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About this lesson

A best practice for any project is to create a project charter at the time of project initiation. The Lean Six Sigma project charter will focus on the scope of the project, the timing for the project milestones, and the key team members. This provides a basis for project planning.

Quick reference

Project Charter

The Lean Six Sigma methodology encourages the use of a project Charter to set boundaries on the project and to manage stakeholder expectations.

When to use

These tools are used at the beginning of a project as part of project initiation and approval which normally occur during the Define phase.

Instructions

Many elements of project management apply to Lean Six Sigma projects. The Lean Six Sigma project has five phases, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. At the end of each phase, a “toll gate” meeting is conducted to close out that phase and start the next phase. The normal project management process of initiating applies to Lean Six Sigma projects and the tollgate of the Define phase will include a review of the approved project charter.

The project charter is the document that acts as a contract between the stakeholders and the Lean Six Sigma project team.  It captures the overall project goal and sets the project boundaries.   A difference between a charter on a Lean Six Sigma project and most other projects is that cost and schedule are not as important.  The charter includes overall cost and schedule estimates, but the primary point is the business need or issue that the project is focused upon.

Many organizations have templates that are used for completing the project charter on a Lean Six Sigma project.  The presentation includes the template that I have used with several organizations.  The specific format is not critical, rather it is that the charter contains the attributes of the overall business goal, the key customer requirements or CTQs, a statement of the business case, and project boundaries around scope, schedule, and team resources.

Hints & tips

  • Charters are very handy if either the team or stakeholders “forget” the purpose of the project and try to get the Lean Six Sigma analysis to dig into side issues that are not part of the goal.  Pull out the charter and remind everyone of the project’s purpose.
  • The charter should be reviewed at each tollgate to align stakeholders and team members who may be drifting from the original purpose.
  • Charters are high-level documents, not detailed plans. The detailed planning for each phase should be done at the beginning of that phase,
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  • 00:03 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 I want to take a few minutes to discuss the preparation of
  • 00:08 a Lean Six Sigma Project Charter, which will set the boundaries for your project.
  • 00:14 I'll start by stating the obvious.
  • 00:16 Lean Six Sigma project activities are organized as project.
  • 00:20 A project is a focused amount of work with clear start and end dates.
  • 00:25 Lean Six Sigma is focused work with a start and end date and
  • 00:29 is attempting to solve a problem.
  • 00:32 In fact, the end of each phase, the define, measure, analyze, improve, and
  • 00:37 control phases often have a project toll-gate that closes one phase to open
  • 00:41 the next phase.
  • 00:43 Another characteristic of good project management is to rely on templates and
  • 00:48 checklists from similar projects to simplify the project management effort and
  • 00:52 accelerate the adoption of best practices.
  • 00:55 This also applies to Lean Six Sigma projects.
  • 00:59 Inherent in every activity in a project is a start and end date.
  • 01:03 Project management is often very focused on starting and ending on time.
  • 01:09 Schedule and budget discipline of project managers will normally be a benefit
  • 01:14 to Lean Six Sigma project teams that can get mired in statistical analysis.
  • 01:19 Given this project management element, it's normal for
  • 01:23 Lean Six Sigma projects to use project initiation best practices.
  • 01:27 With large projects, that normally means creating a project charter.
  • 01:32 Whether a small, quick project needs to create a charter is a decision made by
  • 01:37 the project champion and the master black belt.
  • 01:40 Let's look at the Project Charter,.
  • 01:42 The Project Charter is usually the final result of project initiation.
  • 01:46 It is a handoff from the stakeholders to the project team of the project goals and
  • 01:50 project boundaries.
  • 01:52 Project charters normally include a high level schedule and budget or
  • 01:56 resource constraints.
  • 01:58 This is an area where Lean Six Sigma Projects differ from many other projects.
  • 02:02 There normally is not a schedule or budget, but
  • 02:05 rather there is a general timeline and the project team resources are identified.
  • 02:11 Once the analysis has determined the specific problem that must be solved,
  • 02:15 these are adjusted for the proposed solution.
  • 02:19 A charter will also highlight major areas of risk.
  • 02:22 This is usually not a huge issue for Lean Six Sigma projects.
  • 02:26 Many organizations have a standard template that they
  • 02:30 use complete with signature blocks for the stakeholders and project leader to sign.
  • 02:35 It almost feels like a contract.
  • 02:38 That's not to say that this is just bureaucratic paperwork.
  • 02:42 A charter can really be a big asset to a team, and
  • 02:45 not just because it's the formal authority to start work.
  • 02:49 It clarifies the expectation of the stakeholders and provides a focus for
  • 02:54 the team.
  • 02:55 Lean Six Sigma projects can sometimes start to drift off course as the team is
  • 03:00 chasing data and variation.
  • 03:02 The charter will help to keep them aligned and focused on the project purpose.
  • 03:08 I've included a template for
  • 03:10 Lean Six Sigma project charters that I've used in the past.
  • 03:13 There are a few major sections to it.
  • 03:15 First, is a high-level statement of the goal.
  • 03:18 We don't know the root cause or causes, so we can't say exactly what will be done,
  • 03:23 but we can talk about the business impact goal.
  • 03:27 Next are some high-level customer critical to quality requirements.
  • 03:32 I'll spend more time on critical to qualities in another section,
  • 03:36 but these are the things that are most important to the customers of the process.
  • 03:41 It also helps for
  • 03:42 the stakeholders to have the business case justifications spelled out.
  • 03:46 This normally requires some financial or
  • 03:49 market metrics depending upon the focus of the project.
  • 03:52 Then there are the typical project constraint boundaries.
  • 03:56 First is scope.
  • 03:57 I like to use the in-scope, out-of-scope format
  • 04:00 to clarify what the team will address and what they will be investigating.
  • 04:05 The schedule is loose, and I normally just put in the likely milestone for
  • 04:10 each of the phases.
  • 04:12 Finally, for budget and resources, normally,
  • 04:15 all that's listed is the team members.
  • 04:17 Let your Lean Six Sigma project get off to a good start by creating a project
  • 04:22 charter.
  • 04:23 This will be a big help to you on the project management aspects of the project.

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