fosco frongiaSenior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUGFino Mornasco, Como, Italy
as you know lean six sigma methodologies apply approach and tools which come from project management practice.
Do you think that, in the opposite direction; tools and approach form lean six sigma could be applied effectively in the project management environment?
And, if you think so, in which processes they could be applied more successfully? Saving Changes...
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Steven ZacharyDirector| Alberta Health ServicesCalgary, Alberta, Canada
HMM...Good question.
I don't have enough background in Lean to do this justice. I'm aware of specific tools that have come out of it, like some of the diagrams now used in Business Analysis.
I think like most things, there may be ways to integrate the two functions. However, from what I do know about Six Sigma, is that it may not play nice with Agile. Hence the Kanban alternative.
I could be totally wrong here, what are your thoughts? I'd be interested in exploring this further. Saving Changes...
fosco frongiaSenior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUGFino Mornasco, Como, Italy
on my point of view, lean six sigma is a methodology structured more like traditional project management approach than the Agile one.
It is based on a process called DMAIC which basically needs to proceed for steps. the basis of this process are the need to take decision knowing the facts and not basing them on assumptions.
The approach is very rigorous and, on my opinion, very near to PDCA or, 5 Pm process. what do you think? Saving Changes...
Fosco, Project Management as it stands today is probably using methods/ tools/ framework from various other methodologies (my understanding). One cannot really say if Lean Six Sigma started with a specific method or not. There are critics out there who will say Six Sigma has close relationship with what the 'American society for Quality' describes. There are tools that used in Six sigma that have been used in other areas, as an example Six sigma uses 'Design of experiments' which you could also relate to the 'Reliability Engineering' branch.
Another example is the 5 whys which though is quite often associated with Six Sigma, was purely developed in the manufacturing process and is used in Lean, six sigma, Kaizan and so on. similarly for Cost benefit Analysis, I think it has been around even before six sigma was thought about.
Long story short, I sometimes use a mix of tools/ methods to ensure that we have a successful project. From my experience if the project is purely focused on 'Process', i guess the lean six sigma methodology works, but if you are working on a new product/ services then you could use bits and pieces, for example the 'value stream mapping' is something that I have used consistently while performing analysis activity - in Integrated change control for analyzing change requests, within quality management for repairing defects and so on. I believe it is sometimes not so easy to see which tools from which method fits your project needs.
Note: am neither a critic or proponent of any method, I try to pick the ones, that have the best value for the work at hand :) Saving Changes...
fosco frongiaSenior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUGFino Mornasco, Como, Italy
thanks Kiran,
I agree with your position, and i think a good project manager should adopt your position :)
The difference between process and new products and services I think is basically correct. Anyway we can found process working on new products services too, they are supporting our work and, perhaps, they need to be improved for increasing the effectiveness and efficacy of our project management approach.
what is your opinion about my comment? Saving Changes...
