II.            Six Sigma – Define (25 Questions)

                              A.            Process Management for Projects

                                                       1.            Process elements
Define and describe process components and boundaries. Recognize how processes cross various functional areas and the challenges that result for process improvement efforts. (Analyze)

                                                       2.            Owners and stakeholders
Identify process owners, internal and external customers, and other stakeholders in a project. (Apply)

                                                       3.            Identify customers
Identify and classify internal and external customers as applicable to a particular project, and show how projects impact customers. (Apply)

                                                       4.            Collect customer data
Use various methods to collect customer feedback (e.g., surveys, focus groups, interviews, observation) and identify the key elements that make these tools effective. Review survey questions to eliminate bias, vagueness, etc. (Apply)

                                                       5.            Analyze customer data
Use graphical, statistical, and qualitative tools to analyze customer feedback. (Analyze)

                                                       6.            Translate customer requirements
Assist in translating customer feedback into project goals and objectives, including critical to quality (CTQ) attributes and requirements statements. Use voice of the customer analysis tools such as quality function deployment (QFD) to translate customer requirements into performance measures. (Apply)

Process Management – a business process is the logical organization of people, materials, energy, equipment, and information into work activities designed to produce a product or service. Business process management {BPM) is focused on understanding, controlling, and improving business processes to create value for all stakeholders. Three principles for measuring the quality of a business process are: effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability.

Process Elements – Supplier, input, process, output, customer (SIPOC).

Owners and Stakeholders – Stockholders, customers, suppliers, management, employees, the community, society, etc.

Customer – Customers seek product based upon cost, quality, features, and availability (CQFA).

·          Internal – anyone in the company who is affected by the product or service as it is being generated.

·          External – End users, intermediate customers, impacted parties. They are not part of the company but are impacted by it. External customers best determine the quality of the product.

Collect Customer Data – collect data to gain the Voice of the Customer (VOC).

·          Business level – Shareholders and top management employees.

·          Operations level – Those who purchase the product (external) and those who manage operations (internal).

·          Process level – Employees

Tools – Surveys, focus groups, interviews, satisfaction/complaint cards, dissatisfaction sources, competitive shopper, quality function deployment (QFD), scorecards, data warehousing, data mining, customer audits, supplier audits.

Analyze Customer Data – Statistical analysis, line graphs, control charts, matrix diagrams, Pareto analysis.

Translate Customer Requirements – Customer value is made up of cost, quality, features and availability (CQFA).

Customer Expectations: Basic, expected, desired, unanticipated.

Customer needs: Stated, real, perceived, cultural, unintended.

Customer Priorities

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) – Customer wants and needs are heard and translated into technical characteristics. Voice of the Customer (VOC), House of Quality (HOQ). QFD provides a graphic method of expressing relationships between customers’ wants and design features.

House of Quality (HOQ) – side walls = customer needs and customer competitive assessment; foundation = competitive technical assessment; ceiling = design features; roof = design feature interactions.

Cause-and-Effect Matrix

Perceptual Maps