Differences between Six Sigma & PMP (Six Sigma Vs PMP)

SIX SIGMA

Six Sigma is a quality management methodology aimed at performance improvement by reducing the no of defect to 3.4 or few defects per million items produced and a subsequent increase in profits and decrease in costs. It mainly targets to remove the obstacles in a process which are resulting in defects.

PMP

Project Management Professional (PMP) is the one of the most significant Certification for project managers. It is an International Designation offered by Project Management Institute (PMI). PMP certified project managers are employed by organisations all over the world as they seek to improve the success rate of projects in all areas, by applying a standardized and evolving set of project management principles as contained in PMI's PMBOK Guide.

It contains over 42 processes which can be adopted for successful completion and implementation of the projects.

Where the difference lies?

The main difference between Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma lies in the Methodology.

PMP uses various project management principles and processes to improve the success rate of the projects. On the other hand, Six Sigma leverages statistics to identify the defects and remove those defects for improvement in quality of the process.

LEARNING

Under Six Sigma Certification, the learning is imparted with the main focus of reducing defects as much as possible in order to reduce time and improve quality as per the standards set by the Company whereas in PMP Certification, learning is imparted to the practitioners with the main focus on how to properly plan and execute projects in order to ensure a high success rate for the projects.

DESIRE

The desire for PMP certification generally arises in an individual himself in order to develop his competencies in the challenging world whereas the need and criteria for Six Sigma Certification is specified by the company to makes its employees more efficient and capable of performing in the organisation.

NATURE

Project Management Professional is broad in nature as compared to Six Sigma which is much more specific and conceptually broad in nature.

WORK-CYCLE

Most of the Black Belts after the certification have to work for minimum 12-24 months in full time employment but there is no such obligation for the Project Management Professionals. However PMP have to complete 60 PDU’s in next 3 years to maintain certification.

COST ESTIMATION

Average Cost Incurred in completion of Six sigma black belt is quite high as it ranges between 25000-50000 US $ whereas the estimated costs in certification of PMP is significantly low at just 1500-3000 US $.