Storyboards Lend Structure and Discipline to Six Sigma

Six Sigma’s step-by-step approach to problem solving has benefited greatly from the development of a common toolkit, project framework and terminology. That commonality, to a large extent, has made Six Sigma a business phenomenon transcending corporate and national boundaries. However, one broadly implemented element of Six Sigma project management that is often underestimated is the project storyboard.

The storyboard is generally understood as a document, in electronic form, which summarizes project progress and demonstrates what tools have been applied in what sequence in the course of defining the process problem and then analyzing and resolving it. It is normally expected that this storyboard be kept up-to-date with the latest developments as a project progresses.

Unfortunately, storyboards are often thought of as a bureaucratic and perfunctory exercise and left to the last minute as a way to leave behind at least some minimal written evidence of the project’s history and achievements. As important as storyboards are as a documentation tool, however, they go well beyond the mere summarizing of results. They actually contribute to the success of both individual projects and that of the Six Sigma program as a whole.

Storyboards Reflect Logic and Flow of DMAIC

The basic format of a typical storyboard is based on DMAIC, the project structure and approach to problem solving used throughout the Six Sigma world. The first three phases of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze) define the problem and help answer questions about the current process state and the root causes of unsatisfactory process outcomes. The remaining steps (Improve, Control) focus on changing the current process to meet improvement goals.

While some organizations adapt DMAIC to their own needs or tastes, renaming or combining phases for example, the essential content and logical flow of the process remain and are universally recognized as a key factor for project success. Storyboards reflect this logic by being divided into five key chapters, with each page clearly indicating what phase it is in.

Although the emphasis on storyboards here is as presentation tools, the key is that the storyboard does what the name implies, i.e., tells a story as if it were posted on a board for others to absorb on their own. That means the messages in it should be comprehensible even without the presence of the person who wrote it. It is helpful for this purpose that each page is readily understood in the context of both the preceding page and the pages that follow. Since tools are used in a certain sequence to answers questions and build arguments, they should be presented as such. In short: If a person can grasp the logic of a storyboard, they have grasped the logic of the Six Sigma way of improving and managing business processes.

For example, say a project team is in the Measure phase and collected data on temperatures of a liquid at a certain point in a chemical process. After first confirming if the data was normally distributed, a control chart showed that for the period in which data was collected the process not only showed natural, random variation, but also contained assignable (special cause) variation in the form of a process shift. The storyboard captures the flow of the investigation and tool application at this point in the project in a way that is informative and useful for a variety of situations.

Here are four example slides:

Some organizations choose to formalize the storyboard format by including a standard slide structure, corporate or Six Sigma program logos, etc. Some go a step further by requiring the use of templates for the key tools to create a stricter consistency in the look and style of individual projects storyboards. Others prefer to let project leaders use their own creativity to produce effective storyboards.

The basic structure illustrated in the example is valid for all storyboard applications outlined below, although the content and level of detail may vary according to need.

Storyboards as a Coaching Tool

The most successful Six Sigma initiatives provide trainees with individual coaching to help them complete the process improvement projects they are leading as part of their training. The DMAIC methodology is the basic framework for individual projects. However, it is one thing to explain this in a classroom, it is potentially another to make sure DMAIC and the tools it encompasses are applied consistently and correctly.

This is where project coaching comes in. Typically conducted by the trainers themselves between training weeks and continuing on until project completion, coaching consists of personal meetings with the trainees/project leaders to help them apply classroom learning to their specific project situations. The coach is there to reinforce what minimum deliverables are expected in each DMAIC phase and to help anticipate what additional tools will be needed in a particular project situation. Without this support, Black Belts in training run the serious risk of internalizing misunderstandings about tool usage that in turn can lead to bad habits such as collecting poor quality data and compromising the validity of analysis results by ignoring key assumptions about statistical tools.

The storyboard can function as the focal point of a coaching session. At the beginning of each session the project leader uses it to display what has been done since the last meeting, taking the coach through the activities and showing the results of the tools employed. By doing so, he or she is challenged to demonstrate knowledge of DMAIC and individual tools. At the same time, the coach can easily see into the project leader’s thinking and point out where the gaps are.

The storyboard also can be used during coaching to capture guidance on next steps. For example, the coach can draft several new pages in the document (usually simple page headings indicating the type and sequence of appropriate tools are enough) and ask the project leader to fill in these pages with actual results in the form of graphs, charts, test results, summaries, etc. as the project moves forward. In this way, the storyboard also becomes a planning tool or “to-do” list of next steps agreed upon by both coach and project leader for review in the next coaching session. This not only supports the learning process but also allows project leaders to concentrate on important tasks and avoid time-consuming dead ends.

Precisely because the storyboard’s structure reflects the DMAIC project flow, they help project leaders and the team as a whole stay focused on the necessary activities at any given time point. Typical pitfalls can therefore be avoided such as discussing solutions prematurely (before the root causes of the problem have been examined) and falling into the trap of “scope-creep,” in which more and more goals are added to the project, potentially leading to unachievable expectations beyond the original intentions.

A Project Tracking and Reporting Tool

Business leaders have one thing in mind when they plan the introduction of Six Sigma – improving business results.

Considering the costs of training project leaders and running projects, it is clearly in the best interests of the organization to encourage success. When projects fail to deliver, they can lead to scepticism about the validity of Six Sigma, cause the new program to first falter, then eventually run out of steam as people remain unconvinced of its potential to improve the business.

However, when business leaders and project sponsors are actively involved and are kept informed about progress, the will to stay on track remains strong. Periodical project reviews (e.g., once per month) in the form of storyboard presentations allow key stakeholders to keep abreast of recent developments about the real root causes of process problems. Of course, it will not be necessary to present the same level of detail to an executive audience as to the project coach. But it is a simple enough task to create a subset of the storyboard slides that will be appropriately informative.

Project leaders can be kept on their toes when they know others are waiting at regular intervals to see their work. And since the storyboard is already there for coaching purposes, generating management presentations and executive summaries from it requires little extra effort.

A Deliverable for Black Belt Certification

It is a basic assumption in business that projects should be documented. However, when this documentation is expected to be not only a record of activities but also a display of the project leader’s skills, it takes on a whole new dimension.

When project leaders are preparing for their Black Belt certification, they are required to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in conducting process improvement projects. What better way to present this knowledge than in a clearly structured project storyboard that not only captures results but also clearly reveals the extent and accuracy of the candidate’s understanding and learning. Again: If a person can grasp the logic of a storyboard, they have grasped the logic of DMAIC (and are demonstrating this fact to others).

A Tool for Change Management

Six Sigma in its complete sense is about changing the way processes, and by extension, the business is managed. More easily said than done.

Part of managing such change, in both the short and the long term, is to keep people informed about what is happening around them. Members of the organization need to know what the Six Sigma program is all about and how individual projects are going to affect them.

Just as at the management level, storyboards (or suitable subsets thereof) can be used to make simple presentations about project activities, to indicate where the real root causes of problems lie, to stress why it is important that they be fixed, and to communicate what the solutions will look like.

People will learn that Six Sigma is not about finding someone to blame for poor process performance, but rather to understand the faults of the system itself and eliminate problems so that the business, and the organization as a whole, will prosper. Easily understood storyboard presentations not only clarify the issues, they pave the way for active dialog around them. When people participate in change, they are more likely to lend their support to achieve it.

A Knowledge Transfer and Education Tool

A Six Sigma program should not be implemented just for the sake of conducting process improvement projects. The longer-term goal should be to establish a process-oriented system that rigorously manages towards specified process outcomes. To attain this goal, many key understandings about process measurements, data collection and analysis will eventually have to be passed on by the trainees to others in the organization.

As a minimum, project leaders will make regular use of their storyboards in educating their team members on how tools work together to answer questions about the process. However, managers, sponsors and business leaders also will benefit from continued learning as they observe results and participate in discussions during project reviews that are based on these same storyboards.

The more members of an organization are exposed to the logic and flow of DMAIC through project storyboards, the sooner everybody becomes comfortable with the issues and the language of Six Sigma. As more interest is stimulated and more people get involved, the organization can move toward self-sufficiency in training and project coaching. By doing so, a solid foundation for the long-term success of the Six Sigma program is established.

Project storyboards are not just a nice-to-have collection of slides for getting project documentation over and done with. They are a central tool for learning, planning, reporting and communicating, and they support the transfer of knowledge from those who receive formal Six Sigma training to the rest of the organization. No Six Sigma program with long-term plans for successful change can afford to underestimate their importance.

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Gaining and Using Six Sigma Intelligence

Six Sigma “intelligence” – the information that helps practitioners pick projects more effectively, achieve results faster and reach long-term success – comes from collecting actionable data through voice-of-the-customer research.

The ultimate reason for spending valuable time, money and human resources on a Six Sigma initiative is this: the customer. Establishing a culture of continuous process improvement helps companies earn customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Because of this customer focus, Six Sigma initiatives require broad access to a wide range of metrics that deal with both the customer and the processes that align to create the customer’s desired experience or product. This includes using inputs of voice-of-the-customer research and outputs of actionable data, such as a net promoter score, to collect and understand the critical-to-quality factors. Integrating these inputs and outputs yields Six Sigma “intelligence” – the information that helps practitioners pick projects more effectively, achieve results faster and reach long-term success.

Listening for the Voice of the Customer

Finding this Six Sigma intelligence can be difficult. Just as businesses have a hard time articulating their processes to their customers, customers often do not know, or cannot communicate effectively, their actual needs and requirements.

A starting point for gathering this information is through voice-of-the-customer (VOC) research. These are studies, typically resulting in both qualitative and quantitative data, that detail customers’ wants and needs. This data is presented in a hierarchical structure and prioritized in terms of relative importance and customers’ satisfaction with current alternatives. Often it is compiled in a complaint log or database.

There are a number of ways VOC data is traditionally collected:

◈ Customer asset metrics: Leveraging existing corporate customer-behavior data (i.e., when customers enter the organization and for what purpose)

◈ Complaint catcher: Collecting actionable real-time data points from customer feedback

◈ Survey questions: Using questions to gain customers’ thoughts and opinions

◈ Operational metrics: Listening to the operational management of the organization

◈ Formal research results: Using focus groups to validate what is already being done to listen, respond to and manage customer complaints

Although the concept of VOC may seem straightforward, it is actually quite complex. Surveys, focus groups and interview processes are not easy to set up in a manner that gathers unbiased data. People often give the answer that they believe the interviewer wants to hear – as opposed to their actual opinions. This leads to biased results that may not correlate with the customer’s actual satisfaction.

Finding Actionable Data

The value of data collected through VOC is directly related to a company’s ability to use it to take actions that improve the customer experiences. Therefore, it is not data abundance that is important so much as its alignment with managers’ daily business decisions.

Although typical VOC methods, such as surveys and focus groups, provide helpful information about customers, collecting a net promoter score (NPS) can be a valuable addition. An NPS is different than other VOC methods because it is actionable in the following ways:

◈ It provides a continuous feedback loop and acts as a diagnostic tool.
◈ It is simple and easy to understand, a proven tie to activity.
◈ It’s a short, customer-friendly survey, which leads to greater participation.
◈ It can be used to closely monitor the competition.
◈ It incorporates valuable customer satisfaction data for a more complete picture.
◈ It’s a forward-looking metric.
◈ It enables an organization to dig into the “why” question – why some customers are satisfied and others are not.

Companies obtain their NPS by asking customers a single question – “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?” Based on their responses to this question, customers are categorized into one of three groups: promoters, passives or detractors. In the net promoter framework, promoters are viewed as valuable assets who drive profitable growth because of their repeat or increased purchases, longevity, and referrals. Detractors are seen as liabilities who destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases or defection, and negative word of mouth.

An organization calculates its NPS by subtracting its percentage of detractors from its percentage of promoters. Among its other benefits, the NPS can be used to motivate an organization to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. When compared to other organizations’ scores, it also can be used as a correlation to revenue growth among the organizations.
– it measures the future, not the present or past.

Leveraging Six Sigma Intelligence

After practitioners have gathered actionable data – the Six Sigma intelligence – from VOC methods, the next step is leveraging that intelligence to develop key process and attitudinal indicators. This involves driving out the things that are important for the organization to be doing from a customer perspective and using them to determine what changes should be made to the current processes. This approach includes:

◈ Analyzing major functions and processes across the organization, completing an end-to-end view of the customer’s experience

◈ Assessing organizational alignment of all functions

◈ Evaluating sites, technology, metrics, project management and employees

◈ Working with the customer-service division of the organization to document its current state and to design its target state

◈ Conducting facilitated documentation and analysis sessions with Six Sigma associates

◈ Conducting design sessions with stakeholders and process owners

◈ Socializing interim and target design recommendations with representatives from all customer-services areas

This approach allows practitioners to measure success in terms of key process indicators (KPIs), which help show how effective processes are in support of the customer experience. Additionally, by utilizing the NPS, practitioners are able to measure key attitude indicators (KAIs), which provide forward-looking opportunities to influence customer attitudes before they turn into behaviors. With Six Sigma intelligence, companies can quickly learn about customers’ attitudinal changes and measure attitude on a continual, event-driven basis. For instance, if complaint calls escalate, there are steps to manage the issue:

1. Track complaint calls through resolution
2. Document complaint issues thoroughly to understand the “why”
3. Mine customer service notes and customer emails for future use

Signs of Success

Members of an organization have successfully leveraged Six Sigma intelligence when:

• They know the flow of customers in and out of the business, their value, and why they stay or go
• They are actively tracking, managing and resolving the top complaints
• They have attached compensation, metrics and accountability to the resolution of the top complaints
• They prioritize their budgets and projects to fix the major issues
• They use customer feedback to inform their planning, projects and what they deliver
• They know which customers would recommend them and which would not and why
• They use the customer feedback in an immediate and closed-loop way to coach the front line
• They drive a set of process and operational metrics to improve the customer experience
• They attach compensation, metrics and accountability to the management and success of increasing customer loyalty
• They celebrate success and reinforce customer centricity through continued VOC research

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Roadmap for Integrating ITIL, CMMI and Lean Six Sigma

Several documented approaches are available for business and IT leaders to use when considering implementing the best practices of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), or the Software Engineering Institute’s capability maturity model integration (CMMI) or Lean Six Sigma as individual methodologies or frameworks.

There also are some references that suggest how to use the methodologies or frameworks in combination, or that describe their compatibilities and synergies.
However, business leaders who want to enjoy the benefits of the combined methodologies and frameworks need a clear implementation roadmap – a roadmap that highlights the sequence of key tasks along the path of integration (see figure below).

Beginning with ITIL Alignment

A fundamental leadership responsibility is to look at the organization and assess its current performance and capability to achieve its prescribed objectives. Often this assessment leads to a look at the individual processes and their performance. When the organizational performance is not at the level where it should be, and the assessment reveals processes are not in place to support the objectives, then a decision has to be made about adopting ITIL and aligning the organization and its processes to the framework.

ITIL, as a best practices framework, describes the set of processes a strong and well performing IT organization needs. The ITIL framework describes the processes, their objectives, roles and responsibilities and as well the basic interfaces and interactions between the processes. The first tasks on the integration roadmap then are to align the organization to the ITIL framework and begin adopting the prescribed functions and processes. This requires such things as assigning process owners and their responsibilities from the organization and documenting the processes using the ITIL framework as the reference.

The ITIL framework is now in its third major revision and is the culmination of more than 30 years effort in combining the best practices used by IT organizations thoughout the world. Beginning with an ITIL alignment affords the leader an opportunity to take advantage of this experience.

Phased Integration Deployment Roadmap

Assessing Maturity Using CMMI

What is the difference between an “improved” process and a “mature” process? An individual process can be improved so that it produces its output better, faster and with less cost or with fewer defects. But processes do not exist in isolation. They exist within an organization and its culture and climate. This implies a process can be producing its output, but is not fully mature in terms of how well it is documented or how deeply it is integrated with other processes and the organization in whole. The process also can fail when it comes under stress. A key indicator for this situation is the process is bypassed when the organization comes under pressure. In other words, the process needs an environment conducive to its stable operation.

A maturity estimation, based in part on CMMI, allows leaders to understand how well integrated the processes are within the organization. In this phase of the integration, leaders look at such things as vision and steering, culture, technology, people and the process interactions and interfaces. The processes are assessed in terms of their maturity in these areas, and action plans are developed to bring the processes to a higher level of maturity on a prescribe scale. The result of this effort is management that understands the environment the process operates within and has clear focus areas for improvement.

At this point on the integration journey, leaders ideally have a set of ITIL prescribed processes, which are well documented and strongly aligned within the organization and process maturity has been assessed and action plans are in place for increasing the maturity. It is now time to begin the continuous improvement activities and optimize the process outputs.

Moving to Full Process Optimization

Those familiar with the Lean Six Sigma methodology may ask, “Why is the voice of the customer (VOC) activity beginning after processes have been documented and implemented? Shouldn’t VOC actually determine the process design?”

That is a valid question, and here is the rational: This VOC collection activity is focused on confirming the business specific critical-to-quality characteristics (CTQs) for the individual ITIL processes, as the basis for the improvement activities that will follow. The process descriptions and general performance objectives, offered in the ITIL framework, have been accepted and process implementation has begun, but there is still a need for the business specific improvement activities. ITIL prescribed process outputs and the interactions with other processes are not questioned, but rather an effort to establish business unique process performance targets is beginning. This can only be derived from the formal VOC collection process.

Conducting the VOC collection process at this point on the integration roadmap has another beneficial effect. The wider business is observing a change in the IT leader’s organization as it aligns and adopts the ITIL framework, and assesses itself on process maturity. When the leader takes the opportunity now to discuss with the business their specific and measurable expectations from the IT organization and the leader demonstrates a willingness to adopt a formal methodology such as Six Sigma to deliver process improvements, the business leadership becomes even more supportive and can understand the tangible benefits that will come from the initiatives.

The remaining tasks along the integration roadmap are relatively standard for a process improvement or optimization initiative. Voice of the customer information is transformed into business-level and process-level Y’s, performance is baselined and process performance goals are established. At the process-level, improvement projects are launched and at the business-level a formal continuous improvement program, including a tollgate review process and scorecards, is implemented.

Results: The Best of Everything

What can business and IT leaders expect to realize for their organizations by following this roadmap? The organization has well defined and documented processes that collectively have been demonstrated to deliver superior IT services to the business. The processes are integrated and operating at a measurable and standardized maturity level. The customer expectations have been documented and process improvement activities are based on a combination of these customer expectations and the process maturity results. Finally, there is a continuous improvement program in place that constantly refers back to the ITIL framework, a maturity assessment and customer expectations.

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How to close a project with PRINCE2

The last phase of a project is project closure. It’s here that the project is formally closed and the Project Board receive a report on its overall success. Here, you’ll find out why this process is so important and how to do it correctly.

What is project closure?

According to PRINCE2, the objectives of the project closure process are to:

◈ Verify client acceptance of the project’s products.

◈ Make sure that the products can be supported once the project is disbanded.

◈ Review the project’s performance by comparing to baseline documents.

◈ Assess and review the benefits to the project that have been realised, and the benefits that will be realised once the project has been completed.

◈ Work on any risks and issues that remain open by following up on recommended actions.

Why is project closure important?

It might seem like the least important process, since it doesn’t cover any of the actual project work. However, there are three big benefits to ending a project the right way.

1. A formal closure is also a clear closure, which means you can properly hand over the project and responsibility to the client.

2. It lets you disband the project team, so the project doesn’t incur further costs.

3. It ensures the project met all the original objectives. It also teaches lessons by identifying and addressing any objectives that weren’t achieved.

Project closure checklist

Below is an easy-to-follow checklist to closing a project. This ensures all elements of the project closure phase have been completed.

◈ Deliverables – to reach the end of the project and start the closure process, the project manager hands over the documentation for the stakeholders to sign off.

◈ Follow-on Action Recommendations – these are given to the people who will support the products after the lifespan of the project.

◈ Update these documents:

     ◈ Configuration Item Record

      ◈ Benefits Management Approach

     ◈ Lessons Report

     ◈ End Project Report

◈ Documentation – organise, file and archive all the project documents in the previous checkpoint. Make sure they’re all updated to the latest date and document owner. The easier it is to search and retrieve a document, the more useful it will be as a reference for future projects. Make sure they’re signed off by the appropriate person.

◈ Finances – pay off any remaining invoices and close any project-related contracts that are still open.

◈ Resources – the project’s resources, from equipment to people, should be released from the project. If they’re owned or employed by the company, reassign them to another project.

End Project Report

While you can create most documents earlier in the project, you can only start the End Project Report during closure. You can present this report as a document, email, presentation or embed it into a shared project management tool.

The End Project Report is made up of other documents:

◈ Project Initiation Documentation

◈ Business Case

◈ Project Plan

◈ Benefits Management Approach

◈ Issue Register

◈ Quality Register

◈ Risk Register

◈ Lessons Report

Together, they cover these points:

1. The project manager’s overview of its successes and failures

2. Review of the Business Case

3. Review of the objectives – targets and strategies

4. Review of the products

5. Review of the team performance

6. Lessons Report

The project manager provides the Project Board with this report. They evaluate it to finally authorise the closure. If you’ve kept the other reports up-to-date, project closure won’t take too long. It is worth it, though. Your products will have better support and the lessons learned can inform future projects.

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Six Sigma Projects in the Human Resources Department

Human resources is no different than any other aspect of a business in being able to deliver Six Sigma projects with significant financial benefits to the company. Projects are directed toward the internal customer by conducting human resources functions faster and more efficiently, or toward the external customer by contributing to the ongoing transformation of the company toward achievement of a well functioning Six Sigma program.

Project Selection

There is never any shortage of Six Sigma projects in an organization. One of the most important first tasks is to identify the best projects. The most effective human resources (HR) Six Sigma projects are ones that focus on the external customer and are in sync with the strategic goals of the business.

In the book The Strategy-Focused Organization, authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced “The Balanced Scorecard” to make business strategy a continuous process owned by all aspects of an organization. It presented four perspectives for examining a business starting with an external focus and moving internally.

◈ Financial Perspective – If we succeed, how will we look to our shareholders?

◈ Customer Perspective – To achieve my vision, how must we look to my customers?

◈ Internal Perspective – To satisfy my customers, at which processes must we excel?

◈ Learning and Growth Perspective – To achieve my vision, how must our organization learn and improve?

Cost Center Versus Business Unit

During the early days of adoption of Six Sigma at GE, Jack Welch sent a memo to all employees stating that Six Sigma was an integral and essential component of leadership development. This emphasized the learning and growth perspective of Kaplan and Norton, and it seemed that involvement of human resources in Six Sigma at GE was restricted to training and certification administration.

A typical view of human resources is that of an organization focused on the learning and growth perspective, essentially a cost center with an internal focus. Six Sigma can assist in identifying areas that have an impact on the external customer. These projects may concentrate on such aspects as leadership selection and training, enabling employees to focus on the external customer by decreasing their non-value added time, and organizational development to promote an effective Six Sigma culture. An effective Six Sigma program must identify high potential employees, hire them as Black Belts and move them back into the organization as part of their rotation and leadership training.

Some Warnings

Human resources professionals must gather and analyze their own data rather than obtain a list of projects from another part of the organization and apply them to the HR business focus. As a first step, a stakeholder analysis should be conducted to help identify potential areas of resistance to the project. The emphasis on objective data analysis seen in Six Sigma projects can run contrary to the data confidentiality culture of human resources. When resistance is found, it is usually political or power-based resistance to any project with an “HR Six Sigma” label. Senior stakeholders will tend to steer the Black Belt to projects where the stakeholders’ solution is part of the project description. To prepare for this, time should be taken to conduct an objective analysis of how the project will make an impact on the key business indicators in the upper strategic goals of the company. An effort must be made to include the stakeholders’ input. If they do not wish to participate, leadership should present the rigor used to select and evaluate potential projects.

In most Six Sigma human resources projects, the data required is confidential and personal. The members of the Six Sigma team must insure that:

◈ The team will not use the data in a punitive manner.
◈ The team will not use the data to identify areas to cut costs and eliminate jobs.
◈ The data is kept absolutely confidential. The team may require legal assurances to assert this.

Where to Look

When reviewing an human resources organization, it becomes clear that a number of business processes have an impact on the effectiveness of employee efforts in delivering services or products to customers. An effective HR organization can balance the financial needs of the company while attracting and retaining the most appropriate personal to become part of the organization.

The table below offers a logical grouping of HR functions with a sample of Six Sigma project opportunities. The list can be used to kickoff a brainstorming session with stakeholders and team members.

Compensation and Benefits	Examples of Projects
Payroll administration Job evaluation Time and attendance management Medical/dental benefits Leave time eligibility, application and administration Merit pay design Stock option Profit sharing	OT authorization compliance Faster performance review for merit recommendations Benchmarking profit sharing with competitors Automatic paycheck deposit Eligibility for employee stock option plan (ESOP)
Human Resources Management	Examples of Projects
New acquisition integration HR information services (payroll information, employee dependents, etc.)	Process mapping and risk management of acquisition integration process Consolidation of employee information databases Integration of multiple payroll systems for remote locations
Labor Relations	Examples of Projects
Absenteeism Conflict dispute resolution Discipline/termination/dismissal Discrimination Harassment Health Interpersonal communication Outplacement Safety Union negotiations Drug and alcohol	DFSS process design for discipline/termination/dismissal Job design and negotiation for outplacement Website development for executive communication with employees Discrimination and harassment compliance audit and monitoring
Legal Issues	Examples of Projects
Firing Privacy of personal information Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Employee handbook publication	Accurate tracking of FMLA eligibility with secure internal website FAQ section of employee handbook for answering common queries
Organizational Development	Examples of Projects
Career and succession planning Change management Communication programs Competencies Diversity Employee satisfaction Job design – telecommuting Leadership Organizational culture Performance improvement Workplace planning	Company wide employee satisfaction survey via internal website, publication of results and posting of ongoing improvement plans and results Identification of needs of diverse workforce Workgroup design for customized customer service delivery Electronic performance review for consolidation of reviews from remote sites
Staffing and Selection	Examples of Projects
Contingent workers Employee contracts Exit interviews Recruitment Relocation Retention Selection Outsourcing Security and background checks	Increase job posting hit rate Design of job posting templates for recruiters Increase retention using exit interview information Decrease number of days to respond to applicant Use of technicians for some functions performed by engineers Decrease use of full security checks when not necessary
Training	Examples of Projects
Design and development Delivery Training evaluations New employee orientation Management training and administration (internal certification) Compensation for external education	Improved learning module design with self-evaluation sections Catalog of available modules for self-learning
Workplace Health and Safety	Examples of Projects
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Insurance claims Drug expenses	100% use of off-site safety audits Approved generic drug list

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How ITIL Certification Add Value in your Career?

Certification helps a person to gain knowledge of the subject or technology from a basic to expert level and equips the person to do the job proficiently. It’s expected that the individual puts in the effort to seek insights into the subject during certification. It is essential to understand that the real learning starts when they start applying it to the real-life situations.

It has been observed that certified professionals are not able to demonstrate the application of the knowledge they should do or are expected to do, which is leading to the above question of putting the value and relevance of the certification itself in doubt and scrutiny.

Let us look at the need of ITIL Certification at three levels – Customer, Vendor, and Resource.

Customer Expectations :

Global Market and Environment is highly dynamic.  Customers - Organizations have high pressure of maintaining high Revenues coupled with Profitability, providing an excellent customer experience amidst Cost pressures and technology disruption. They need IT services to be provided to their business functions at 24 x 7 ensuring business continuity, real-time information flow across the value chain, industrialized & automated service delivery across the technology stack with optimized TCO. They also look forward to embracing new technologies at a fast pace in alignment with the changes in market trends to redesign business models and processes to deliver better products and services to their customers.

Mature Service Management is an essence for meeting the above business needs of continuity, growth, and innovation across business functions, geography, technologies, and business partners. Customers typically are either building their team or outsourcing it to vendors or a combination of both for seeking IT services. In any of the scenarios, we have seen ITIL Framework been adopted for delivery of services in organizations, as it provides a framework of best practices.

Expectation from Vendor :

Adoption of ITIL involves a lot of change management within the customer organization to adopt the best practices of service management. It makes it necessary for the ITIL Certification to be done for resources so that they are ready with the necessary knowledge to do this implementation.

A few years back, it was enough to have the Service Manager or the Project Manager to be certified in ITIL as a part of the Support team, as he/ she would set up the governance and ensure process adherence by the team and control any deviations. The expectations have now changed.

ITIL Certification for the manager is not enough. The whole team needs to be aware of the ITIL processes framework and be self-driven in adhering to the service delivery guidelines and focus on CSI and Automation initiatives.  ITIL Service Architects are needed to do the consulting in the area of service management.

It’s expected that service provider vendors have ITIL Community or Practice within their organization who bring their expertise during the lifecycle of service management. It kind of portrays the maturity of the vendors in this space.

Vendors hence demonstrate their competence and capability in one of the ways is by showcasing the # of certified professionals have working on different projects. They are hence investing in getting their teams certified in ITIL across various levels of expertise.

For a Person – Customer Team or Vendor Team :

It’s clear now that there is a demand of qualified professionals in ITIL for implementing and supporting the Service management. Organizations if it is Customer or service provider are looking at Certifications as one of the screening criteria to get the right talent from the market. They look at qualified candidates as they expect them to bring the advantage of Lower onboarding time on account of a fast learning curve, higher productivity while interacting with business and Continuous improvement on the long run.

Many product vendors like SAP, Oracle are also coming up with Standards & Methodology for setting up operations and services in alignment with the ITIL framework. It becomes important as well for the individual to get the certification to work effectively in these technologies.

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Using the Five W's and One H Approach to Six Sigma

5W1H (who, what, where, when, why, how) is a method of asking questions about a process or a problem taken up for improvement. Four of the W’s (who, what, where, when) and the one H is used to comprehend for details, analyze inferences and judgment to get to the fundamental facts and guide statements to get to the abstraction. The last W (why) is often asked five times so that one can drill down to get to the core of a problem.

5W1H of Six Sigma explains the approach to be followed by exactly understanding and analyzing the process, project or a problem for improvement. Here is an outline of the 5W1H approach for Six Sigma.

What Is Six Sigma –– a Concept

The “what” in Six Sigma is a concept, a subject whose basic goal is to focus on the basic steps and analysis. Six Sigma also is a level of quality applied to variations in any process. Sigma, the Greek letter “σ” is the symbol in statistics used for standard deviation, a measure of variation in the distribution of values. Six Sigma (σ) equates to 3.4 defects per million opportunities, providing a stretch goal of near perfection in business products or services.

In the Six Sigma methodology, anything that dissatisfies the customer is a defect, and so understanding the customer and customer requirements is the most important issue in establishing a Six Sigma culture. Six Sigma is a problem-solving management methodology that can be applied to any type of business process to identify and eliminate the root causes of defects, ultimately improving the key business processes and saving cost for the organization. In this regard, the main goal of Six Sigma is that any quality improvements in an organization need to be economically viable.

Six Sigma, as a management philosophy, allows an organization to apply a disciplined, data-driven approach that continuously brings improvement in business process performance by reducing the variability in each business process. Six Sigma creates a culture in an organization aimed at learning to build processes that delivers the business output with flawless quality. Six Sigma also focuses on measuring and controlling the variation at each stage of business process. That sometimes creates a mistaken notion that Six Sigma is a set of statistical tools and a mere strategy for their use. The reality is Six Sigma is a blending of the wisdom of an organization with a methodology and an extensive toolkit to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization in meeting its the customer requirements.

Why Six Sigma –– an Objective

How to achieve the goals is accomplished in “why” context. The goal of Six Sigma is to help people in their attempt to improve business processes to deliver defect-free products and services. Six Sigma requires practitioners to consider both the “voice of the customer” and the “voice of the process,” it reduces the gap between the two voices. That leads to more satisfied customers, and that is what makes the Six Sigma initiative a profitable business proposition. Not only does the Six Sigma organization save costs, but it also has great opportunity to increase sales.

Six Sigma focuses on long and sustained success for every improvement projects, improving each and every process in the organization. That gives organizations a way to continue improving year after year and even provides a system that rewards “out of the box” thinking, which can accelerate the rate of improvement.

Since it is a data-driven approach to problem solving, Six Sigma builds robustness in daily management. This starts a set of chain reaction in strategic, tactical and operational improvements, which compels the organization to set a stretch target for every business performance and set goals for everyone in the organization.

Figure 1: 5W1H Interrelationships

Who Is Involved in Six Sigma –– People Involvement

Six Sigma eventually involves every one in the organization, starting from the top management to the operator/staff level. It requires a companywide understanding of the processes, a commitment toward achieving the set goals and an involvement in projects that accompany those goals. Since Six Sigma is for the total business process, it involves everyone in the organization.

The top levels of management appoint Sponsors, who are members of the leadership team who are responsible for selecting Six Sigma projects and are ultimately accountable for project results. Just under the Sponsors are Champions, who typically have day-to-day responsibility for the business process being improved and their role is to ensure the Six Sigma project team has the resources required to successfully execute the project. Next are the Master Black Belts, who teach and mentor the Black Belts, who have been trained to manage Six Sigma projects and serve as leaders of project teams consisting of Green Belts and other employees. Green Belts are core project team members, and even serve as team leaders on smaller projects. And the other members of project teams are regular employees.

In well-functioning Six Sigma deployments, everyone in the organization is involved in reducing defects, reducing cycle times and increasing customer satisfaction.

Where to Apply Six Sigma –– Business Process Location

Six Sigma is applied to all business processes. To start with, it can be applied to key business processes which have the highest visible impact on the customers and shareholders. All business processes impacting customer satisfaction and profit growth of the organization need to undergo Six Sigma methodology implementation.

Figure 2: Toward Key Business Processes

When to Apply Six Sigma

As long as an organization has a strong desire to improve the business performance by identifying each and every key business processes for improvement, the starting point of Six Sigma does not matter. Organizations can implement Six Sigma:

◈ When they find out that the customer satisfaction level is eroding.

◈ When they want to retain a leadership position through quality in the market.

◈ When there is a clear indication of losing market share due to quality.

◈ When their processes have not changed for a long time.

◈ When the quality of a product is largely dependent on human inspection skills instead of being built-in to the production process.

◈ When they think their processes have all reached an improvement plateau.

◈ When they are required to improve performance in all areas of their business process.

◈ When they decide they want to survive and grow in today’s competitive market.

How to Apply Six Sigma –– Methodology Followed

Depending upon the requirement of the organization and the type of organization different strategies are followed for Six Sigma implementation.

The three main strategies followed in Six Sigma are:

◈ Process Management: An ongoing cross-functional ownership and measurement of core support processes.

◈ Process Improvement: Focused on problem solving, aimed at eliminating the vital few root causes. It is most common to use the DMAIC roadmap:

     ◈ Define – Select customer’s critical-to-quality characteristics (CTQs). Define the process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and enterprise strategy.

     ◈ Measure – Create a measurement system and validate the system. Measure the current process and collect relevant data for future comparison.

     ◈ Analyze – Identify the sources of variation from the performance objectives. Analyze to verify relationship and causality of factors. Determine what the relationship is and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered using one or more of the tools in the Six Sigma toolkit.

     ◈ Improve – Discover process relationships and establish new and improved procedures. Improve or optimize the process based upon the analysis.

     ◈ Control – Sustain the gain by implementing process controls. Control to ensure that any variances are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, transition to production and thereafter continuously measure the process and institute control mechanisms.

◈ Process Design/Redesign:The creation of a new process to achieve exponential improvement and/or meet the changing demands of customers, technology and competition. It must handle totally dysfunctional processes and reengineer them. It is also known as Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). DMADV is the most common roadmap followed for DFSS:

     ◈ Define – Define the goals of the design activity that are consistent with customer demands and enterprise strategy.

     ◈ Measure – Measure and identify CTQs, product capabilities, production process capability and risk assessments.

     ◈ Analyze – Analyze to develop and design alternatives, create high-level design and evaluate design capability to select the best design.

     ◈ Design – Design details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification. This phase may require simulations.

     ◈ Verify – Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement production process and handover to process owners.

The structure of 5W1H of Six Sigma can help organizations to consider all aspects of the Six Sigma situation in detail and hence can be implemented when analyzing a business process for improvement opportunities. The interrelationships also guide Six Sigma practitioners to take systematic error-free steps to complete the Six Sigma project successfully on-time and everytime.

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COBIT vs ITIL: a real-life example of what these two can do

If you're thinking about ITSM implementation but you're unsure which framework you need, here, we'll try to help you by comparing ITIL and COBIT within an enterprise on a real-life example. But before making any practical comparisons, let’s briefly turn to the ‘theoretical’ difference between COBIT and ITIL.

ITIL vs COBIT. The difference

Definitions

COBIT is a set of practices for top management to understand how they should approach their enterprise IT. And ITIL is a roadmap of exactly what should be done to organize IT employees’ daily processes.

Scope

The first thing to mention is that COBIT and ITIL cover pretty much the same area. Although, it would be wrong to say that they both are only about ITSM because COBIT is a bit broader than just that.

Approach

This is the key point. COBIT’s approach to IT is from the business side (top down), while ITIL is looking at the matter mostly from the IT perspective (bottom up). Besides, COBIT distinguishes between the management and governance of IT. The former is like a tactic, while the latter is more of a strategy. And from COBIT’s point of view, ITIL deals with management, while COBIT itself mainly applies governance.

Objectives

COBIT’s main aims are for business to control enterprise IT and set the right direction for it. Besides that, it means to align business goals with IT goals, bring IT value to business (preferably in the form of financial profit) and manage resources, risks and IT efficiency.

While ITIL mainly aims to organize IT services on the whole and IT departments’ work in particular and provide an opportunity for constant operational perfection.

A real-life example to make it simple

Now that we’ve outlined the difference between these IT ‘guidance’ frameworks (ITIL and COBIT), let’s look at their usage on a real-life example. To do that, let’s imagine a company, say, MN Logistics Group, an international logistics enterprise working mainly in the US and Canada. It’s a large company that employs 15,000 people and has offices in 20 locations. They used to be one of the leaders in the field but now, due to numerous problems, they are facing a serious crisis.

How COBIT helps

Here are some of the problems that the company is facing and their COBIT-provided solutions:

General problems	COBIT’s aid
1. The organization of IT is inefficient, doesn’t meet business goals and seems outdated. IT teams always have too much on their plate and focus on the wrong things. For instance, the software that calculates quickest routes for drivers often proposes inadequate variants, which results in delivery delays. And instead of seeing to it, the IT department prefers only to do network administration (which also isn’t perfect). Besides, IT teams don’t pay much attention to IT risk management. They don’t have specific plans for emergencies, say, data center power loss or an IT service outage.	1. The ability for business leaders to prioritize their IT needs and work out corresponding plans. Using COBIT 5’s Goals Cascade, the company can translate its stakeholder needs into an actionable strategy. This way, top management can pinpoint the IT processes that they want to focus on. And such a clear strategy for business-IT relationship can establish an understanding between the two. As a result, IT teams know that their business wants them to fix route software and focus on particular IT processes more (on risk management particularly).
2. The company frequently fails audits by potential partners. To start a successful cooperation with any logistics company, the company’s clients need to be sure that this particular partner will fulfil their obligations and deliver goods on time. To establish that, service-user companies often audit their potential partners. And MN Logistics tends to fail more audits than it passes because of extremely long downtimes and overall unreliability of enterprise IT.	2. A clear system of benchmarks. Initially, COBIT was started as an audit framework. And now, it still proposes a very handy enterprise IT evaluation system. Using it, MN Logistics can perform internal audits and, when the time comes, get ready for external audits by potential partners, successfully pass them and win new clients.
3. Long-term partners tend to stop using the company’s services and prefer working with their rivals. Frequent delays, inability to monitor how soon the delivery will arrive as well as overall unreliability result in losing loyal clients.	3. Stability and new software. Due to establishing a clear Goals Cascade, the company’s IT now ensures that their delivery system works stable, with a sufficiently reduced number of delays. Besides, top management decided on and made arrangements for developing a new web and mobile app that would allow the company’s partners to monitor deliveries in real time.

How ITIL helps

Here’s how ITIL can solve the problems that IT teams in MN Logistics face and cause:

Specific IT problems	ITIL’s aid
1. IT teams are constantly overloaded. If some technical issue occurs (say, a network connection is unstable), MN Logistics’ employees can wait forever till IT specialists see to it. And while they wait, let’s say, they can’t finalize the waybill, the driver can’t set off, delays pile up. Downtime costs are enormous.	1. Specific ITIL processes to organize and normalize the IT departments’ work. ITIL’s Service Transition and Service Operation describe in detail how IT departments can effectively organize their work according to various ITIL processes. With this organization model, IT specialists rarely get overloaded, which dramatically reduces downtime costs.
2. It’s impossible to monitor the IT staff’s performance. The system IT guys are using only shows how much the team did last month. But there’s no information on the individual performance of the team’s members.	2. A system of accountability. ITIL provides a broad system of KPIs, against which MN Logistics can evaluate the efficiency of whole IT units or of particular IT employees. Besides, using ITIL presupposes using an ITSM platform, which stores all the data on who-did-what.
3. Similar breakdowns keep occurring. IT teams fix numerous breakdowns, but some of them just keep happening again and again. And in the existing overload, it’s impossible to find out why these issues occur and how deep they are.	3. Differentiating issues. To tackle IT issues more efficiently, ITIL offers a system that differentiates between events, incidents, problems, changes, and requests. If a similar incident happens for a, say, the third time, it can be viewed as a problem, whose root cause is analyzed and eliminated. Such a system allows to approach issues in more detail, speed up their resolution and prevent them from happening again.
4. Changes in the company’s IT infrastructure are chaotic. Since there’s no database of changes in the company’s IT, new elements of the IT infrastructure and software always puzzles users and even the IT teams themselves.	4. Change management and CMDB. ITIL lays down a detailed procedure for changes in enterprise IT. Firstly, changes are authorized. Secondly, people are informed about particular changes. And if the change isn’t successful, a preapproved backout plan is enacted.
5. Unclear IT spending. The IT department always complains about the rigid financial control of their top management. And top management is never sure that their IT department stays within budget and uses it sensibly.	5. Financial management. In its Service Strategy, ITIL dedicates a whole process to it. If applied sensibly, Financial management can shed light onto IT spending and adherence to IT budget, as well as regulate financial planning and save money.

So, ITIL vs COBIT or ITIL and COBIT?

As you can see, these two work closely together and, generally speaking, aim at one thing: making IT stable and efficient. But it doesn’t mean that this is the only way they look good: ITIL and COBIT work pretty well separately.

You may think that it is weird to use a tactic (ITIL) without a strategy (COBIT). But you should not forget that ITIL also provides ‘strategic’ basics for IT services organization, which are more than enough at early stages. Besides, judging by the differences in their approaches, definitions and, most importantly, objectives, COBIT feels more like a framework for large and more IT-mature enterprises. It needs a huge number of IT processes and a substantial enterprise IT to govern. While ITIL can be a good first step to achieving such scope on the whole and a high level of IT maturity in particular.

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Integrating Lean Six Sigma into Culture Is Like a Merger

While it is essential for a company to create familiarity with Lean and Six Sigma disciplines by training employees, it is even more important to integrate Lean Six Sigma into the company change culture. Lean Six Sigma should be a key component of the organization’s change infrastructure supporting all projects and change initiatives from the ground up.

In many ways Lean Six Sigma should be integrated into an organization in the same way two separate companies merge to become one. Management should look for economies of scale, synergies and the best way of maintaining the essence of the company’s current culture. Lean Six Sigma should not replace an existing project or change methodology, but the best aspects of both should be merged to create the change culture best for that particular organization.

Key Component of Change Infrastructure

At the heart of any change management process or process improvement initiative is the focus on overall results. This is true with Lean Six Sigma as well. Many organizations, however, have a fatal disconnect between the stated business and customer strategy and the projects they choose to implement. This can be mitigated through the rigorous use of a value-based project selection methodology that ensures resources are committed to efforts linking to strategic objectives and creating value.

Successful Lean Six Sigma implementations must possess an infrastructure that effectively translates the strategic agenda into actions to maximize value and provide effective management and monitoring of results. There are four key aspects to developing a solid infrastructure that begins to merge and integrate Lean Six Sigma principles into the best aspects of the existing process improvement culture at the organization:

1. Rapidly deploy the best people as Black Belts or Green Belts in a critical mass.

2. Create an effective organization of improvement resources throughout the company.

3. Implement a rigorous process for measurement and tracking of project results.

4. Integrate Lean Six Sigma into the daily management practices of the business lines and/or the existing process improvement/project groups.

Just like in any major integration or merger of companies, training of resources must occur around new policies, products and procedures. And, like in a corporate merger, the integration of Lean Six Sigma into an existing change culture requires training be done in the context of the organization’s overall business and customer strategies. This means that training is not done in a vacuum. Training on Lean and Six Sigma tools should occur in the context of the core values of the organization and in terms of how they will be utilized in concert with existing and historical process improvement/project management methodologies.

Establishing a Training Curriculum Team

To insure the integration of Lean Six Sigma into any organization is a merger of equals, a training curriculum team should be established. The team leader should be an experienced Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and the two to four members should have practical experience using some of the organization’s existing process improvement methodologies to drive business results. There is much to learn about a company’s existing process improvement methodologies by the Master Black Belt – and any Lean Six Sigma experts hired by the company – before the appropriate learning approach and an accurate timeline can be developed. Here are seven recommended steps for teams to use to start the process:

1. Establish a charter, operating principles and accountabilities within the context of the strategy and culture.

2. Review existing materials and firm up the learning objectives and agenda for the training sessions.

3. Identify the training content by pulling from Lean Six Sigma training, the organization’s process improvement training, and a combination of project examples/case studies that represent the best practices.

4. Fill in any training gaps by consulting with current change and project managers as well as Lean Six Sigma practitioners.

5. Integrate the training.

6. Pilot the training and record feedback.

7. Make updates based on pilot feedback.

It is important to emphasize the need for openness and flexibility on the curriculum team. The willingness of both Lean Six Sigma experts and team members to modify their views to design a training approach that best matches the company’s requirements is key. Only through a joint effort to build training materials within the context of an organization’s unique strategy can there be a high level of confidence that the organization can achieve outstanding results.

Program Management Support

The program manager of the Lean Six Sigma integration team should work in concert with the deployment Champion of the organization and both should provide a number of services and support functions for the integration. They should assess the organization’s current project management discipline to determine precisely what level of support is required for both near-term improvement projects and training as well as long-term deployment capability. Major action items that should be completed are:

1. Create a program management office and provide Champion coaching.

2. Establish a steering committee (top management team).

3. Determine “governance” structure.

4. Prepare training materials, create templates and modules, customize as needed.

5. Conduct training and support needs assessment by business units.

6. Identify global resource requirements/logistics.

7. Conduct resource “on-boarding” to client culture, objectives, timeline, sensitivities, process language.

8.Determine key measures for each department.

9. Articulate strategic dashboard (Ys), including critical process drivers (Xs) to Lean Six Sigma team.

10. Identify and select project “areas of opportunity.”

11. Provide Black Belt selection tools and assist with interviews and selection.

12. Create and maintain master delivery schedule.

13. Coordinate venue requirements, facility needs, etc.

14. Determine coaching and mentoring needs.

15. Coordinate applicable team support.

16. Communicate any systemic cultural issues with team.

17. Conduct steering committee meetings to review high-level charters, timing, commitments and barriers.

18. Establish weekly review schedule to track measures and project progress.

19. Assist in building a change management and communication plan.

Objectives of Program Management Office

Note that the first action item on this list is creating a program management office (PMO). This provides the infrastructure to plan, manage and control change initiatives. This includes best practices, tools, templates and experienced resources to ensure implementation quality. High-level objectives of the PMO can be grouped into nine major categories:

◈ Program Logistics: This includes general and administrative support for the improvement process. It considers environment and culture, as well as success factors. Program logistics should include critical factors for facilities, access and resources.

◈ Procedures/Processes: The PMO is responsible for identifying the process for continuous improvement, as well as communicating the “rules of engagement” for the program. Project managers are trained on methods and tools related to the program, and strategies are defined for addressing both customer and associate impacts related to the project.

◈ Risk/Opportunities Management: The PMO coordinates with the project teams to complete risk assessment analysis and develop contingency plans, exploring opportunities to reduce project timeline, resources and costs.

◈ Budget/Human Resource Planning: A centralized PMO enables the change management team to track costs on an aggregated basis and to conduct effective financial planning. This facilitates optimal identification and utilization of resources.

◈ Program Communications: The PMO also facilitates the collection of information for the program teams to use for internal communications. This ensures that clear and consistent messages are delivered to all areas of the program.

◈ Assessment and Gap Analysis: Using the PMO as the central agent for coordinating process improvement initiatives ensures each new project within a program is assessed in a consistent, repeatable manner. The PMO facilitates project initialization and planning and ensures the assessment processes are repeatable.

◈ Status Reporting: The PMO provides a clear and concise method of regularly assessing success factors of the program, ensuring that key stakeholders are updated on the status of each team. The PMO also provides input for issue resolution and formulating strategies.

◈ Issue/Incident Management: This provides a standard method of creating, tracking and resolving issues and incidents, and allows key stakeholders to be included in the issue/incident resolution process when needed.

◈ Work Plan/Milestone Management: Updating and maintaining a master schedule that reflects the overall program status ensures adequate work planning for all teams.

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Difference between PMP® and PRINCE2®

• Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification exam and PRINCE2® are completely different approaches to looking at Project Management
• They are both complementary to each other and there is NO OVERLAP
• Process News recommends that a leader needs to undergo PMP® credential as well as PRINCE2® credential to become a complete Project Manager

PMP® Credential	PRINCE2® Credentials
PMP® credential is a bottom-up focus	PRINCE2® is the top-down focus
PMP® exam focuses on Project Manager mainly and his role and responsibility	PRINCE2® believes that it is not just the Project Manager who is responsible for project success. Other entities such as Vendors, Executives, Business analysts, Client Partners, Supplier Teams are also covered in detail
PMP® credential is Tools and Techniques focused You will learn approximately 300 tools and techniques	PRINCE2® is an end-to-end project management methodology You will learn an end to end methodology
PMP® certification answers the questions “How do you do things”	PRINCE2® answers the question “What and when to do things”
PMP® certification deals with tools and techniques. No recommendations on the document formats	Covers Document formats and recommendations on how to write various documents practically
PMP® certificate recognizes PRINCE2®. One who attends PRINCE2® course is awarded 36 contact hours towards maintaining PMP® credential	PRINCE2® recognizes PMP®. Anyone who is PMP® certified is exempted from appearing for PRINCE2® foundation examination
PMP® examination is conducted by Project Management Institute (PMI)®	PRINCE2® is by Cabinet Office, UK
The tools and techniques are known worldwide	PRINCE2® methodology is used widely in Europe, UK and common wealth countries. The methodology is generic and used with different usage of terms and terminologies in USA and other countries

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