steps, also known as DMAIC. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. These five steps provide an easy-to-understand framework which will help projects move along quickly and successfully.