9 Steps to Effectively Creating Project Charters

A project charter is a document that describes, authorizes, and defines any given process improvement initiative. It is widely used within the project management community as well as within the quality management field, often for Six Sigma implementation programs. Project charters can be of great value when someone needs information about the project, at review meetings, and to formally address changes needed to the scope and/or objectives of the project - needless to say, a great and necessary tool for quality practitioners seeking documentation and formalization of the project's detailed information. But how do we go about creating a project charter that is rich in information and easy to be used throughout the duration of the initiative? In this post, we offer 9 steps to creating an effective project charter. These steps should cover the basics of any process improvement initiative, however the list below is not by any means all inclusive. The quality professional will certainly need other pertinent information depending on specific requirements such as legislation, market conditions, sine qua non conditions within a contract and so on.

1. Sponsor/champion: who is sponsoring this project? Will he/she be available for conflict resolution and to act as the spokesperson at the leadership level? The sponsor should be involved from the very beginning, i.e. the sponsor should help the team to write the project charter.

2. Project title: what will the team call this project and will it be easily thought of as the initiative it truly represents?   

3. Business case: questions related to this field should sound like: "why are we doing this?", "how does this project relate to our organization's strategy?", and "what is the impact on our various stakeholders once this initiative has been successfully completed?". In a world where ROI (Return On Investment) is used as justification for basically everything, it is vital that your project charter is crystal clear about the business case it supports.

4. Scope: what are the boundaries of the business opportunity? What are the team's responsibilities and liabilities? What is not within the defined scope? Which parts of the process are included and which ones are not? Where does the process start and end? Having a clear scope description helps the team and the organization to avoid frustration on non-expected outcomes.

5. Goals: the old SMART way of setting your goals is still valid. SMART goals will provide the team with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely metrics. Ideally, these metrics would be mathematically linked to the organization's strategic objectives (check our post on KPIs deployment - September, 2013: 

Ten Steps to the Proper Set Up of KPIs

6. Problem statement: the problem statement might not be the most accurate one at first, but that's OK. It is only after some data collection and validation that the project team will surely address the issue at its root level, based on facts and data. However, organizations often have known problems that need to be addressed through improvement initiatives. One way or the other, a clearly defined problem statement will help the team to focus on the task at hand.

7. Start/end dates and milestones: when does the project start and when does it end? And when should we expect to achieve the expected milestones? Here we emphasize the importance of celebrating these milestones' achievements - this will energize the team and the organization to move forward.

8. People involved: a solid improvement process project should have, at a minimum, a project sponsor, a project manager/leader, a scribe, facilitators, and team members. More sophisticated projects may also have a formal steering committee and the involvement of external stakeholders such as the community or a local legislator.

9. Signature and dates to help with formalization and accountability.

eZsigma's professionals constantly use project charters for the planning and deployment of improvement process initiatives. We are Canada's leading firm in the consulting, training, and certification of Lean and Six Sigma. Contact us to discuss your organization's needs.

Force Field Analysis in 3 Steps

Making a decision about a major undertaking such as the implementation of a Six Sigma program is not an insignificant task. As we all know, the on-boarding of a process excellence initiative may affect the lives of many employees not to mention the possible change in various processes within the organization. The Force Field Analysis was developed in the 40's by Kurt Lewin (a social psychologist). It is a practical and useful tool that you can use to help your organization in the decision-making process of any major change brought by new initiatives. This simple and yet powerful quality tool can provide the practitioner with a visual assessment of the forces that are against or in favour of the initiative being implemented. It also gives the quality professional a pictorial representation of the factors that need to be minimized (restraining forces) and the ones that can be used as leverage (driving forces).

How to Build a Force Field Analysis Diagram in 3 Steps

Step 1. Start by stating in the middle of a flip chart or a sheet of paper what it is that the organization (or department) is about to embark on. This can be a simple Kaizen rapid improvement event or a year-long Lean Six Sigma on-boarding program.

Step 2. On the left side of the central statement, list all factors that may contribute to roadblocks, issues, or even failure in the initiative. The Force Field Analysis diagram should be built through a brainstorming session which it means that, all ideas and insights are welcomed at this point. For a Six Sigma implementation approach, restraining forces could be employees' resistance, cost of remodeling a new process, and lack of inside expertise to name a few.

Step 3. On the right side of the central topic being studied, list all factors that may contribute to the success of the initiative. These include, but are not limited, to savings in time and cost, higher customer retention rate, improved product quality, fewer recall events, and industry recognition in process excellence. As in item 2 above, all ideas related to the success of the central initiative are welcomed at this point.

Some authors suggest the inclusion of a weighing system applied to these forces. For example, are there restraining forces that affect the program being implemented more than others? A simple scale from 1 to 5 (weak to strong) can be used. Once the diagram has been completed, the organization should start working on the minimization (or elimination) of the various restraining forces and on the strengthening of the driving forces. The Force Field Analysis will ultimately provide the user with even a decision on whether or not to go ahead with the program/change/initiative. On one hand, you may find that there are just too many restraining forces to tackle. On the other hand, you may find that the program being considered can be implemented with a great deal of driving forces that will make the entire process a lot easier than expected. One way or the other, the tool can be used to help you in making a better decision.

eZsigma Group is Canada's leader in process excellence. Through the deployment of Lean, Six Sigma, and Strategic Management consulting and education, we have helped hundreds of businesses to improve their processes and be a better organization. Contact us should you have any questions on how we can help your organization to be a better one.  

Voice of the Customer (VOC)

I like to call it inexpensive consultancy. Think about the amount of money and time that is put into research and marketing so that a given company is able to truly understand its customers' needs and perception about its product or service. To add to that, sadly enough, a lot of organizations nowadays fail to use the right tool or approach, or even the right resources to listen to what the customer (the one who ultimately pays our salaries and bills) has to say. Voice of the Customer, or VOC, is an important concept within the Lean Six Sigma philosophy for process excellence. By applying VOC, an organization is able to collect valuable feedback from customers on what satisfy, delight, and dissatisfy them. There are many different ways of obtaining such feedback. It can be done through focus groups, mystery shopping, surveys, and formal interviews to name a few. Below, we offer 5 steps to properly implement a successful VOC program.

1. Clearly define your targeted audience. Who are your customers? And who are they now and in the future? Will you introduce a product or service that will be tailored to a completely different kind of customer? What are the demographics related to your targeted audience? If you would like to hear meaningful and insightful answers, ask the right  questions to the right customers.

2. Select the appropriate tools and methods. What tools will you use to collect the data you need? These can be of qualitative nature (for example open-ended questions or binary questionnaires - yes or no, high or low, etc.) or quantitative nature (such as tally count on defects through reports submitted by customers).

3. Improve. Use the results collected for continuous improvement. There is no point in collecting data from customers that cannot be translated into valuable information. Use the reports, surveys, and any other piece of data you have gathered to better your products and services, and showcase to your customers that you care about what they have to say.

4. Continue to ask. The beauty behind the VOC approach is twofold: firstly, customers usually like to provide feedback. Secondly, you are using a rather inexpensive (and reliable) way of doing so - it is inexpensive consultancy! The best feedback a company can get is the one from people who actually use the product. It is the user who knows if the product or service actually works, not the designer, not the operations manager, not the decision maker who decided to procure the product or service.

5. Develop an action plan. As per anything related to the PDCA cycle, such as the implementation of a VOC program, write down names, dates, and expected outcomes for everyone involved with the effort. Check the results of ongoing and new actions and hold people accountable for the implementation of initiatives that will sustain the program in the long run.

eZsigma Group is Canada's leader in training, mentoring, and certification in Lean Six Sigma, strategic management, and process excellence. Contact us to learn more about how we can make your organization an Excellence-focused one.

3 Steps to Reinforce Strategy Deployment

Strategy development and deployment can be a daunting process for those who are trying to truly make the connection between the organization's strategic intention and its  operational perception. What I mean is, the strategic efforts (or intention) at the top are not always perceived fully (or even partly) at the bottom. How can an organization reinforce the link between the two ends? For example, how can a sales representative really get what goes on at the top of the organization when it comes to its long term direction? While the below suggested steps are not everything the practitioner would need to address the disconnect between strategic intention and operational perception, they may help in getting there.

1. Clearly state the organization's critical objectives. "To be the best in the industry" or "to deliver the best customer service" sounds nice but what is it that you are trying to measure here? What are the metrics behind these statements? Does "being the best" mean more market share? How much more? Does "best customer service" mean less recall events? How much less? We human beings respond better and quicker to things we understand clearly. Put a name and a metric to those critical objectives or goals you have in mind and make sure that everyone gets the memo about them.

2. Deploy objectives or goals as mathematically as possible! Consider the following: you work in department C that reports to department B that reports to department A that reports to the COO of the organization. By the time that each department has created its own way of measuring a given strategic goal you have to support, most likely and sadly, you have already lost the meaning of it. On the other hand, if your department's metric is calculated in the exact same way as the the others do all the away to the top, you will always know that, for example, the cost of maintenance in your department affects the cost of maintenance in departments B and A directly - mathematically. You can minimize confusion tremendously by using a mathematical link between the company's main goals and your contribution to them.

3. Make the metrics a personal agenda. Ideally, as explored in item 2 above, you will deploy your organization's goals mathematically throughout the company, as much as possible. Now use those metrics for personal bonuses and rewards. Develop John Smith's individual personal plan (IPP) based on those metrics, or with great weight on those metrics. John will understand very well that his personal accomplishments have a direct impact at the organization's strategic plan.

As stated at the opening paragraph of this post, these 3 steps are not all there is to strategy development and deployment (consider for example leadership involvement, change management, ongoing market conditions, HR policies, etc) but they do provide the practitioner with a solid start. eZSigma Group has recently launched its strategic management practice. If you are looking for more information on how you can make your organization an aligned one - strategically speaking - contact us and book an appointment. We would be pleased to help you out!