Reply to: Six Sigma

[Sockpuppet]

met a few like that myself. once met a master black belt who i'm pretty sure thought it made him somewhat yoda like.

No but the amount of cash that he can command does.

[mailric]

met a few like that myself. once met a master black belt who i'm pretty sure thought it made him somewhat yoda like.

[polus]

I took an instant dislike when a self confessed six sigma expert told me Engineers were incapable of problem solving, this after Id told him that Im and Engineer (third sentence after meeting in a social situation). He then went on to describe a problem that a cup manufacture had tasked them to solve and how they managed to save the day but all that came across to me was that Six Sigma had been used as a badge to charge obscene amounts of money.

I presume it has its uses and that the courses dont transform all attendees into arrogant muppets?

[mailric]

i've dome the Lean and DFSS - but its broadly the same as TQM from back in the day, maybe a bit more applied outside of manufacturing. (even quotes alot of the 70's gurus!)

its the same as Prince II - might come in handy if your building a space shuttle.

Otherwise, as long as you get a decent grip of the principles theres some pretty useful (if not original) stuff in there.

[daviejones]

OK, but the "How" of quality improvement is to establish a set of KPIs and then measure them over time and count the improvement. For example, waiting times are too long, so the KPI is that nobody should be on the waiting list longer than 20 minutes before being attended to. So the team set up a pre-waiting list queue where you are parked until your call can be done in 19 minutes, when you get moved to the "real" queue that feeds the KPI. Sound familiar?

The management mistake (and I've seen a few cases) is to view support as a repeatable, consistent process. It isn't: if a given incident is repeatable, it is liable to the same resolution and should be on the known errors log with its cure as an output from Problem Managaement. However, most calls require different things to happen before they are resolved - and that takes them out of realistic scope for Six Sigma.

As for code development: either it's bespoke, in which case it's a one-off and so unmeasureable agasint anything else, or it's agile in which case who cares since it's cheaper to recode than improve.

Turn out 7m tonnes of housebricks though, and you might have a case...

Six Sigma and ITIL complemet each other, which is the point that some of us were making.

[malvolio]

OK, but the "How" of quality improvement is to establish a set of KPIs and then measure them over time and count the improvement. For example, waiting times are too long, so the KPI is that nobody should be on the waiting list longer than 20 minutes before being attended to. So the team set up a pre-waiting list queue where you are parked until your call can be done in 19 minutes, when you get moved to the "real" queue that feeds the KPI. Sound familiar?

The management mistake (and I've seen a few cases) is to view support as a repeatable, consistent process. It isn't: if a given incident is repeatable, it is liable to the same resolution and should be on the known errors log with its cure as an output from Problem Managaement. However, most calls require different things to happen before they are resolved - and that takes them out of realistic scope for Six Sigma.

As for code development: either it's bespoke, in which case it's a one-off and so unmeasureable agasint anything else, or it's agile in which case who cares since it's cheaper to recode than improve.

Turn out 7m tonnes of housebricks though, and you might have a case...

[daviejones]

I did however come across this:

In summary then, ITIL defines the “what” of service management, and Six Sigma defines the “how” of quality improvement. Together, they are a perfect fit for improving the quality of IT service delivery and support.

The full text can be found here:.


personally, I find SS a bit dull.....when my ex was doing it she kept going on and on about it...she got pissed when i started ignoring her.

[daviejones]

No. ITIL does both. Six Sigma tells you how to measure the improvement

I would disagree but since I am not Six Sigma qualified I won't argue. The statement I made though was made by my Ex's Six Sigma black belt.

[Fred Bloggs]

Ahhh, yes, the old "lend me your watch and I'll tell you the time" strategy of management consulting. I haved worked a few times in a huge blue chip that was big on "Lean Sigma". They have "Kaizen events". I once sat in a "Kaizen event" for a few hours and asked "what is the difference exactly between a "Kaizen event" and a meeting?" . It turned out to be a not very popular question

[malvolio]

I have often head Six Sigma compared to ITIL in the way that ITIL tells you what you need to do, Six Sigma tells you how you need to do it.

No. ITIL does both. Six Sigma tells you how to measure the improvement

[NotAllThere]

...
Had a major row with an IT director at a certain satelllite TV company once, who insisted we apply 6-Sigma methods to improve things like Problem, Change, Configuiration and Availability Management processes: he couldn't accept that after a month or two of research we couldn't actually find any formal processes to be improved ...

I had a similar experience. Only I didn't have a major row, I just had a very very dull 18 month highly paid contract.

[daviejones]

I have often head Six Sigma compared to ITIL in the way that ITIL tells you what you need to do, Six Sigma tells you how you need to do it.

[malvolio]

It's primarily aimed at improving both performance and quality in a steady-state, repetetive manufacturing process and has a lot of relevance to JiT practices.

I have never understood why senior management, especially in Banking where they often work with RAD and Agile methodolgies, think it is even vageuly applicable to development work. As for Service Delivery, there are way better tools and methodologies.

Had a major row with an IT director at a certain satelllite TV company once, who insisted we apply 6-Sigma methods to improve things like Problem, Change, Configuiration and Availability Management processes: he couldn't accept that after a month or two of research we couldn't actually find any formal processes to be improved and he should start with an ITIL implementation instead.

[Sockpuppet]

Anyone here trained in the dark art? I always thought it was a bit of a blunt instrument really. I'd be keen to hear any differing opinions on this...

Trained (only good thing to ever come from my permie days).

Its a good tool if used well. By well I mean ditch the poncy words and take a JFDI approach - without lording it up as a Six Sigma tool.

Most are common sense, more are "can you add up and analyse stuff properly and not jump to conclusions" tools.

If I didn't do it as a permie I wouldn't have bothered.

[StarBuck]

Anyone here trained in the dark art? I always thought it was a bit of a blunt instrument really. I'd be keen to hear any differing opinions on this...

The art of common sense. I'm a green belt and never used it.