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About this lesson
A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt will often chair the Stage Gate Review meetings for Lean Six Sigma Projects. In those meetings, the Black Belt needs to ensure the work of the phase was done and the tools were used effectively. This lesson reviews the normal deliverables due at the Define Stage Gate review. It also includes hints and tips for identifying problems to be avoided during that phase.
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Quick reference
Define Stage Deliverables
The Define Stage is the initial stage of a Lean Six Sigma project. The deliverables from this stage set the project boundaries and establish the success criteria for the project.
When to use
The Define stage deliverables should be reviewed and approved at the Define stage gate review meeting.
Instructions
Throughout the Define stage, the Lean Six Sigma team is creating the deliverables. The deliverables are normally consolidated into a Project Charter that is reviewed and approved during the Define stage gate review. This charter will describe the business case for why this project should be conducted. The charter will also include other project boundary conditions such as preliminary gate review dates and clarifying the project Green Belt or Black Belt project leader. The final result of the Define stage review is the approval of the charter and the authorization for the team to proceed with the investigation and analysis.
The focus of this stage is to get the stakeholders to agree on the defect or problem that is to be addressed. This is often summarized as the Customer Critical to Quality (CTQ) attributes. It is often referred to as the “Big Y” in the equation Y=f(x). In addition, the scope of the investigation or analysis is determined by conducting a SIPOC of the process. This scoping action will determine the departments or processes involved in the analysis and therefore the subject matter expert team members who are needed on the team.
A major challenge can arise in this stage if the stakeholders have different goals or agendas for the project. When that occurs, they normally disagree on the CTQs or the project boundaries. As a Black Belt, you will need to manage the stakeholder interactions and negotiate an agreement between these stakeholders before moving on to the next stage. Question you often must work through with the stakeholders are:
- Where to set the SIPOC process boundaries (business department view – not detailed step view)?
- What subject matter experts do we need and who should be on the team?
- Can we integrate and align the different CTQs from different stakeholders?
Hints & tips
- Make sure you understand the business case behind the defect or problem. Don’t jump to a technical definition of the defect or problem, understand how the defect is impacting the business.
- Although there may be one prominent stakeholder who is sponsoring the project, be sure you have considered the perspective of other stakeholders. You don’t want to create a solution that optimizes the performance for one stakeholder and sub-optimizes the performance for many others.
- Use the SIPOC to determine what SMEs are needed on the team.
- Take the charter seriously. You will be reviewing it at every gate meeting and it is your ultimate measure of success.
- 00:04 Hi I'm Ray Sheen.
- 00:05 I wanna summarize this section by discussing the Define stage deliverables
- 00:09 and some of the challenges that you may encounter while those are being developed.
- 00:16 Let's start by looking at the gate reviews and
- 00:18 what is required to get through that meeting.
- 00:21 The focus of the gate review is to get agreement from the stakeholders
- 00:24 concerning the business defect or problem that is being analyzed.
- 00:28 Don't jump to the conclusion of letting the focus go to the root cause.
- 00:32 We just want to agree on the nature of the problem to be addressed.
- 00:35 The Lean Six Sigma process will determine the root cause at the appropriate time and
- 00:40 lead to a solution in the later stages.
- 00:42 That means that our critical take-away is the customer CTQ.
- 00:45 What does the internal or external customers expect for the process?
- 00:50 In our Lean Six Sigma equation of Y = fx, this is the big Y.
- 00:55 The decision that occurs at this gate is approval for
- 00:58 the team to start the investigation and analysis.
- 01:01 Until the stakeholders agree on the business issue to be solved,
- 01:04 the team should not waste time on other activities.
- 01:07 And of course, this points to the biggest risk or challenge in this phase.
- 01:11 And that is when stakeholders cannot agree
- 01:14 on what the project should be focused upon.
- 01:16 They may have different goals or agendas with respect to the project.
- 01:20 You as the black belt, have the task of resolving this conflict.
- 01:24 You will need to find a point of common ground where you can all agree that it
- 01:27 makes sense to do an analysis.
- 01:30 This is where you must bring your stakeholder management skills to
- 01:32 the forefront.
- 01:34 As you're preparing for the gate review and sometimes even during the gate review,
- 01:37 you can expect several questions to come up again and again.
- 01:40 These are some of the points of negotiation with the stakeholders.
- 01:43 The questions include, where to set the process boundaries,
- 01:47 use the SIPOC to facilitate this discussion.
- 01:50 But be careful, keep it at a high level, such as the flow from department to
- 01:54 department and don't try to create the detailed process map yet.
- 01:58 Another question is, who should be on the team?
- 02:00 In particular, you need to identify the subject matter experts that will be needed
- 02:04 based upon the process boundaries.
- 02:06 You want people who know and understand the process and
- 02:09 the systems that are in use.
- 02:11 A third question is, can we integrate and
- 02:14 align the different CTQs from different stakeholders?
- 02:17 It's okay to have multiple CTQs, normally we do.
- 02:21 But realize they can complicate the solution process
- 02:23 as you try to simultaneously meet multiple goals.
- 02:27 It's better if possible,
- 02:28 to create one integrated CTQ that benefits all stakeholders.
- 02:33 Of course, you don't want to hold the gate reviews if you aren't ready.
- 02:36 So let's look at the typical criteria for
- 02:39 what is needed in order to have a successful gate review.
- 02:43 And one other comment, you may need to explain to stakeholders who are new to
- 02:47 Lean Six Sigma what they should expect at each gate review.
- 02:51 For instance, there is no detailed problem statement yet.
- 02:54 That comes in the next phase.
- 02:56 The most important technical decision you need to make at this meeting
- 02:59 is stakeholder agreement on the project CTQs or the big Y.
- 03:03 This is how the project will measure success.
- 03:06 Also you want agreement on project boundaries which means you need a SIPOC
- 03:11 to show what parts of the business will be included or studied.
- 03:14 The SIPOC is also useful for
- 03:16 explaining why you need the subject matter experts on your team.
- 03:20 Ideally, you walk out of the review with the list of names of your team members.
- 03:25 At a minimum, you need the agreement that the team member's slots will be filled.
- 03:29 If you don't have names, I would place that on my project risk register as a high
- 03:33 risk until you do get them.
- 03:36 Often this review is organized around reviewing the elements of
- 03:39 the project charter.
- 03:40 The charter will identify the problem statement from a CTQ perspective.
- 03:44 Note that it is not the detailed root cause problem statement.
- 03:48 This problem is related to the Big Y project goal.
- 03:51 The charter will also include the business case that provides a business rationale
- 03:56 for why we're doing this project.
- 03:58 The rest of the project charter is typical project management charter elements.
- 04:01 The scope boundaries are set with the SIPOC.
- 04:04 Tentative milestones consisting of the other gate reviews are set.
- 04:08 Be sure that the stakeholders know that these are tentative.
- 04:12 What is more important is that the team does the work correctly
- 04:14 than they meet an arbitrary milestone.
- 04:17 Also, the key team members are identified, in particular the green belt or
- 04:20 black belt project leader, and the subject matter experts.
- 04:24 Let's finish this up by providing a few tips and
- 04:26 hints to help you get through this stage, and have a successful stage gate meeting.
- 04:32 Don't look at the business case,
- 04:33 or stakeholder input as just a checking of the box.
- 04:36 Understand what is really driving the project concern.
- 04:40 It's easy to write a problem statement that may miss the main point,
- 04:42 and focus on an irrelevant detail.
- 04:45 Make sure you know why this project is being done, and reflect that in the CTQ's.
- 04:50 Don't overfocus on the problem from just one stakeholder perspective.
- 04:54 Make sure you consider it from several.
- 04:56 We refer to this as frame-storming, we review the issue from different frames of
- 05:01 reference, such as, what does the operator see as the issue?
- 05:04 What does the process manager see as the issue?
- 05:07 What does the internal customer or the external customer see as the issue?
- 05:11 Plan on meeting with all of them and consider their frame of reference.
- 05:15 We are less likely to create a CTQ that will optimize one department and
- 05:19 sub-optimize everyone else.
- 05:22 I know I've said it before but
- 05:23 let me repeat, use your SIPOC to set the project boundaries and
- 05:27 then based upon those boundaries, determine who you need on the team.
- 05:32 Finally, take the charter seriously.
- 05:34 We don't just file it away and forget it at the end of the project.
- 05:38 Since this is an adaptive project, the charter will be reviewed at the start of
- 05:42 every stage review, so take it seriously and be sure it reflects the true focus and
- 05:46 boundaries of the project.
- 05:48 As a black belt, it's your job to make sure that the deliverables for
- 05:53 the define stage are completed both for the projects that you lead, and for
- 05:57 the projects that you are coaching.
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