Overview of Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology – DEFINE Phase

In the day to day work, when we talk about “Defining” something it infers to creating a detailed description or a checklist to achieve or complete a particular task.  In the similar manner while learning and understanding the first phase of Six Sigma at Advance Innovation Group – DMAIC methodology – DEFINE, I learnt that it is all about defining the end to end issue / problem and creating a measurable structure around the same for better understanding of the issue for the stakeholders, and developing the structured plan to achieve the defined / desired results.  The essential elements which I learnt from the Define perspective is to First, capture the Project Sponsors VOC along with the Critical To Quality (CTQ) metrics, and prioritize the same that needs to be focused from a solutions perspective.  There might be several CTQs that need to be worked upon, however, from a project perspective; we just need to focus upon the prioritized and dependent CTQs which our project can influence through the derived solution at the end of the project.

Second part is to define the Project Charter which has six essential information headings starting with defining the Business Case which is a pure English literature that needs to be scribbled around the Organization and Process description along with the urgency of initiating the project in line with the defined Organization objective so that the outcome should impact the organization objectives directly.  Next is to create a Problem Statement which implies defining the exact problem based upon the prioritized / dependent CTQ, and then putting the measurable guidelines in numbers to define the extent of problem, and since when the problem is prevailing.  Post that Goal Statement needs to be defined which showcases the literature, numbers and dates in line with the forecasted goal which should be SMART, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bound. We too can justify the forecasted goal by running the statistical tools. 

After these calculations, we need to define the scope as an In-scope element, along with defining the team which would help with running the Project like Stakeholders, Project Sponsor, Champion, Black Belt (Lead Black Belt – One who would be the captain and would take responsibility on project solution), Green Belt, and other resources that would help with the project requirement like Data collection etc.  

Adhering to all these six essential steps would help us with our - Define and Pre-DMAIC phase, and give a face of recognition to our project.